Oxford

The Oxford is named for Oxfordshire and was made there in the 1830s by crossing Hampshire sheep from the county to the east with Cotswolds from the west. It took muscling and wool quality from the Cotswold, and carcass quality and grazing ability from the Hampshire. The type settled in the 1850s and the name was in use by the 1860s.

It is the largest of the English down breeds, a group that also holds the Hampshire, the Shropshire and the Southdown. Down means the chalk hills of southern England, and the pastures on them are rich.

That matters more than it sounds. The Oxford was selected to turn abundant feed into meat and wool, and it does not do well on sparse feed and light management. Most heritage breeds are sold on thriftiness. This one is not. It is rugged and takes hard weather, but it needs feeding.

North American imports began in the late 1840s and continued into the 1900s. The Oxford Down Record Association was founded in Xenia, Ohio in 1882. The breed did best in eastern Canada, around the Great Lakes and through the Corn Belt, where Oxford rams were put over commercial ewes to lift growth rates.

They are polled, and can be shorn twice a year.