Teeswater sheep
 A small flock of Teeswater sheep, Ingleby Greenhow | |
| Conservation status | Vulnerable[1] |
|---|---|
| |
The Teeswater is a breed of sheep from Teesdale, England.[2] It is a longwool breed that produces a generally large-diameter fibre.[3] However, the animals are raised primarily for meat.[4]
There are records of Teeswaters being exported to Tasmania in the early 1800’s. Also around this time Robert Bakewell started a breeding program to develop and enhance the quality of the local Leicester Long wool sheep. In the 1840’s some Teeswater females were crossed with a Dishley Leicester Longwool ram called "Blue Cap". The offspring were the origins of the Wensleydale breed. Eventually the Wensleydale breed became more popular and the Teeswater declined until by the 1920’s the breed was nearly extinct. [5]
Teeswater sheep have been bred in northern England for about two hundred years;[citation needed] the breed was rare by the 1920s[clarification needed], but has seen a renaissance since World War II.[citation needed] The Rare Breeds Survival Trust has categorised the breed as "at risk".[1]
The Teeswater Sheep Breeders' Association was formed in 1949 with the aim to encourage and improve the breeding of Teeswater sheep; to maintain their purity and particularly to establish the supremacy of Teeswater rams for crossing with hill sheep of other breeds for the production of half-bred lambs.
Characteristics
[edit]The wool of the Teeswater should be fine, long-stapled with high lustre with each lock hanging free and with no tendency to felt. There should be no dark fibres in the fleece, which should be uniform in texture over the whole body. The Teeswater produces a kemp free fleece, a characteristic it passes on.[6]
John Claudius Loudon's "An Encyclopaedia of Agriculture" of 1825 describes the breed as:
The Teeswater sheep differ from the Lincolnshire in their wool not being so long and heavy; in standing upon higher, though finer boned legs, supporting a thicker, firmer and heavier carcase, much wider upon their backs and sides; and in affording a fatter and finer grained carcase of mutton...[7]
And in a special report on the history and present condition of the sheep industry of the United States, Ezra Carman and D. Salmon have the following to say about Teeswater sheep:
Upon the rich lowlands bordering the river Tees in the east of England there was originally bred a tall, clumsy sheep, without horns, and with white face and legs. Their bones were small compared with those of other large breeds, but supported a thicker, firmer, and heavier body than its size would indicate; wide upon the back, somewhat round in the barrel, and yielding a heavier carcass than any other sheep, but proportionally longer in growing to perfection; the meat, however, finer grained than could be expected from such an animal.
The wool of the old Teeswater was remarkably long, rough, and heavy, yet so loosely was it set upon the skin that the fleece seldom weighed more than 9 lbs. The ewes were very prolific, commonly bearing twins, sometimes three at a birth, and cases are recorded where a single animal brought forth 16 lambs in four years.
These sheep prospered most in small flocks, in pastures with cattle[8]
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Teeswater". Watchlist. Rare Breeds Survival Trust.
- ^ "History". Teeswater Sheep Breeders Association Limited. Archived from the original on 2008-09-25. Retrieved 2009-05-04.
- ^ "Kinds of Sheep". Sheep 101. Retrieved 2011-05-05.
- ^ "Teeswater/United Kingdom". Breed Data Sheet. Domestic Animal Diversity Information System. Retrieved 2009-09-09.
- ^ Association, American Teeswater Sheep. "American Teeswater Sheep Association". American Teeswater Sheep Association. Retrieved 2024-11-19.
- ^ "Teeswater". Sheep Breeds - St-U. Sheep 101. Retrieved 2009-05-04.
- ^ Loudon, John (1825). An Encyclopaedia of Agriculture. London: A. & R. Spottiswoode, New-Street-Square. p. 923. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
- ^ United States.; Carman, Ezra Ayers; DuBois, C.; Fish, Pierre A.; Heath, Hubert A.; Minto, John; Salmon, D. E.; Cornell University. (1892). Special report on the history and present condition of the sheep industry of the United States. Washington: Govt. Print. Off. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.54707.