Welcome to

Southdown Sheep Society

On our site you can find information relating to the breed, latest news, details of shows and sales, stock for sale and information from Breeders’ Groups around the regions.

Our breed can meet your needs - whether you are looking for a terminal sire to produce quick maturing lambs, or a few Southdown sheep on a few acres.

The Society hopes this website offers you a starting point, please get in touch with the Southdown Office for further information.

Download the 2025 year book

2025 AGM & Field Day
The Annual General Meeting of the Southdown Sheep Society will be held at North Hele Farm, Clayhanger, near Tiverton, Devon, EX16 7NZ on Saturday 20th September 2025 at 2.00pm
View full details

2025 Flock Competition
The 2025 Flock Competition will be judged from September 13th – 29th 2025 and entry form and all details are now available
View entry form and rules

If you are looking to sell or buy Southdowns do pencil in these dates

There are two Official Society Sales which benefit from a pre-sale independent vet and society inspection, a pre-sale show, minimum weight requirements and upset prices:

Saturday 2nd August - The Society’s Premier Sale at Worcester Market
Saturday 13th September Traditional & Native Breeds Show & Sale at Melton Mowbray Market (pre-sale show on Friday September 12th)

In addition there are two additional “unofficial sales” organised by members:

Saturday 26th July 2025 at 12:30pm - The Eastern Region Early Breeders’ Sale at Thrapston Livestock Market, Northamptonshire, NN14 4JU
Saturday 26th July 2025 at 12:30pm - The Early Breeders & Rare Breeds Sale at Hailsham Market Sussex BN27 2AG

And finally there is the

Annual Dolphin Sheep Fair at the Ardingly Showground on 18th Sept 2025 where breeding females and store lambs may be on sale

Latest News

Featured

May 8, 2025

Wool Workshop (Hammerwich Southdowns)

May 8, 2025

Having kept a few Southdown fleeces back from last summer’s shearing, I was wondering what to do with them.

About

Welcome to the website of the Southdown Sheep Society, the Society represents the interests of Southdown breeders in the UK and provides registration and marketing services to breeders across the country. The Southdown is the oldest of the terminal sire breeds in the UK and as the name suggests originates from the native sheep which have roamed the South Downs in the South of England for many hundreds of years.

Developed by foresighted flockmasters into a fixed type in the eighteenth century, the breed has been responsible for the development of many of the native terminal sire breeds, including the Suffolk and the Hampshire Down and in France the Charollais. Today the breed can be found in the UK, France, Australia, New Zealand and America and many other countries across the globe where its ability to produce high quality lamb has led to it being recognised as the king among terminal sires.

In the UK the breed is undergoing a significant revival as a new generation of breeders firmly focussed on maximising the breed’s commercial attributes has developed the breed into a modern terminal sire. The breed’s easy lambing, docility and ease of finishing make it a suitable sire for a range of sheep farming systems in all locations and climates with Southdown rams found working in all corners of the UK from Cornwall to Aberdeenshire.