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WE NEED YOUR HELP
Any donation, no matter how small will help us fund essential conservation work.
Please Help. |
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January 2014
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
In 2014, we:
- Formed a new breeding flock of Whitefaced Woodland sheep, following a successful Big Give Christmas Challenge raising £2,662.
- Celebrated
the births of Vaynol and Dairy Shorthorn heifers, these breeds are
critically endangered, with fewer than 150 registered breeding females
in the UK.
- Worked
with Bicton College in Devon to create the UK's first RBST College,
they have Cream Legbar chickens, Oxford Sandy and Black pigs, Devon and
Cornwall Longwool and Dorset Horn sheep and Dairy Shorthorn cattle. A new animal
husbandry school is in construction. This new facility will be an
excellent teaching environment for animal care, husbandry and
conservation as well as related enterprise activities and will also
provide access to the general public as a visitor attraction.
- Made grants to breed societies to help them with breed projects.
- Collected material for our National Gene bank from a Suffolk Punch and Hackney stallion.
- Created a new herd of Whitebred Shorthorn cattle in South Wales to help counteract the risks of Geographic Concentration. .
- Bought
and moved a Leicester Longwool ram to join our agisted ewes at Wimpole
Home Farm to create a breeding flock, Lambs are expected this year.
- Joined
Plantlife and The Wildlife Trust to form Coronation Meadows, a
partnership aiming to create or identify a meadow in every county. It
was set up by RBST patron Prince Charles to celebrate the Queen's
Coronation.
  
Vaynol Calf Coronation Meadows Launch Dairy Shorthorn Calf
Although we achieved a lot last year, there is still so much to do, if you want to help us, become a member, make a donation or to find other ways you can help click here.
New Year, New Challenge
With
every new year, we all set goals and resolutions; get fitter, do
something different or try a new challenge. Unfortunately after a couple
of months these normally fall by the way side and get forgotten. This
year to make sure you achieve everything you want, why not sign up to do
something in aid of RBST? Gaining pledges and support from friends and
family will make sure you keep at it and do something great this year.
So sign up to that marathon or sky dive and get fundraising. For ideas
and to see how you can make a dedicated page click here.
 
Wimpole Champion Moves to Tatton Park
This
time last year, we were busy sourcing a flock of Whitefaced Woodland
ewes for RBST Approved Farm Park, Tatton Park in Cheshire. The money for
this agisted flock was raised by taking part in The Big Give's
Christmas Challenge, the generous donations totalled £2,662. The money
enabled us to undertake breed analysis and identify the most under-used
animals and bloodlines within the UK's Whitefaced Woodland population.
And in mid March, six
shearling ewes were purchased and moved to Tatton Park. We recently
received a donation of £150 from Avril Harrison, who formerly owned and
bred the respected Beckermond flock of Whitefaced Woodland sheep. With
this money we purchased Wimpole Champion, who is one of the 20 least
related rams working in the Combined Flock Book (CFB) registered
population for the breed. All of this means that our breeding flock are
off to a great start and we hope to see lambs in the Spring.
Agisted Ewes at Tatton Park
New RBST Approved Farm Park for 2014!
Kingston
Maurwood College Animal Park has been recently accepted as a new RBST
approved conservation farm park. The animal park has been open to the
public for a number of years, but recently the college has been keen to
work with us and take on a range of rare breed stock, this includes
breeding groups of Portland sheep, British Saddleback pigs, Bagot goats
and a range of rare breed poultry (Sultan chickens and Bronze turkeys).
In the future they plan to increase the numbers of the Bagot goats and
poultry as well as continue the pedigree breeding of the Portland sheep
and Saddleback pigs. To get more information about the college and when
you can visit click here.
 Featured Breed: Whitefaced Woodland
In
2014, we will pick a different breed for you to learn more about. We
have picked the Whitefaced Woodland this month as we achieved a lot with
the breed in 2013 and think you should all understand why it is a
fantastic breed that deserves our help. The breed is listed in category 3
'Vulnerable' on the RBST Watchlist, this means there are between 500 to
900 registered breeding ewes in the United Kingdom today, To learn more
about the breed click on the picture.
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