Southdown

Ellman worked at Glynde in East Sussex, and by around 1800 the improved Southdown was set. Its influence then went two ways: into the other down breeds at home, and around the world as a meat sire; the breed was instrumental in building New Zealand's Canterbury lamb trade.

Modern American Southdowns have been bred taller than the traditional type for the show ring, and the older, shorter form is now sometimes kept separately as Babydoll.

They are small, blocky and short-legged, with a mouse-brown face and wool to the eyes. Wikipedia puts ewes at about 130 to 150 lb and rams at about 170 to 200, standing roughly 24 and 26 inches respectively; The Livestock Conservancy and Oklahoma State University both give rams 190 to 230 lb and ewes 130 to 180. Both sexes are polled.

The fleece is short, fine down wool: a 2 to 3.5 kg greasy clip from a ewe at about 23 to 25 microns with a 50 to 60 mm staple.

Historically the breed was prized for meat quality above all: fine-grained, well-marbled, and the standard the English trade was judged against.

Docile and easy to manage, says the American Southdown Breeders' Association. The Livestock Conservancy agrees: active sheep, but relatively calm and affectionate, and they enjoy interacting with people. The Conservancy rates the breed suitable for novice to intermediate keepers.

That gentle disposition and their moderate size are why the association calls them a favorite with young exhibitors in 4-H and FFA.

In the twenty-first century it is kept principally as a terminal sire, and its carcass reputation is why. The breed also earns odd, real work in vegetation management; vineyards use them because a short sheep cannot reach the fruit.

Less feed than most. The association's breed standard says that with proper management, ewes and rams should need no grain to hold condition, lactating ewes and young, fast-growing lambs excepted, and the association describes the breed as turning grass and a little grain into lean meat.

Less space, too, because of their moderate size. The Conservancy and Oklahoma State University both describe them as adaptable to a range of conditions, wet climates included.

They are a wool breed and need shearing; the Conservancy puts an average fleece at 3 to 5 lb, Oklahoma State at 5 to 8 lb for a mature ewe. The face carries wool, and the standard asks for it to be short enough in front of the eyes that the sheep is never wool-blind.

The Southdown graduated from The Livestock Conservancy's Conservation Priority List in 2024. The Conservancy now counts it about the sixth or seventh most popular breed in the US, with a population that has held steady for the past twenty years.

The Conservancy separates it from the Babydoll, or Olde English Babydoll, Southdown, which it does not count as endangered.

The trade is scale. Southdown lambs finish light, so on a commercial per-head market they are hard to justify, and the case for them is meat quality, docility and their fit on a small holding.

Know which Southdown you are looking at: the taller modern show type and the traditional short type have diverged, with the old form often sold as Babydoll. Registration for the breed runs through the American Southdown Breeders' Association.

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