Clun Forest Sheep Breed – Everything You Need to Know

These pretty sheep have soft spongy wool bodies, a great head of fleece, clean brown faces and white bodies. They are active, alert and have been breed through natural selection over two centuries for their wool and meat.

They are a calm, docile and easy to handle bred that are more than capable of fending for themselves on a wide open grazing field.

CLUN FOREST SHEEP QUICK PROFILE OVERVIEW
These beautiful sheep are compact, muscular and are a very active and alert breed of sheep
Country of Origin:	United Kingdom
Related:	Top 20 Best Native British Sheep Breeds
Other Names:	None
Breed Size:	Medium
Main Purpose:	Meat, wool and milk
Can be used for	Breed, Meat, Milk, Wool **LSC (Landscape Management)
Temperament:	Docile, alert but easy to handle
Ideal Climate:	Most climates
Conservation Status:	Yes, Listed by the *ALC Status/ Rarity: Threatened
Health Issues?	No known health issues
Good Starter Sheep?	Novice to intermediate level of sheep knowledge and operations required to keep this breed
Sheep Associations:	North America Clun Forest Association
Sheep Clubs:	Please refer to the North America Clun Forest Association for up do date breeders directory and information
Note: ALC stands for American Livestock Conservancy * LSC stands for Landscape Management – the animal is used for controlling various vegetation growth

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

The Clun Forest sheep breed has a thick spongy coat with a good-sized body. They have a cap of wool that stops by their polled horns keeping their faces clean. Their wool also stops at the top of their legs giving them clean legs free of wool. Their faces are usually a tan or black color.

Color(s):

creamy off-white fleece with dark brown faces and lower legs

SHEEP ⇒	EWE	RAM
Breed Weight:	68 kgs	91 kgs
Breed Height:	Unclear	Unclear
Hair:	dense blocky staple fleece with a well-developed crimp. It is free of dark/gray wool and kemp.	dense blocky staple fleece with a well-developed crimp. It is free of dark/gray wool and kemp.
Ears:	Medium length carried high on their heads	Medium length carried high on their heads
Horns:	Polled	Polled
Matures at age:	10 weeks/15 months or 15 years	10 weeks to 15 months
Puberty Age:	5 to 12 months	5 to 7 months
Breeding Age:	18 months	1 year
Breeding Traits:	See Ewe Breeding & Milking Info.	Cover 5 to 10 Ewes in 1 season

EWE BREEDING & MILKING INFORMATION

They only lamb once a year and are really good mothers
Breeding Period/cycle:	Usually lasts 16 to 59 hours
Estrous cycle:	Ave. 17 days/15 to 20 days
Gestation Period:	Usually, around 149 to 155 days but most gestation is 152 days
No. Lambs/Litter:	1 or 2 (twins)
Lactation Period:	Usually, around 150 to 240 day but most are milked for 180 days
Milking From:	4 to 6 weeks after lambing
Milk Quality:	Good, Quantity: Enough to wean lambs , Per: Lactation period
Milk Ideal for:	Drinking and feeding their lambs
You may Also Like:	10 Best Sheep Breeds for Milk

SHEEP MEAT PRODUCTION INFORMATION

The Clun Forest sheep breeds meat has always been known for its highest of quality meat. Their meat is flavorsome, lean, dark with low waisted due to its excellent cutting qualities. Lambs reach mature weights of up to 16 to 20 kgs at around 12 to 17 weeks old.

Meat Production:

Yes, Quality: Superior

SHEEP ⇒	LAMB	HOGGET/MUTTON
Approx. Maturity Weight:	50 kgs	50 kgs
Approx. Maturity Age:

SHEEP WOOL PRODUCTION INFORMATION

They have a dense blocky staple fleece with a well-developed crimp and definition within their fiber.

Wool Production?

Yes, Quality: Exceptionally fine fleece quality with a spinning (Bradford count) count of 58

Wool is used to Produce:

Knitted garments, clothes, knitting wools

SHEEP ⇒	EWE	RAM
Age they Produce from:	6 to 8 months	6 to 8 months
Approx. Length:	6.5 to 12 cm	6.5 to 12 cm
Microns:	25 to 28	25 to 28
Approx. Quantity:	From 1 kg up to 14 kgs a year	From 1 kg up to 14 kgs a year

GOOD TO KNOW ABOUT THE CLUN FOREST SHEEP

Some information that may be useful to know about he Clun Forest Sheep breed
Child-Friendly?	Children should never be left unsupervised around any livestock no matter what its temperament may be.
Landscape Management?	They are excellent foragers and love to roam the landscape in search of greenery to graze on.
Where to buy them?	Please refer to North America Clun Forest Association for information on breeders and suppliers of the breed in or around your particular area.

GENERAL INFORMATION

The Clun Forest Sheep breed is one of the hardiest sheep breeds able to withstand dire circumstances and live solely of the land even in hilly environments.

The hardiness and vigor of this breed helped them survive the drop in sheep production and maintain their numbers through the 1870’s when the grain market collapsed leaving many a farmers land uncultivated and abandoned.

They are not really raised as sheep skin production sheep breed. This does not, however, mean that their sheep skin is not used in some form of leather manufacturing as usually no parts of a sheep bred for meat production goes to waste.

HISTORY

The Clun Forest sheep breed was developed and shaped by natural selection. Shepherds of Shropshire have been developing the Clun Forest Sheep breed for over two centuries for their longevity, fertility, milking, mothering and hardiness.

The sheep as we know them today are active, alert but are easy to handle and have a very good nature. These beautiful sheep have brown faces and legs (sometimes black) and a creamy white body. They have smooth clean faces with white forelocks of wool around their polls. They have wool up to their knees but then are smooth legged below that.

Clun Forest sheep were first imported to America in 1970 where it proved to have a great adaptability to the region to which was imported to. They proved to be a very useful breed of sheep and the North American Clun Forest Association was started in 1974.

Due to its fine qualities, usefulness, and adaptability the Clun Forest Sheep breed has been distributed from Ontario to Hawaii.
The breed association for the Clun Forest Sheep breed prohibits showing and only registers rams that are born as twins. The character of the Clun Forest sheep breed as excellent producers and easy keepers is what makes is a natural choice for grass-based production systems.