Easycare - Misplaced Pages

Breed of sheep

Easycare
Traits
Conservation status	FAO (2007): not listed DAD-IS (2022): unknown
Other names	Easy Care
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Use	meat
Weight	Female: average 60 or 65 kg
Wool colour	white
Face colour	white
Horn status	polled
Sheep Ovis aries

The Easycare or Easy Care is a modern British breed of easy-care sheep. It was developed in Wales in the second half of the twentieth century by cross-breeding between Welsh Mountain and Wiltshire Horn stock, with the aim of combining the meat-producing qualities and natural moulting characteristic of the latter with the hardiness of the former. It is reared for meat production.

History

In the latter twentieth century the price of wool in the United Kingdom fell so low that its value did not always cover the cost of shearing the sheep that provided it. The Easycare was bred from the mid-1960s by Iolo Owen on the island of Anglesey in North Wales. He cross-bred Welsh Mountain and Wiltshire Horn stock, with the aim of developing a sheep that would combine the hardiness of the Welsh Mountain with the meat-producing qualities of the Wiltshire Horn, and would also be polled and moult naturally without needing to be shorn. By the end of the century the number of breeding ewes was over 10000; in 2012 the total population was reported to be 150000.

There is a breed society, but no flock-book; stock is not registered.

Characteristics

Use

References

Barbara Rischkowsky, Dafydd Pilling (editors) (2007). List of breeds documented in the Global Databank for Animal Genetic Resources, annex to The State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Rome: Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. ISBN 9789251057629. Archived 23 June 2020.
^ Breed data sheet: Easy Care / United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Sheep). Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed December 2022.
^ Valerie Porter, Lawrence Alderson, Stephen J.G. Hall, D. Phillip Sponenberg (2016). Mason's World Encyclopedia of Livestock Breeds and Breeding (sixth edition). Wallingford: CABI. ISBN 9781780647944.
J. Vipond (2006). Easicare Sheep Systems. Penicuik, Midlothian: Scottish Agriculture College. Archived 21 July 2011.
Louise Hobson (10 November 2017). EasyCare Sheep – Take care when purchasing from social media sites. The Easycare Sheep Society. Accessed December 2022.

Livestock breeds of the British Isles

Cattle

Beef cattle	Aberdeen Angus Beef Shorthorn Belted Galloway Blue Grey Devon Dexter English Longhorn Galloway Hereford Highland Lincoln Red Luing Shorthorn South Devon Sussex Welsh Black
Dairy cattle	Ayrshire Dairy Shorthorn Guernsey Jersey Kerry
Dual purpose	Albion British White Droimeann Irish Moiled Glamorgan Old Gloucester Pembroke Red Poll Shetland Whitebred Shorthorn
Primitive	Chillingham Wild Cattle Tory Island Vaynol White Park
Extinct	Alderney Blue Albion

Sheep

Extant	Badger Face Welsh Mountain Balwen Welsh Mountain Beulah Speckled Face Black Welsh Mountain Bluefaced Leicester Border Cheviot Border Leicester Brecknock Hill Cheviot British Milksheep Cambridge Cheviot Clun Forest Cotswold Dalesbred Derbyshire Gritstone Devon Closewool Devon and Cornwall Longwool Dorset Down Dorset Horn Easycare Exmoor Horn Galway Greyface Dartmoor Hampshire Down Herdwick Hill Radnor Kerry Hill Leicester Longwool Lincoln Llanwenog Lleyn Lonk Masham Norfolk Horn North Country Cheviot Oxford Down Portland Romney Rough Fell Ryeland Scottish Blackface Shetland Shropshire Southdown Suffolk Swaledale Teeswater Welsh Mountain Wensleydale Whiteface Dartmoor Whitefaced Woodland Wiltshire Horn
Primitive	Boreray Castlemilk Moorit Hebridean Jacob Manx Loaghtan North Ronaldsay Soay
Extinct	Devon Longwool Scottish Dunface South Devon

Pigs

Extant	Berkshire British Landrace British Lop British Saddleback Essex Gloucestershire Old Spots Large Black Large White Middle White Oxford Sandy and Black Tamworth Welsh Wessex Saddleback
Extinct	Cumberland Dorset Gold Tip Grice Irish Greyhound Pig Large White Ulster Lincolnshire Curly Coat Small Black Small White Yorkshire Blue and White

Goats

Poultry

Chickens	Croad Langshan Derbyshire Redcap Dorking Ixworth Indian Game Legbar Modern Game Modern Langshan Nankin Bantam Norfolk Grey Old English Game Old English Pheasant Fowl Orpington Rosecomb Scots Dumpy Scots Grey Sebright Sussex
Ducks	Abacot Ranger Aylesbury Orpington Khaki Campbell Magpie Shetland Silver Appleyard Welsh Harlequin
Geese	Brecon Buff Shetland

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