IT WAS by chance that Marilyn Mangione got started with Shropshire sheep.
But their temperament, hardiness and distinctive wool have made Ms Mangione a strong advocate for the breed.
In the late 1990s, Ms Mangione bought a 26-hectare property at Strathbogie, where she initially ran Wiltshire Horns. A friend of a friend had a Shropshire ram that needed a new home, and she was happy to take him as she had always liked black-faced sheep.
She also has personal connections to the breed’s name.
"My father Henry Thomas Bacon served on HMAS Shropshire and some of my ancestors come from the Shropshire region in the UK."
She established the Clarendon stud, and this year she joined more than 50 ewes and all but five of her sheep are now pure Shropshire. She said the Australian Stud Sheep Breeders Association (ASSBA) recognised the sheep as Shropshire once they were fourth generation of the breed. The ASSBA’s 2016 flock book has 11 registered Shropshire breeders, of which eight are in Victoria.
A challenge of running a heritage breed is the small gene pool in Australia. Although Ms Mangione had lots of stories of fellow breeders helping each other out – for example she and John Harbour, Yinell stud, Ballarat, are doing a swap in which Ms Mangione got one of his rams and she’ll give Mr Harbour a ram lamb fathered by the Yinell ram out of one of her ewes.
This year, Ms Mangione sold a ram and three ewes to Kym Shilton who has an apple orchard in Tasmania. Shropshires are suited to orchards because they have short legs and heavy bodies, so cannot stand up on their back legs so cannot reach higher branches.
One of Ms Mangione’s favourite aspects of the breed is its crisp-feel wool. She said Shropshire fleece was the densest of the down breeds, and it has a spiral staple that gives it a unique spring and resilience. "These attributes make it light and warm. It is easy to spin and it does not wet felt. It’s perfect for mixing with other fleeces to make them more resilient and my socks (made of the fleece) stay up all day.”
She had wool made into yarn at Wool 2 Yarn, a specialised mill at Mornington.
Ms Mangione will take four ewes and maybe two rams to the Australian Sheep and Wool Show and will enter three items in the wool craft section, two of which are 100 per cent Shropshire wool.
