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 19th and 20th 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 milking 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. Seared twice a year, an average fleece weighs between five and six pounds.
OGF’s Award Winning Flock
Raising sheep since 1989, OGF acquired its initial Leicester Longwool flock of seven ewes and three rams from Colonial Williamsburg in 2003. We subsequently added four rams produced from imported New Zealand, Australian and English semen. Our flock now includes 30 breeding ewes and ten flock-rams representing three distinct white bloodlines - Riverside, Beechwood and Ravenswood.
We were pleased to add eight colored ewes and two colored 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.
Our flock is USDA certified for the Scrapie Flock Certification Program.
"Daisy"
"Tulip"
Ewes May 2008
"Liberty Bell" & twin ewe lambs
" Iris " (blue) & "Daliah" (black)
OGF's 2009 Breeding Strategies
For our 2008 fall breeding we divided our ewes into five breeding groups for mating with:
- OGF Churchill (2008 MS&WF Supreme Champion Fleece – T 10276)
- OGF Lord Applebee (2007 MS&WF Best Fleece in Show – R 10214)
- OWF Oscar (2008 MS&WF Best Fleece in Show [colored] – T 10266C)
- OGF Sir Baxter (a triplet) S-10232
- GHF Blackstone (English) S-10235
- OGF Lord Culpeper (New Zealand[Ravenswood] pending)
- CWL 07-14 (Australian – T 10290)
- CWL 07-11 (New Zealand [Beechwood] – T 10289)
- CWL 07-18 (New Zealand [Riverside] – T10291)
Extensive use of our rams with superior fleeces will advance our goal of universal high quality fleeces across our entire flock. Please see our ram page for pictures and more information on our flock rams.
OGF’s 2008 Lambs
While all of our 2008 ewe lambs are sold we thought you may enjoy some of their pictures. We have several very nice 2008 white and colored ram lambs still available and are accepting orders for 2009 lambs.
