Breed Focus: Ouessant Sheep

Helen Babbs finds out about the world's smallest sheep breed

- Helen Babbs

Island sheep breeds are typically small, and the ultimate example of this is the Ouessant sheep, from the small French island of Ouessant, off the west coast of Brittany. These hold the record for being the smallest sheep breed in the world. "A ram stands 49cm or lower at the shoulder, and a ewe 46cm," explains Adrian Lloyd, who keeps a pedigree flock on his smallholding in Cumbria. This sounds small, but Ouessants start life even smaller! "When the lambs are born, they're about the size of a 6 month old kitten."

SMALL BUT PRODUCTIVE

Unlike many dwarf breeds of livestock, Ouessant sheep are still productive, growing 1-1.5kg fleece each year - comparable to many larger breeds and in fact have more fleece per kg of sheep than most other breeds! "They have big fleeces," says Adrian, "in shades of black, brown and white. The staple, which is the length of the fleece, is 8-10 cms on average and around 25-28 microns." Their fleece covers the whole body and upper legs, and extends to their cheeks and foreheads, although the muzzle and ears are wool-free. Like most other primitive breeds, Ouessants have a well packed double layered fleece, with a longer, coarser outer coat and a shorter, fine undercoat. "It's very popular with hand spinners," Adrian notes, "and I'm currently using some for a peg-loom project too."

Under their big fleeces, Ouessants are the same mix of colours, with the dark sheep having dark skin, and dark hair on their faces and lower legs, while the white sheep have pink skin and white hair. Although the ewes are naturally polled, the rams have a single pair of large, curved horns, again dark or light to match their fleece.