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A hybrid between a donkey & a horse, the mule
combines the best of both animals. Heavey-headed and long-eared, the mule has a donkey-like
tail and fine-boned legs with small hooves.
Stamina & resilience are a deserved part of the
mules' legend.
The ancestors of today's Southdown
sheep roamed the Weald of Sussex's South Down (a strip of rolling hill country covering an area six miles wide by 60 miles
long) for thousands of years. They are one of the oldest purebred sheep breeds of the world. Prized for their wool
and their mild-tasting mutton, sheep from Sussex's County, England came to America early on, possibly as early as the 1600's,
when down sheep were shipped to the Jamestown (1609) and Plymouth (1628 ) colonies in Massachusetts.
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All domestic donkeys are descendants of wild asses from
Africa and Asia. They can be traced back in history as far as 2,800 B.C. They work on farms today as livestock
protectors, companions, and draft animals.
| New Babies- Crystal Creek Farm-June 2009 |
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The (Olde English) Babydoll Southdown sheep is a miniature variety of the Southdown breed. Southdowns
were imported to the United State during the establishing of the origional 13 colonies. The 1960's saw importation of
the larger New Zealand Southdowns, to upscale the American Southdown breed. Around 1990, small flocks of the origional,
smaller variety of the breed were re-discovered & re-named the Olde English Babydoll Miniature Sheep to differentiate
them from the larger, modern breed.
This miniature sheep only matures to 19-23 inches tall. Today, people desire them for their wool,
for meat, as pets, and as grass-trimmers for
smaller acrage farms.
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