Clun Forest

Shepherds in eastern Wales and southwestern Shropshire shaped the breed over more than two centuries, selecting for hardiness, fertility, prolificacy, milk, mothering and longevity. The Reverend Joseph Plymley described them for the Board of Agriculture in 1803 as polled and white-faced, and they were still white-faced in the 1830s. The dark head came later, from crossing with Long Mynd, Hill Radnor and Shropshire.

The breed society formed in Britain in 1925 to, in its own words, secure the purity of lineage and fixity of type. What came out of it combines hill hardiness with lowland productivity, and by the middle of the century the Clun was the third most numerous purebred sheep in Britain.

North America's population starts in 1970, when Tony Turner imported two rams and thirty-nine ewes, with one more ram going to Nova Scotia shortly after. The North American Clun Forest Association followed in 1974, and further Canadian importations ran into the mid-1980s.

A middleweight hill breed: ewes run 130 to 160 lb and rams 175 to 200. Both sexes are polled. The wool is creamy white over a dark brown face and legs, and the small upright ears give the breed its permanently alert look.

The fleece is medium wool, 4 to 7 lb a head with a staple of 6 to 10 cm, at 25 to 33 microns, and free of black or kempy fibers.

Docile, alert and active is the Conservancy's summary. They are easy keepers, worm resistant, and bred for exactly the traits that make a flock low-drama: the ewes usually twin, lamb without help, and milk well.

Grass-based meat production is the working answer: lambs reach a market weight of about 100 lb at seven to eight months on grass alone. The wool is a clean, useful medium clip, and the milk is high in butterfat, which is why the breed appears in dairy crossing programs.

Not much beyond grass. They were selected on upland grazing for production traits, and the Conservancy calls them a good choice for grass-based systems: worm resistance and easy keeping are the breed's working equipment.

Threatened on The Livestock Conservancy's Conservation Priority List. A breed that was once the third most numerous in Britain now depends on a modest number of working flocks on both sides of the Atlantic.

One unusual thing about this breed: its association prohibits showing. Selection is for production, and the society has deliberately kept the show ring out of it. So do not ask for ribbons; ask for records. Lambing percentages, weaning weights and lamb-on-grass performance are how a Clun flock proves itself.

Registration runs through the North American Clun Forest Association, founded in 1974.

Recent sale prices on HoofnHorn, where there are any, are further down this page.