In praise of Britain's amazing native sheep breeds

Rare Breeds Survival Trust Chief Executive Christopher Price says that the variety among the UK's native sheep breeds is a fantastic reflection of the range of purposes these breeds have served, over centuries, for communities in very different landscapes and environments

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Today, our native sheep present a magnificent array of breed sizes, fleece types and colours, meat flavours and textures, and hardiness in the most challenging of the UK's conditions. While our nation's needs from our sheep have changed over time, our native breeds still have much to offer today: alongside the delicious, premium food and sustainable natural fibre, the importance of biodiversity benefits resulting from some native sheep breeds' specialist conservation grazing is increasingly coming to the fore.

HALF THE UK'S NATIVE SHEEP BREEDS ON THE RBST WATCHLIST

Sadly, around half of the UK's native sheep breeds are now on the RBST Watchlist for rare breeds. The breeds on the Watchlist are categorised into 'At Risk' breeds, and 'Priority' breeds in the most urgent need of support. There are currently six 'Priority' sheep breeds on the Watchlist: the Leicester Longwool, Lincoln

Longwool, Manx Loaghtan, North Ronaldsay, Whitefaced Woodland, and Welsh Mountain Pedigree breeds.

RBST is working closely with breed societies, scientists, farm parks, retailers and dedicated individual farmers and smallholders on tailored programmes aiming to help each of these irreplaceable breeds to thrive again. We are facilitating the establishment of new flocks to boost numbers and geographic spread; and the expansion of existing flocks, with support on breeding choices to help strengthen genetic diversity. At the same time, RBST and our partners continue to capture and maintain genetic material from native sheep breeds in the UK National Gene Bank, creating a vital fall-back in the event of future catastrophic loss of genetic lines. Conservation activity is underpinned by the latest conservation techniques and scientific research, such as our groundbreaking genomic study of the North Ronaldsay sheep on the island which discovered crucial information about levels of historic and recent inbreeding.