December 11, 2016 -- I grew up raising and showing Southdowns. The best Southdowns were in New Zealand. The best Southdowns in the US had New Zealand bloodlines. If I ever visited New Zealand, I wanted to visit a Southdown stud. So I scheduled a visit to one on my sabbatical tour of Australia and New Zealand. The farm we visited was Merrydowns near Gore in Southland (South Island).
Southdown flock
Southdown ewes
At one time, the Southdown was the premier terminal sire breed in New Zealand and US and probably other places. They are one of the oldest terminal sire breeds. They were the sire of New Zealand's famous "Canterbury" lamb. They fell out of favor when the market demanded bigger lambs. When we began showing sheep, the show ring (market lamb competition) was moving away from Southdown to Suffolk. Bad timing for us.
How 'bout that farm?
Nice backends
When I got back from my sabbatical, I wanted to raise Southdowns again. I wanted to import Southdowns from New Zealand and establish myself as a source of Southdown rams for use as terminal sires on pasture-based lamb operations. The US breed has been largely ruined by the show ring. They bred for bigger Southdowns, longer legs with less meat. The New Zealand type Southdown could be a good sire of market lambs. I was especially interested in doing an experiment breeding Southdown rams to Katahdin ewes and raising the lambs on grass. Like a lot of my ideas (inspired by travel), raising Southdowns again never went past the idea stage. But it was fun to think about for awhile.
Pretty ewe posing
Where are they going?
The Southdown Stud we visited also raised Romneys. They ran them in different flocks.
Stud rams
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