Border Leicester

The Border Leicester descends from the improved Leicester longwool associated with the eighteenth-century breeder Robert Bakewell, developed in the border region into a distinct type. It became a key crossing breed in the British stratified system, in which hardy hill ewes are crossed with longwool sires to produce crossbred breeding ewes for lowland flocks.

Border Leicesters are large, white, polled sheep with a bare head, prominent upright ears, a Roman nose, and a long, lustrous longwool fleece. They are valued not only for wool and meat but especially as sires of prolific, milky crossbred ewes.

In the stratified system, Border Leicester rams crossed with hill ewes produce crossbred females that combine hardiness from the dam with the size, prolificacy, and mothering contributed by the sire.

The Border Leicester is used mainly as a crossing sire in pasture-based and mixed systems, and is maintained as a purebred by breeders. It is widely used in the United Kingdom and is also kept in Australia, North America, and other regions.