The_Hampshire_Breed

The Hampshire Breed The Hampshire The Hampshire breed was founded in Hampshire (Hants) and surrounding counties in England. This breed is a cross between the Wiltshire Horne and the Berkshire Knots. The Wiltshire was described by Plumbe as “…large, slow maturing, white-faced, narrow back, fine-fleeced sheep with horns, known as Wiltshires. The horns turn back behind the ears and about the cheeks….There were no other sheep like them in England…,” and were valued by the butchers. The Berkshire was “somewhat larger, variable in type, ”horned or polled, black/white/mottled faces, and a roman nose. In 1830, a breeder introduced some Cotswold blood through the use of this type of rams on native ewes. At the Royal Agricultural Show at Oxford in 1840, it was apparent of the breed had been improved with the use of Southdown blood. William Humphrey of Oak Ash, Newbury, Hampshire was the first recognized breeder of the Hampshire. He bred his “West Country Down” ewes to the same kind of rams. In 1842, he decided to introduced Southdown blood. Over the years, he improved carcass characteristics, fleshing qualities, shorter legs, polled, and the face was a more uniform color. The successor of Humphrey hampshire, breed, rams, ewes, england, wool, wiltshire, west, states, southdown, sheep, pounds, over, lambs, introduced, flock, face, ears, country, breeders, blood, western, well-muscled, weights, type, show, produce, polled, new, market, legs, james, improved, humphrey