Our regular Christmas get-together with fellow keepers of rare breeds is always a jolly occasion, but this year’s event had a more serious side. The Northamptonshire Rare Breeds Survival Trust group which I belong to – there isn’t an Oxfordshire group - has decided to end its connection with the RBST in protest at the way money raised by local groups is administered by the parent organisation.
The Northamptonshire group believe that very little cash from the thousands of pounds raised by hard-working local groups is actually spent on the RBST’s core activity, conserving rare breeds. This came as a bit of a shock to me – I have been a member of the organisation for many years, long before I actually began to keep rare breed sheep myself.
The Northants group will continue to actively raise money for native rare breeds – but the funds it raises will not be sent on to the RBST, with members being asked to decide which projects they would like to support financially.
Gail Sprake, chairman of the RBST’s Trustees, told me: “We have 25 Support Groups spread throughout Great Britain who do admirable work on behalf of RBST and who are much valued. I am concerned too that some of our members consider that the valuable funds raised by the support groups are being used for administration and other expenses as you pointed out in your email, rather than being channelled in to work which directly helps towards the conservation of our native breeds of livestock.”
She added that in 2012 the RBST spent £470,000 on conservation projects.
This sort of controversy over the way charities make use of financial contributions is nothing new, but it is still depressing. Hopefully the group will quickly sort out its differences with the RBST – which this year celebrated its 40th anniversary – as it relies heavily on local groups for fundraising..
Meanwhile, it was great to see so many younger folk among the old-timers at the Christmas shindig. It appears that an interest in keeping native breeds of livestock is thriving among the new generation of young farmers and smallholders.
Britain probably has the largest range of native sheep breeds in the world. They are an integral part of our history and are descended from local types which successfully adapted to particular environmental and geographical conditions. The diversity of native British sheep breeds derives from generations of careful shepherding which this younger generation will hopefully continue.
Many of our breeds have important connections. The Portland, for example, is the progenitor of the Dorset Horn, while almost all long-wool sheep in Britain (and many breeds abroad) trace a significant ancestry to the shaggy Leicester Longwool.
The North Ronaldsay which over the centuries has adapted to a diet of seaweed, has provided farmers with valuable information on protein utilisation and copper toxicity – illustrating how animals, largely unchanged for thousands of years, can play an important part in the modern world.
Many native breeds have been free of artificial selection pressures and have evolved in small self-contained populations, making them suitable for hybridisation. For example, many primitive breeds have shown good commercial qualities in crossbreeding.
That means that native sheep breeds are well-placed to contribute to the diversification currently being required of farmers.
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