% Southdown is used by Babydoll Sheep Breeders Australia (BSBA) to summarise the amount of Southdown genetics in the pedigree of sheep in our Babydoll registry. We use it to decide when a Babydoll sheep is eligible to be inspected for registration as Purebred Babydoll. This is one way that we manage quality for the BSBA Purebred Babydoll sheep.
How can sheep be registered as BSBA Purebred Babydolls?
A new sheep breed is not created instantly. It needs a vision for what the new breed will be (the breed standard) and then careful, selective breeding to produce sheep that fulfill the vision. Babydoll Sheep Breeders Australia (BSBA) records this process in our registry. You can be sure that sheep registered as BSBA Purebred Babydolls have been through a rigorous process to achieve that status. Babydoll Sheep Breeders Australia offers a grading up process that allows our breeders to register two levels of Babydoll sheep: EM Babydoll (EM is for Emerging) and Purebred Babydoll. Sheep can only move from EM Babydoll to Purebred Babydoll registration after a rigorous inspection process. Why register sheep?
Breeders register sheep as a way of tracking pedigrees, genetics and purity of sheep type. Over time these registrations create flock histories that become a useful resource for all breeders. By registering and tracking our Babydolls we can gradually build our new Australian Babydoll breed. It is a form of quality control that reduces the chance of valuable genetics being wasted by not being tracked and consequently becoming unavailable to registered flocks in the future. Babydoll Sheep Breeders Australia makes the registration process easy for our breeders by providing training in how to use our online registry and keeping registrations simple and inexpensive. What is the difference? This seemingly simple question is tricky...
It short, in Australia a Babydoll sheep is a smaller type of Southdown with a woolly head. BSBA breeders are adding coloured wool, patterns, spots and stripes as part of creating a new Babydoll breed. |