The Badger Face Welsh Mountain Sheep Society celebrates in 2026 its 50th year of promoting and improving the Torddu and Torwen sheep.
But what are Torddu & Torwen sheep?
Well to answer that, one has to consider the history of the breed, but that in itself is neither easy or simple.
When Welsh Country looked at The Ancient Cattle of Wales agricultural breeds historically meant completely different things than today.
Looking at sheep which have grazed the hills of Wales for thousands of years really had their first revolution in the mid 19th Century. This was the age of the industrial revolution the age of the mechanisation in textiles. Sheep breeds tended to be classed as long wool or short wool remembering that then wool was valuable. The long wool breeds tended to be lowland breeds with their wool being used for fashionable clothing. Short wool breeds tended to be more hardy and their wool used for felt and possibly carpeting.
Feature image: A Torddu Badgerface Welsh Mountain ewe in Wales. By Sam Sam – BadgerFace, CC BY 2.0, Source
The agricultural societies of the day spoke of Cotswold, Shropshire and Welsh Sheep and because the wool being so prized white wooled breeds where the most popular.
Indeed the Shropshire is supposedly the oldest of the recognised breeds with the Royal Agricultural Society and Show giving the Shropshires their own class at the show held in Canterbury in 1860.
So started the official recognition of different sheep breeds which now stands at over 60 native breeds in the UK.
Just as an aside it is interesting to note that The Badger Face Welsh Mountain Sheep has had more entries than any other native breed in the Royal Welsh Show for the last ten years, usually about 200 sheep are on show and always judged on the first day.
So back to the initial question, what are Torddu & Torwen sheep?
Many breeds around the world have the Badger Face gene within its makeup. Indeed the “pure white” Welsh Mountain sheep have about 1% of its population with the gene and should a ewe with the gene be mated with a ram with the same gene then the likelihood of the offspring may have a Badger type face.
This was shown and demonstrated in the early 1920s when the geneticist Dr Frazer Roberts of Bangor University was carrying out some sheep breeding experiments.
So what is the relationship between The Badger Face Welsh Mountain Sheep and Torddu & Torwen sheep?
Purists will be horrified but one could consider that as a breed they are one and the same but with two different markings.
The Torddu (pronounced Torthee) meaning black belly in Welsh is mainly white with a distinctive black underbelly and eye stripes, while the Torwen (white belly in Welsh) shows the reverse colouring with smaller eye stripes. The Torddu is about three times more numerous than the Torwen.
The Torwen shows a strong colour pattern similarity with breeds from the Shetland Isles namely the Soay, Mouflon Camaron and the Katmoget although there is no suggestion that these breeds are directly related or used as crossing sires in the breed history.
The Torwen where officially recognised as a separate breed in their own right by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust in 2022 and are on the AT risk Register, with approximately 550 ewe lambs and 65 ram lambs being registered annually
Occasionally you get a poorly marked Torwen type of lamb from Torddu parents known a Wendy, though the marking would not be correct for these lambs and they should not be kept for breeding.
In 1976, a meeting was called by a few interested breeders to try and establish a Society to promote and protect some of these old colours. At the meeting, it became clear that several interested breeders had a keen interest in promoting and improving the breed. Only a few hundred were registered. These were mostly Torddu with only a small proportion being Torwen and bred by only a handful of breeders. At this time there was a huge variation of markings, particularly in the Torwen with the head, which showed much more white markings than today and also most were very grey in body colour. However, after the breed standard was introduced, much more uniformity was achieved.
Badger Face Welsh Mountain Sheep are relatively small – a typical ewe weighs 40kg-50 kg. The breed produces exceptionally high quality meat with fine texture and excellent flavour. This is endorsed by Slow Food as a breed collected by the Ark of Taste.
Although the Badger Face Welsh Mountain Sheep has its origins in the hills of Wales, acclimatised to challenging weather and poor grazing, has in more recent years proved itself as a commercially viable sheep in a range of management models.
Easy lambing and low cost maintenance, the Badger Face as a hill sheep is a hardy ewe fed only half a kilo of concentrate with hay or silage leading up to lambing. Producing up to 180% live lambs weaned at about 16 weeks. Slaughter weights reach 40kg. Ewes in all locations continue to produce good lamb crops for up to 10 years. Plenty of milk and strong lambs with plenty of “get up and go” make the Badger Face an ideal low labour input breed for extensive lamb production either bred pure or used to produce fat lambs straight from the ewe when crossed with continental or Suffolk rams.
But Badger Face Welsh Mountain Sheep can adapt easily to lowland conditions.
Across all of England & Wales (and now in parts of Ireland, France and Belgium) reports of 200% live lambs are common place. The breed is ideal for small and commercial flocks where the management ranges from “part of the family” to “vacuum cleaners” following dairy cows. The medium sized ewe weighing 40-60kg allows a higher stocking rate than larger breeds; this combined with a good lamb crop and low concentrate requirement gives more lambs per hectare producing a good cash return. Even when crossed with bigger terminal sires the lamb birth weight of 3 –5kg results in very few problems.
Modern sheep farming using continental breeds of sheep is now very popular producing heavily meated carcases suitable for the modern dining table.
Far from denigrating the Badger Face Welsh Mountain Sheep they are proving more than useful as crossing sires.
Because of their size some farmers like to put a Badger Face ram with ewe lambs. The ram produces a strong lamb, usually white and polled that is determined to live and chase the ewe that often has a poor mothering instinct. Ease of lambing, a will to live and a lamb that will grow to 35-40 kg by late autumn make this breed an ideal choice for crossing with any breed. Very successful crosses have been reported; the best results have come from Suffolk, Texel, Blue du Maine & Bluefaced Leicester. Ram lambs rarely have horns and mostly follow the sires colouring or white. Few lambing problems and excellent growth rates can be expected. Texel cross killed out at 50% producing 19kg dead weight. 35-40kg live weight at 15 weeks.
Badger Face Welsh Mountain Sheep used as a sire can produce quality lamb offering flavour, taste, succulence and unbeatable eating quality produced from ewes fed mainly on grass. The lambs have the ability to grow and finish on grass producing a completely natural product. Carcass weights of 12-14 kg can be reached at 16 weeks from pure bred and 18kg carcasses can be expected from late autumn finished lambs. Growth rates of 250gm per day are easily achievable. You will find customers always come back for more.
The Royal Mail recognised The Badger Face Torddu as part of the Royal Mail British Farm Animals stamp collection issued February 2012, commenting.
“Welsh Mountain Badger Face This breeds is mentioned in the Domesday Book. There are two types Torddu (Welsh for black belly) and Torwen (Welsh for white belly) The Torddu’s colours from white to light tan with a distinctive stripe above the eyes”.
We cannot but agree with The Royal Mail The Welsh Mountain Badger Face is an icon not only in Wales but across the whole of the United Kingdom.
Words: Welsh Country
Images courtesy of the Badger Face Welsh Mountain Sheep Society
