Welsh Mountain sheep breed added to survival watchlist
12 March 2021 |
by FarmingUK Team | News, Sheep
Just 491 Badger Face Torwen breeding females were registered in 2019, down from 681 in 2013
A Welsh Mountain sheep breed whose numbers have declined nearly 30 percent since 2013 has been added to a breed survival watchlist.
The rare Badger Face Torwen will now benefit from focused support to help the breed’s revival.
Torwens, which means white belly , have a black face with white facial markings, and a black fleece with a white belly.
Their legs are tan with a black stripe, the underside of their tail is white and the rams have dark spiralled horns.
The rare badger face Torwen, a Welsh mountain sheep breed whose numbers have declined nearly 30 per cent since 2013, has been added to the Rare Breeds Survival Trust’s watchlist. The watchlist indexes the UK’s rarest native livestock and equine breeds, and the Torwen’s addition means the breed will now benefit from focused RBST support to help the its revival. Torwen sheep have a black face with white facial markings, and a black fleece with a white belly (Torwen means ‘white belly’). Their legs are tan with a black stripe, the underside of their tail is white and the rams have dark spiralled horns. Their markings are the reverse of the badger face Torddu breed. The badger face sheep’s historic name, defaid Idloes, suggests links to a 7th century figure, Saint Idloes of mid Wales.
As the man at the helm of Stallion AI Services in Shropshire, the UK’s largest artificial insemination centre, Tullis Matson has been welcoming some of the country’s most famous stallions through his doors since 2000.
“There are some amazing stallions out there. I’m an emotional person and I tend to get very wrapped up in them,” says Tullis, speaking on episode 38 of the Horse & Hound Podcast, currently supported by NAF.
“Demonstrator – Ferdi Eilberg’s grand prix dressage stallion – is one who always sticks out in my mind. He came from the Broadstone Stud and he just oozed charisma. He had a likeability about him; he went about with a permanent smile on his face, and was quite cheeky with it.
writes Emily Beament of the Press Association. The calf was born through the first successful embryo transfer for a semi-wild cattle breed. She is called Snow for her white colouring and the conditions at the time of her birth near Edinburgh on January 6. Vaynol cattle are descended from ancient herds of white cattle, which were brought over to Britain when it was still connected to Europe by land and were in the country before Stonehenge was built. The Vaynol breed was established at Vaynol Park near Bangor in 1872, and is one of just two native semi-feral or feral breeds in the UK, living in fenced areas but able to exhibit natural herd behaviour.