Oxford Down

Oxford Down sheep at a livestock show

The Oxford Down is an English breed of domestic sheep developed in the 1830s by crossing the Cotswold, Hampshire and South Down breeds,^[1] and using the resulting cross-breeds to form the basis of the present-day breed.^[2] This breed is primarily raised for meat.^[1]

The Oxford is relatively large-bodied, hornless, has a brown/black face and legs covered in white wool, and has a short fleece.^[3] It produces the heaviest fleece of any of the Down breeds. The breed's capacity to produce a large, meaty carcase for further processing has stimulated interest from the meat industry, and it also grows the most wool of any of the terminal sire breeds.^[2]

Characteristics

Mature weights for rams range from 250 to 300 lb (110 to 140 kg), ewes are smaller weighing between 200 to 250 lb (91 to 113 kg). Fleeces from mature ewes weigh between 8 to 12 lb (3.6 to 5.4 kg) with a fibre diameter of 30.0 to 34.5 micrometres and a numerical count of 46 to 50. The staple length of the fleece ranges from 3 to 5 in (7.6 to 12.7 cm) and has a yield of 50 to 62%.^[4]

References

1 2 Breed data sheet: Oxford Down/United Kingdom. Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed September 2015.
1 2 "The OXFORD: ORIGIN AND HISTORY". New Zealand Sheepbreeders' Association. Retrieved 17 June 2006.
↑ "The OXFORD: A Rare Breed of British Origin". Rare Breeds Conservation Society of New Zealand Incorporated. Retrieved 17 June 2006.
↑ "Oxford". Breeds of Livestock. Oklahoma State University, Dept. of Animal Science. Retrieved 2009.

External links

Media related to Oxford Down at Wikimedia Commons

Livestock breeds of the British Isles

Cattle

Beef cattle	Angus Belted Galloway Devon Dexter English Longhorn Hereford Highland Luing Shorthorn South Devon Sussex Welsh Black

Dairy cattle	Ayrshire Guernsey Jersey Milking Shorthorn

Dual purpose	British White Gloucester Pembroke Red Poll

Primitive	Chillingham wild cattle Vaynol White Park cattle

Sheep

Extant	Beulah Speckled Face Bluefaced Leicester Border Leicester British Milk Cheviot Clun Forest Cotswold Dalesbred Derbyshire Gritstone Devon Closewool Devon Longwoolled Dorset Down English Leicester Exmoor Horn Galway Greyface Dartmoor Hampshire Herdwick Hill Radnor Kerry Hill Lincoln Llanwenog Lleyn Lonk Norfolk Horn Oxford Down Portland Romney Rough Fell Ryeland Scottish Blackface Shetland Shropshire Southdown sheep Suffolk Swaledale Teeswater Welsh Mountain Wensleydale Whitefaced Woodland Wiltshire Horn

Primitive	Boreray Castlemilk Moorit Hebridean Jacob Manx Loaghtan North Ronaldsay Soay

Extinct	Scottish Dunface

Pigs

Extant	Berkshire British Landrace British Lop British Saddleback Essex Gloucestershire Old Spots Hampshire Large Black Large White Middle White Oxford Sandy and Black Tamworth Welsh Wessex Saddleback

Extinct	Cumberland Grice Lincolnshire Curly-coated Small Black Small White Yorkshire Blue and White

Goats

Anglo-Nubian Bilberry British Alpine Golden Guernsey Irish

Poultry

Chickens	Burford Brown Cornish Derbyshire Redcap Dorking Ixworth Marsh Daisy Modern Game Modern Langshan 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 Welsh harlequin

Geese	Brecon Buff Shetland

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