Every so often I share material or comment that did not make the text of Marsh Fen and Town.
Some things are like water, you never miss them until you no longer have them. This is true of rare breed livestock.
In my article about Fred White I describe the stratified system of sheep rearing that not only operated in the UK, but from which the whole British Empire benefitted as high value Lincoln Longwool rams were exported for breeding stock to Australia, New Zealand, Canada and further afield to USA and Russia, as well as nearby Europe and France. At the top tier are pure bred hill sheep to this I added the Longwool as a top tier breed that was well bred for marsh conditions free of foot rot and good at putting on meat in those conditions. The middle tier is Upland sheep that can still use lower grade grazing, but are often cross bred with hill breeds and more productive lowland sheep. At the bottom tier are lowland sheep that you can see finishing off brassica tops on some of Lincolnshire’s fields. This structure is over 200 years old and secures a future for the rarer breeds in an industrialized society which needs greater production of meat to meet demand of its urban areas. If this is not preserved it is my informed opinion that we risk seeing ever increasingly intensified sheep farming of homogenized sheep.
This is highly efficient in terms of land use and social value. As far as land use goes it ensures the breed matches the environment. Social value is that it ensures ongoing livelihoods in upland and highland communities. It also has an environmental benefit in enabling ground nesting birds to thrive and such birds as the lap wing, golden plover and curlew undoubtedly benefit from well managed grazing regimes often by rare breed cattle and sheep, but also ponies and goats in some areas. Some of these rare breeds are geographically concentrated because they are at one with their environment and an important part of its preservation and management such as Shetland Island, Romney and South Wales Mountain breeds of sheep.
The simple fact is that most livestock is specially bred to produce meat, eggs or milk as efficiently as possible in order to feed growing urban populations. To achieve this selective breeding has engineered various breeds that now have a global impact on food supply and many of them owe the supply of genetic material at least in part down to old breeds traced back to Britain. To understand this it is claimed that up to 80% of Chinese ducks reared can trace genetic lines back to Lincolnshire – whether this claim is true or not cannot be verified, but it is perhaps telling that the world’s greatest consumer of duck meat purchased Lincolnshire based Cherry Valley Farms where genetic research in ensuring supply was key.
This highlights a risk, if for example, Welsh farmers can no longer function and be financially viable does it risk a pack of cards cascade of supply of irreplaceable genetic material that can risk future food supply? Certainly a DEFRA policy paper published 18th June 2021 recognises this value: “As well as being a significant aspect of our cultural heritage, our native breeds provide resilience to both the UK’s food supply chain and the rural economy.” It is clear reading the document that the fate of rare breeds is largely left to individual farmers and small breeding organisations – which is fine provided other conflicting policies don’t put those only too valuable individual farmers at risk.
The value of rare breeds is gradually being appreciated more in grazing regimes of which the numbers of Belted Galloway cattle appear to be the most visible increase. However, we miss the point if we do not consider more intensively reared pigs and poultry. The Dorset, Exmoor, Golden Essex, Minature Legbar, Modern Langshan, Welbar, White Surrey and Yorkshire Hornet chickens are all lost together with their valuable genes that cannot contribute to future needs. That this is important is to understand how modern breeders are attempting to rear added value commercial chickens that rely upon trying to rebreed in features that have been lost. Five English pig breeds have possibly become extinct in my life time, namely the Cumberland, the Dorset, Gold Tip, The Yorkshire Blue and White and here in Lincolnshire the Curly-coat pig that was also nicknamed the Boston Pig due to its dominance in the marshland and fen areas. At the same time the Large White breed developed originally in Britain has become the world’s dominant breed – whilst mostly reared indoors it needs to be noted it was developed as an outdoor breed and most likely owes some genes to the Cumberland that is now extinct!
The value of both rare breeds and those maintaining them is vastly underappreciated to the detriment of our food security.
The simple truth is that we do not know what future environmental, pathological, or food supply requirements and challenges we will have and not to preserve breeds and enable those doing this vital task to survive and prosper is a risk.
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