The Leicester Longwool, developed in the 1700’s by Robert Bakewell, has an interesting history and significant genetic value.  George Washington was so impressed by the new Leicester breed that in several of his letters in 1793 President Washington referenced Mr. Bakewell’s work in developing modern techniques for the selection of livestock.  In the 19^th and 20^th Centuries the Leicester was used in the development of many new English sheep breeds

Today the Leicester Longwool is a rare breed with fewer than 700 registered animals in the U.S. and fewer than 2,500 worldwide. The breed was reintroduced to the U.S. by Colonial Williamsburg in 1990.    

Leicester Longwool ewes are calm, easy to manage, excellent mothers, have excellent milk capacity and generally have twins.  The rams we acquired from Colonial Williamsburg are polled, extremely gentle and pass this trait onto their progeny.  The Leicester’s long-stapled fleece is prized by hand spinners for its soft handling and lustrous beauty.  An average fleece will weigh between 11 and 15 pounds.

OGF acquired its Leicester Longwool flock of seven ewes and three rams from Colonial Williamsburg in 2003. A fourth ram produced from imported New Zealand semen was the final addition to OGF's original flock. Our flock now included 30 breeding ewes and six flock-rams representing three distinct bloodlines - Riverside, Beechwood and Ravenswood.

We were pleased to add eight colored ewes and two rams to our flock in 2007. Colored Leicester Longwools are either "English Blue" (a shaded gray) or black. The introduction of color in the Leicester Longwool breed became possible using imported semen from colored New Zealand and Australian rams. There are fewer than 100 colored Leicester Longwools in the U.S.

OGF's 2007 Breeding Strategies: We artificially inseminated (AI) ten of our ewes in October for March 2008 lambing. We used New Zealand and Australian semen from two colored rams and two white rams. The use of AI will both expand the genetic diversity of OGF's colored flock and stregthen existing bloodlines in our white flock.

OGF participated in the 15th Anniversary Celebration of the reintroduction of Leicester Longwool Sheep into the US held at the 2005 MS&WF.  The highlight of the Celebration was the "card grading" of the 35 Leicester Longwools exhibited by 13 LLSBA members.  Three judges from New Zealand, England and Virginia Tech judged each animal against the breed standard and awarded either a blue card (Excellent), red card (Good) or yellow card (Fair).  OGF was pleased to receive blue cards on both of its two ewes:  CWL Freedom and CWL Liberty.