News

National Show and Sale

THE dates for our National Show and Sale at Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire are Friday 12th and Saturday 13th of September. The event will, once again, take place as part of the very popular Traditional and Native Breeds Show and Sale at the same venue. Entry forms and schedules are available from the organiser:
Melton Mowbray Market, Scalford Road, Melton Mowbray LE13 1JY,
Tel: 01664 562971, or email: info@meltonmowbraymarket.co.uk.

Closing Date
The closing date for postal entries is 20th July. It is also possible to enter animals on-line and the deadline for this is 27th July. The entry screen can be accessed at www.grassroots.co.uk/melton.html.

The judge for this year’s national show is Mr John Hepburn. The classes are: ram (any age), ram lamb, breeding ewe (to have reared lambs in 2008), shearling ewe and ewe lamb.

Grading System
All lambs entered in the show and sale will be weighed on arrival to ensure that they meet the set minimum requirements of 50kg for ram lambs and 40kg for ewe lambs. 
There will also be a breed inspection for all animals entered in the sale on Saturday morning. The nominated inspectors (Claire Jakeman and Tony Baldwin) will complete a grading card for each animal, indicating whether it is “good”, “average” or “poor” for all the most important traits. Grading cards will be displayed on pens before the commencement of the sale.
Upset (minimum) prices, set by Council, remain the same as last year: £90 for ewe lambs, £140 for shearling ewes, £65 for older ewes, £140 for ram lambs and £180 for shearling rams. Vendors may put a higher reserve price on their animals, if they so wish.

Please note, all females entered must be fully registered and all males must be birth notified and eligible for registration. The vendor selling a ram or ram lamb will be required to register the animal, if sold. Each flock can enter only two males and all males must be shown. Transfer fees for all stock sold will be charged to buyers.

New Secretary For Shropshire Sheep Breeders’ Association

Jane Wilson from Tarset, near Hexham in Northumberland is the new Secretary of the Shropshire Sheep Breeders’ Association. She took on the role at the breed society’s Annual General Meeting on 1st December, when Pippa Geddes retired after four years as the SSBA’s Secretary.

Jane has been the Membership Secretary of the Hebridean Sheep Society since July 1999 (a role she will relinquish next summer). She has plenty of “hands-on” experience of running a sheep flock, having been brought up on a mixed farm in Buckinghamshire, and then farming with her husband, Roger, in both Hertfordshire and Northumberland. The Wilsons currently run a flock of 50 Hebridean ewes and they also keep Texel,   Llanwenogs and Golden Guernsey goats.

Jane is an experienced Card Grader (breed inspector) for the Hebridean Society and has shown Hebrideans very successfully, winning several championships including at The Great Yorkshire, The Royal Highland and the Hebridean National Show. Her Winkwell flock has taken part in conservation grazing in the North East for English Nature (now Natural England) and The National Trust. Her interests and experience in conservation grazing and animal husbandry have resulted in Jane also taking part-time employment with the Grazing Animals Project.

An enthusiastic supporter of traditional British breeds, Jane has been a member of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust since 1977. She joined the Hebridean Sheep Society in 1991 and has served on their committee since 1992.  

Jane can be contacted by phone (01434 240435) and email: (Jane.winkwell@btinternet.com). Pippa Geddes remains as Publicity Officer of the SSBA and has also been elected to the breed society’s Council.

National show and sale goes ahead despite foot and mouth

ANIMAL movement restrictions were lifted just in time after the first outbreak of Foot and Mouth for our National Show and Sale to go ahead on 7th and 8th September at Melton Mowbray. The breed society did its best to keep vendors, members and potential buyers informed of the status of the event.

Thanks to last minute lobbying of the local Office of Animal Health, Melton Mowbray Market finally obtained approval for extended opening hours. However, not all the Shropshires entered in the catalogue were brought to the sale venue because some breeders were caught out by the 20-day standstill or had assumed that the sale would be cancelled and made other arrangements for their stock. Despite this there was still a reasonable turnout of good quality sheep for the show classes, judged on Friday afternoon by Sue Farquhar, shadowed by John Hepburn.

Marion and Aubrey Webb from Lutterworth, Leicestershire enjoyed a very successful day, taking both the championship and the reserve with a shearling ewe and a ewe lamb, respectively. The ram lamb class was won by Sue and Mark Shimwell from Congleton, Cheshire and the winning ram was owned and bred by the McBride family from Whitchurch, Shropshire. The full results for the showing classes are listed over page.

SPONSORS
The showing classes were generously sponsored this year by Agricultural Independent Marketing Ltd, based near Nottingham, and Biocell from Herefordshire. IAM kindly provided the winner and runner-up in each class with £10 and £5, respectively, while Biocell provided eight product vouchers to the value of £30 each, which were distributed between the exhibitors. The SSBA would like to extend a special thank you to these two companies for their support.

The sale of Shropshires went ahead on Saturday. Buyers were, unfortunately, few and far between, although some good prices were achieved for shearling ewes. The top priced animal in this category was the breed champion by Ushers Nero. She was sold to Claire Jakeman for £168. Altogether, six shearlings were sold and the average price was £149.25/head. Ewe lambs did not fare as well and only two were sold for an average price of £94.50/head.

Once again, there was little demand for Shropshire males at this sale. No rams were sold, and only one ram lamb. Ushers Roy from the Webb’s flock was purchased by Claire Jakeman for £189.  

“It’s difficult to say why buyers were not attracted to Melton this year, because there has been a healthy interest in Shropshires over the past 12 months and several new flocks have been formed via private sales,” commented breed society secretary, Pippa Geddes. “It is likely that the uncertainty created by foot and mouth put some potential buyers off. We hope that this will not be an issue next year, so that our National Sale will be a more successful event for members in 2008.

“It has to be said that demand for males has never been strong at Melton because it is relatively late in the season and many breeders have already purchased rams. The breed society produces the annual RamPages publication in June to help members sell their rams and ram lambs, and I would encourage anyone with males to sell to use this publication next year.”

Results of the SSBA’s National Show 2007
Ram Class: 1. Mr and Mrs R McBride; 2. Mr and Mrs R McBride.
Ram Lamb Class: 1. Mr and Mrs M Shimwell; 2. Mr and Mrs A Webb; 3. Miss A Harvey.
Shearling Ewe Class: 1. Mr and Mrs A Webb; 2. Mr C Stewart; 3. Mr C Stewart.
Ewe Lamb Class; 1. Mr and Mrs A Webb; 2. Mr and Mrs A Webb; 3. Mr & Mrs M Shimwell.

Champion: Mr and Mrs A Webb’s shearling ewe. Reserve Champion: Mr and Mrs A Webb’s ewe lamb.

SHROPSHIRE SHEEP BREEDERS EMBARK UPON BREED IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMME

THE Shropshire Sheep Breeders’ Association has launched a breed improvement programme, using the services of Signet and Innovis in Britain, and AI Services in Northern Ireland. The new scheme will identify superior animals within the breed and help SSBA members to improve the maternal, health and terminal sire traits of their sheep.

2007 is the first year of the programme and already there are eight Shropshire flock-owners involved with a total of 240 ewes and their progeny now being performance recorded.

The improvement programme requires participating breeders to record lamb weights at birth, eight weeks old and at the age when they are ultrasonically scanned for carcase traits. Information on ewe performance is also recorded. These data are then used to calculate Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs) by Signet using a BLUP (Best Linear Unbiased Prediction) program.  Six different EBVs will be calculated: Eight Week Weight; Maternal Ability; Litter Size; Scan Weight; Muscle Depth and Fat Depth, as well as an overall selection index.

“In the 1980s, some members of the Shropshire breed society were involved in performance recording with the Meat and Livestock Commission, and Shropshires achieved some very high scores for muscle depth,” said the Shropshire Breed Improvement Coordinator, Liz Bowles. “Commercial sheep breeders were, however, less interested in such information at that time than they are now, and Shropshire breeders questioned the value of continuing to record performance in this way.

“The climate for sheep production in the UK is now very different with an imperative to produce sheep meat both sustainably and profitably.  Producers are consequently looking for ‘easy-care’ animals to reduce labour costs as well as for efficient, productive sheep.

“Members of this breed society believe the Shropshire will measure up very favourably to these requirements and therefore decided we should initiate a breeding programme that would allow us to identify superior animals and to improve upon current performance levels in the areas required.

“It is intended to look at all information produced to identify superior Shropshires and make the best use of those genetics to allow the breed to play its part in maintaining a sustainable sheep industry in the future.

The flocks participating in the SSBA’s Breed Improvement Scheme are the Alderton Flock of P & P Geddes in Shropshire; the Brereton Flock of M & S Shimwell in Cheshire; the Brookmount Flock of C Cleland in Co. Down; the Broomcroft Flock of C & C Taylor in Shropshire; the Greenrigg Flock of J & K Mills in Cumbria; the Hayne Oak Flock of E Bowles & M Bray in Devon; the Sperrinview Flock of A & J Jones in Co. Antrim and the Ushers Flock of A & M Webb in Leicestershire.

For further information, please contact: Pippa Geddes
Secretary of the Shropshire Sheep Breeders’ Association
01743 741689

THE SSBA's NATIONAL SHOW AND SALE

The dates for the SSBA’s National Show and Sale at Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire are Friday 7th and Saturday 8th of September. The event will, once again, take place as part of the very popular Traditional and Native Breeds Show and Sale at the same venue.
Entry forms and schedules are available from the organiser: Melton Mowbray Market, Scalford Road, Melton Mowbray LE13 1JY, phone: 01664 562971, or email: info@meltonmowbraymarket.co.uk.

CLOSING DATE
The closing date for paper entries is 14th July. It is also possible to enter animals on-line and the deadline for this is 22nd July. The entry screen can be accessed at www.grassroots.co.uk/melton.html.
The judge for this year’s national show is the society’s President, Sue Farquhar. The classes are: ram (any age), ram lamb, breeding ewe (to have reared lambs in 2007), shearling ewe and ewe lamb.
The SSBA’s Council has decided that all Shropshire lambs entered in the show and sale will be weighed on arrival to ensure that they meet the set minimum requirements of 50kg for ram lambs and 40kg for ewe lambs. 

New Grading System
There will be a breed inspection for all animals entered in the sale on Saturday morning. This year, the nominated inspectors will complete a grading card for each animal, indicating whether it is “good”, “average” or “poor” for all the most important traits. Grading cards will be displayed on pens before the commencement of the sale.
Upset (minimum) prices have also been set by Council. They are: £90 for ewe lambs, £140 for shearling ewes, £65 for older ewes, £140 for ram lambs and £180 for shearling rams.

Please note, all females entered must be fully registered and all males must be birth notified and eligible for registration. The vendor selling a ram or ram lamb will be required to register the animal, if sold. Each flock can enter only two males and all males must be shown. Transfer fees for all stock sold will be charged to buyers.

WORLD CONGRESS WEBSITE

This year’s 125th Anniversary World Congress, which took place in June, was a great success. The finale at the Three Counties Show was a very memorable event, particularly as HRH Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, visited the Shropshire ring during the sheep judging.

A gallery of pictures taken during the week of the Congress can be viewed on the website: www.ssba-congress.info.
NEW PRESIDENT

SUE FARQUHAR is the new President of the Shropshire Sheep Breeders’ Association, having been appointed by Council at the Annual General Meeting in February.

Sue is already well known to many breed society members and has been our representative on the National Sheep Association’s Council for many years. She is a familiar face on the showing circuit and has exhibited her Shropshires at most of the major agricultural shows around the country, picking up numerous breed championships and also achieving success in inter-breed competitions.

Sue became the society’s first Export Officer in 1994, a post she has held ever since. In the interests of promoting Shropshires, she has visited many overseas agricultural shows, including the North American International Livestock Expo in Kentucky, USA; the Agribition event in Regina, Canada; and major shows in Hanover and Paris.

Sue’s own Piddington Flock was established in 1982 with two Shropshire ewes purchased from Alec Harding (Lodge Flock) in Northamptonshire. Although Shropshires were classed as a “rare breed”, Sue believed the sheep have commercially valuable traits and had great potential. She continued to build up her flock and moved with her husband, Mike, and children Robert and Josephine, from a smallholding in Oxfordshire to her present home: the 90-acre Hansnett Farm, near Ledbury in Herefordshire. The farm currently runs a flock of 60 Shropshire ewes and a herd of 12 Devon Ruby Red Cattle.

This is Sue’s second term as President of the SSBA - she first held the office in 1994/95. On taking over the role again, Sue commented: “I’d like to see traditional breeds, such as the Shropshire, taking a valuable place in sustainable agriculture, following the introduction of the Single Farm Payment.”

NEW BEGINNINGS FOR SHROPSHIRE SHEEP ON JERSEY

A consignment of 25 pedigree Shropshire sheep from the Devonshire-based flock of Liz Bowles and Mike Bray was exported to Jersey this week (30th October). The sheep, which have organic status, will be the first Shropshires on the Channel Islands. They are also amongst the first farm animals to arrive on Jersey since the ban on live exports was lifted last year.

The Shropshires have been sold to an organic farm run by John Hamon at St Brelade. John chose Shropshires sheep because he also has an organic farm shop and was looking for a traditional breed to provide unique tasting lamb for his customers. He believes Shropshires will meet his requirements because they produce excellent quality carcasses whilst being relatively easy-care sheep. As a traditional breed, Shropshires also qualify for the additional payments, available through Natural England, for livestock grazed on an SSSI or land adjoining SSSIs.

In order to meet the stringent export health requirements, the shipment of 9 ewe lambs, 15 in-lamb ewes and one ram had to test clear for Borders Disease and they were also quarantined for 30 days prior to travel. An additional requirement was that they came from a holding without cattle.

The Shropshire breeders, Liz Bowles and Mike Bray, farm at Butterleigh, near Cullompton. They formed their Shropshire flock in 1998 and have been farming organically since 1999.

WORLD CONGRESS 2007
Click here to go to a page of information and links to related documents for the World Congress 2007.

EXCELLENT ENTRY IN 2006 SHOW AND SALE
A total of 53 Shropshires from 8 different flocks have been entered in this year’s show and sale at Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire on 8th and 9th September.

Entries are as follows:

Both MV accredited and non-MV accredited stock will be available.
Catalogues can be obtained in early August from the show organisers, Melton Mowbray Market (01664 562971).
An on-line version should also be available to view on:
www.grassroots.co.uk/melton

June 2nd 2006
FIRST WORLD CONGRESS OF THE SHROPSHIRE SHEEP BREEDERS’ ASSOCIATION IS SET FOR JUNE 2007

The Shropshire Sheep Breeders’ Association of the United Kingdom is celebrating its 125th anniversary in 2007. To mark this milestone the breed society is holding its first-ever World Congress, and would like to invite Shropshire enthusiasts from around the world to join with UK breeders in marking this special event.

The World Congress will take place from Sunday the 10th June through to the finale at the Three Counties Show at Malvern in Worcestershire on Friday the 15th June 2007.

Throughout the week of the Congress the Shropshire Sheep Breeders’ Association (SSBA) plans to showcase the many qualities of Shropshire sheep, including their ability to graze conservation grassland and their unique role within conifer plantations. Other aspects that will be highlighted include the excellent carcase quality of Shropshire lambs and the easy-care characteristics of the ewes. These attributes are leading a renewed interest in the Shropshire breed, as commercial sheep keepers strive to develop production systems which can meet the requirements of the current marketplace.

Congress activities will also encompass flock viewings and visits to places of interest connected with the Shropshire breed, such as the Long Mynd in Shropshire where the breed originated and Acton Scott Working Farm Museum, which has one of the oldest flocks of Shropshires in the UK. Visitors can also take part in taste testing of Shropshire lamb as well as experiencing all the atmosphere of a traditional English agricultural show where the best Shropshire sheep in England will be exhibited.

The SSBA will, additionally, have a display of Shropshire Sheep memorabilia at the Three Counties Show, where a reception is to be held for all members of the World Congress party.

To register your interest in this event please contact the society using the contact details following. A full itinerary and World Congress booking form will be available by June 30th 2006.


For further information please contact:

Liz Bowles, SSBA World Congress Coordinator on +44(0)1884 32983
or email: lbowles@effp.com
or
Pippa Geddes, Secretary to the SSBA on +44(0)1743 741689
or email: psellwood@aol.com

SALE OF RARE FLOCK BOOKS TO RAISE FUNDS FOR SHROPSHIRE SHEEP
1st December 2005

Rare, well-preserved flock books dating from 1882 are to be sold this month on the internet auction site, Ebay, by the Shropshire Sheep Breeders’ Association. The breed society hopes the sale will raise funds for the promotion of Shropshire sheep, which are now considered a rare breed in the United Kingdom.

Many of the books in the sale contain good quality prints and old photographs of Shropshire sheep, a handsome dual purpose breed that was developed in the West Midlands region. Most volumes are in excellent condition and some are still in their original paper wrappers and contain the breed society secretary’s compliment slip, explains Pippa Geddes of the SSBA.

“This sale is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to buy books published by the oldest sheep breed society in the United Kingdom. The sale includes one complete set of annual breed society records from 1882 to the present day, and will appeal to keen collectors and agricultural historians. Five other almost complete sets and smaller lots are also included in the auction, which commences on 1st December and will end on the 15th December.

“In its heyday, the Shropshire was an immensely popular breed, and members of the breed society were very progressive, promoting and exporting their sheep throughout the British Empire. The flock books contain a wealth of interesting material about the breed and the society members, who included members of the British and European aristocracy and even Royalty. The books reflect the great enthusiasm for British livestock that existed around the world.”

More details of the sale are available on Ebay (www.ebay.co.uk), by typing SSBA into the search field. Funds raised by the sale will be used by the present day Shropshire Sheep Breeders’ Association (a registered charity) to promote the breed at home and abroad.
SHROPSHIRE RAMS GO “ON TRIAL” AT WALFORD COLLEGE
Date: 10th November 2005

One of Britain’s oldest, traditional breeds of sheep is to be evaluated as a terminal sire for cross-bred lamb production at Walford and North Shropshire College.

In a trial that has just commenced at the College, Shropshire rams are being used alongside Charollais tups on a flock of Lleyn ewes. This is the first time that Shropshires have been compared with a Continental breed for commercial lamb production in an independent study.

Commenting on the trial, Adrian Joynt, farm manager at Walford and North Shropshire College said: “Following the recent changes in the CAP, the need to produce high quality lambs that finish without expensive supplementary feed, but still produce the carcase quality the market requires, is paramount The Shropshire was developed in this region, so it should suit the local conditions. The Shropshire Sheep Breeders’ Association says Shropshire lambs finish successfully on grass and produce a good carcass, so the trial will be a timely assessment of the breed.

“In order to fully evaluate the cross-bred progeny from both breeds of ram, we will sell all the lambs direct to a local abattoir, rather than through a livestock market. We will then obtain feedback on lamb carcass grades for conformation and fat class. This, combined with other data about feed use and growth rates, should reveal the relative merit of each breed of tup used.”

Two Shropshire rams were delivered to Walford and North Shropshire College near Shrewsbury, in September. They are now running with around 65 Lleyn ewes from the College’s commercially-managed flock. Two Charollais tups are running with an equal number of Lleyns, with the females for the tupping groups having been selected at random. The two groups of ewes will be managed in exactly the same way up to lambing.

All cross-bred lambs will be tagged individually at birth and records will be kept of the lambing date, lambing difficulty and the sex of the lambs. All lambs will be managed in the same way until they reach slaughter weight at the target level of finish. Results of the trial are expected in the winter of 2006.

The ram trial has the full backing of the Shropshire Sheep Breeders’ Association, as breed society secretary, Pippa Geddes, explains: “Members of the SSBA are delighted that the trial is going ahead, because it gives Shropshires the chance to prove that they can deliver what the market wants.

“The Shropshire was developed as a supreme meat breed, and in its heyday it was exported all over the world for crossing with the indigenous sheep to improve lamb quality. Our members have worked hard to retain the important commercial growth and carcass traits that are essential for terminal sires.”

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