We breed Babydoll Sheep together.
We aim to help people to enjoy, care for, breed, register, buy and sell Babydoll Sheep in Australia. |
BABYDOLL CONVERSATIONS
How Babydoll is my sheep?
7pm-8pm date to be advised
Not all 100% Southdowns are Babydolls and some crossbred sheep have great Babydoll traits. How do you know how well a particular sheep fits our Babydoll breed standard? Meet with other members online on Zoom to discuss the breed standard and how to assess individual sheep against it when you are buying and breeding.
This is a members-only event (join now).
Not all 100% Southdowns are Babydolls and some crossbred sheep have great Babydoll traits. How do you know how well a particular sheep fits our Babydoll breed standard? Meet with other members online on Zoom to discuss the breed standard and how to assess individual sheep against it when you are buying and breeding.
This is a members-only event (join now).
Knowing what you are buying
For many Babydoll Sheep owners, these are the first sheep that they have ever owned. We aim to support buyers with information so they have a better idea about what to look for and what sorts of questions to ask when buying. See Finding Babydoll Breeders and Buying Babydoll Sheep - Choices.
Our Babydoll Sheep marketplace will be operating right here from late Spring if you want to buy sheep. |
Growing better breeders
There is lots to learn about breeding sheep. And that's before you even think about breeding better Babydoll Sheep. As a group we share ideas and tap into the knowledge of experienced breeders including people who have bred sheep for decades.
We hold Babydoll Conversation events online where members can meet to ask questions and discuss topics that interest them in a friendly and supportive environment. |
Having fun keeping Babydolls
Happy, healthy sheep are fun sheep. We want to help you keep that well known woolly, Babydoll Sheep smile.
We also want to work together in a happy and healthy way. Read our Code of Ethics. |
Registering Babydoll Sheep
We will be offering registration for Babydoll Sheep. See our vision for how our innovative registration system will work. Become a Breeder Member to start the process of registering your flock.
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Our vision.
We are creating a new Babydoll Sheep breed in Australia based on long established Southdown genetics. Each member has the chance to direct where this new breed will end up in approximately 12 years time. Breeders ‘grading up’ will play the key role in creating the breed.
Internationally, a Babydoll Southdown breed has been developed in North America over several decades based on Southdown genetics originally imported from Britain. This breed includes a variety of colours and patterns. Quarantine restrictions and conditions make importation of the North American Babydoll genetics into Australia highly unlikely. The quarantine restrictions are based around avoiding the introduction of diseases that would threaten our existing sheep, goat and cattle.
The conventional way to breed to purity is to only use 100% bloodlines over other sheep, moving from 1/2 (50%) cross to 3/4 (75%), to 7/8 (87.5%), to 15/16 (93.75%) and so on in consecutive matings. Since the 100% Babydoll Southdown genetics from North America are unlikely to become available in Australia, we need a different approach. In Australia we already have the Southdown genetics imported from Britain many years ago and a long history of quality sheep breeding at our fingertips to help us develop a Babydoll Sheep breed of our own.
As for colour, we recognise that although Southdowns in Australia are traditionally off white, other colour options are also attractive to Babydoll Sheep enthusiasts. The current rules set down by Babydoll Sheep Breeders Australia (BSBA) with regards to colour are very flexible. BSBA accepts all wool colours and patterns, and over time will define colours as we learn more about them.
BSBA encourages breeders to approach the breed standard from whatever direction they wish to explore. Some may cross lower percentages of Southdown together, creating a huge amount of diversity and introducing new colour options. This approach will take longer to achieve the high percentage of Southdown parentage required for our new breed but will offer other opportunities. Others may breed with parents with high percentage of Southdown and work towards achieving consistent Babydoll Sheep breed traits.
From such mating many new genes from the Australian sheep population will move across into the Babydoll Sheep breed. Superior genetics related to fertility, fecundity, lambing ease, parasite resistance, carcase and meat quality and structure from modern Southdown breeding will aid in the health and performance of our strain.
BSBA has the opportunity to create history by setting two targets to define the term purebred for Babydoll Sheep: % Southdown parentage and Babydoll score. We will provide tools for breeders and buyers to self assess sheep against both targets along with opportunities for assessment of individual sheep by an independent panel.
The current BSBA ruling is that any sheep is deemed purebred Babydoll if it is pedigreed greater than or equal to 93.75% Southdown and has a Babydoll score assessed by the independent panel as greater than or equal to a cutoff score which will be determined as we gain more experience in assessing the score and work out at what point it delivers sheep that satisfactorily fits the breed standard.
On 1 July 2033 the flock book will be closed. Only sheep that meet the purebred requirements for % Southdown pedigree proven and Babydoll cutoff score will be accepted as stud breeding stock. From that day forward any animal below that level will be reduced to the pet market.
From 1 July 2033 all stock that have moved into the purebred bracket will be deemed Australian Babydoll Fullblood. The committee of BSBA in 2033 will have the right to alter the direction above in consultation with the Breeder Members, but in the meantime we have at least six generations to develop a pool of livestock that will rival the best in other countries.
BSBA encourages breeders to explore the genetics available to you, keep your records accurate for the good of the rest of us and work together on this exciting project. The future is yours to influence and create perfection in a small and useful sheep, one that is easy handling, useful as a meat source and gives performance and joy to all who come in contact with it.
We thank the National Pygmy Goat Association of Australia for their inspiration and ideas about how to approach creating a new breed in Australia.
Internationally, a Babydoll Southdown breed has been developed in North America over several decades based on Southdown genetics originally imported from Britain. This breed includes a variety of colours and patterns. Quarantine restrictions and conditions make importation of the North American Babydoll genetics into Australia highly unlikely. The quarantine restrictions are based around avoiding the introduction of diseases that would threaten our existing sheep, goat and cattle.
The conventional way to breed to purity is to only use 100% bloodlines over other sheep, moving from 1/2 (50%) cross to 3/4 (75%), to 7/8 (87.5%), to 15/16 (93.75%) and so on in consecutive matings. Since the 100% Babydoll Southdown genetics from North America are unlikely to become available in Australia, we need a different approach. In Australia we already have the Southdown genetics imported from Britain many years ago and a long history of quality sheep breeding at our fingertips to help us develop a Babydoll Sheep breed of our own.
As for colour, we recognise that although Southdowns in Australia are traditionally off white, other colour options are also attractive to Babydoll Sheep enthusiasts. The current rules set down by Babydoll Sheep Breeders Australia (BSBA) with regards to colour are very flexible. BSBA accepts all wool colours and patterns, and over time will define colours as we learn more about them.
BSBA encourages breeders to approach the breed standard from whatever direction they wish to explore. Some may cross lower percentages of Southdown together, creating a huge amount of diversity and introducing new colour options. This approach will take longer to achieve the high percentage of Southdown parentage required for our new breed but will offer other opportunities. Others may breed with parents with high percentage of Southdown and work towards achieving consistent Babydoll Sheep breed traits.
From such mating many new genes from the Australian sheep population will move across into the Babydoll Sheep breed. Superior genetics related to fertility, fecundity, lambing ease, parasite resistance, carcase and meat quality and structure from modern Southdown breeding will aid in the health and performance of our strain.
BSBA has the opportunity to create history by setting two targets to define the term purebred for Babydoll Sheep: % Southdown parentage and Babydoll score. We will provide tools for breeders and buyers to self assess sheep against both targets along with opportunities for assessment of individual sheep by an independent panel.
The current BSBA ruling is that any sheep is deemed purebred Babydoll if it is pedigreed greater than or equal to 93.75% Southdown and has a Babydoll score assessed by the independent panel as greater than or equal to a cutoff score which will be determined as we gain more experience in assessing the score and work out at what point it delivers sheep that satisfactorily fits the breed standard.
On 1 July 2033 the flock book will be closed. Only sheep that meet the purebred requirements for % Southdown pedigree proven and Babydoll cutoff score will be accepted as stud breeding stock. From that day forward any animal below that level will be reduced to the pet market.
From 1 July 2033 all stock that have moved into the purebred bracket will be deemed Australian Babydoll Fullblood. The committee of BSBA in 2033 will have the right to alter the direction above in consultation with the Breeder Members, but in the meantime we have at least six generations to develop a pool of livestock that will rival the best in other countries.
BSBA encourages breeders to explore the genetics available to you, keep your records accurate for the good of the rest of us and work together on this exciting project. The future is yours to influence and create perfection in a small and useful sheep, one that is easy handling, useful as a meat source and gives performance and joy to all who come in contact with it.
We thank the National Pygmy Goat Association of Australia for their inspiration and ideas about how to approach creating a new breed in Australia.