Testimonials

Hav­ing tried our hand at look­ing after some generic “farm sheep” that we adopted from a local farmer, we decided to try a rare breed. After some inves­ti­ga­tion decided that the Dorset Downs were the ladies for us. With their strik­ing good looks, placid and friendly tem­pera­ment, and great par­ent­ing skills, they were our per­fect choice. So we set about look­ing for a breeder to help us.

At the Berk­shire Coun­try Show in New­bury we met up with John and Jill Swain who were mid get­ting a few rosette’s at the time. What a lovely cou­ple! From the very first moment we met they couldn’t have been any more help­ful. Since our first meet­ing Jill has held our hand and led us gen­tly into the world of the Dorset Down and through our first lamb­ing sea­son. Always there with help­ful hints, advice and tips. She has become our Shep­herd­ing guru. With the help of Jill and John we came through unscathed and more impor­tantly so did our sheep.

So if you’re won­der­ing about which sheep, I whole­heart­edly rec­om­mend the Dorset Downs, and should you decide to go that route, I can def­i­nitely say that there’s nobody bet­ter than Jill and John to sup­port you!

Good luck and happy shep­herd­ing!

We bought our first ever sheep from Jill in April  2010. We found Jill approach­able, friendly, encour­ag­ing and knowl­edge­able. The sheep are of excel­lent qual­ity and have enabled us to suc­cess­fully show them and win top prizes in a vari­ety of agri­cul­tural shows. The sheep are also well han­dled and friendly, an impor­tant aspect for us as we have young chil­dren. When it came to adding fur­ther stock to our flock, we did not hes­i­tate to return to Jill.

Just thought I would share this picture of Harry’s son [bred from stock purchased from my flock]. Fine young man!

[Harry was the model for this beautiful original Dorset Down sheep brooch designed by Gail Beverley Rosethorne. Available from Folksy only.]

We already have a very small flock of Dorset Down sheep and wanted to add to it so we con­tacted Jill when we learnt she had a ram for sale. Jill could not have been more help­ful and accom­mo­dat­ing. We went to see the ram lambs on offer and fell in love with the qual­ity and wel­fare aspect of Jills flock and ended up buy­ing 5 sheep which on their own would have been a fab­u­lous starter flock. The ones we pur­chased will add sub­stan­tially to our own flock but more impor­tantly, will raise the qual­ity of our flock going for­ward. We can’t thank Jill (and John) enough for their hos­pi­tal­ity as well as Jill being forth­right, hon­est and giv­ing us guid­ance on sheep han­dling. All the sheep have set­tled in extremely well and all are friendly and enjoy being made a fuss of which is what we require with small grand­chil­dren and also for showing.

I met Jill at New­bury show where she was show­ing her Dorset Downs. Jill has great suc­cess with her sheep and she has bred some cham­pi­ons. Her sheep are healthy and very friendly. We have sheep and I enquired if she had some for sale. She sold me a ewe and lamb ewe and brought them to us in Oxford­shire. It turned out that the ewe was in lamb and she had twins.

This was my first lamb­ing and Jill was very help­ful and sup­port­ive and gave lots of advice and told me what to expect, I also read up as much as I could on the sub­ject. I was able to deliver both lambs suc­cess­fully and it was an amaz­ing experience.

When I chanced upon Jill I knew very little about Dorset Downs but her enthusiasm and passion for the breed won me over. Her stock were beauti­fully turned out and clearly well cared for. She loves her sheep and her sheep love her. I came away with a ewe and twin lambs but I’ll be back for more! She’s also been happy to give advice since.

I just wanted to share with you the results of the scan­ning of the ewes tupped with your boys: 70 ewes, 44 twins, 9 triplets, 15 sin­gle, 2 bar­ren. This is about a 10% on last year. I am very pleased. The boys are still doing well and eat­ing well. They don’t mind the wet weather we are hav­ing.

My 4-year-old daugh­ter was look­ing for a lamb she could show after vis­it­ing the North Som­er­set Show and becom­ing inter­ested. We came across Jill and the love for her sheep was clearly vis­i­ble. We were very excited to give 2 ewe lambs a home last year and they set­tled in very well with our other orphan lambs. The sheep are per­fect for chil­dren, docile and friendly, although my daugh­ters desire to show them has dwin­dled I hope we will get to a show this year.

Jill is always on hand with help and advice and I wouldn’t con­sider going any­where else.

We have just a few sheep now and we needed a ram for our sheep, and a com­pan­ion for my  26-year-old horse Mr Softy, so we thought we would get a Dorset Down as they are good look­ing rare breeds with a good tem­pera­ment that lamb eas­ily, we decided to look on the com­puter and found Horace, one of John and Jill Swain young rams when we vis­ited the Gilling­ham and Shaftes­bury Show. The next day Horace was there with John and Jill, such a lovely knowl­edge­able cou­ple. We fell in love with Horace at first sight!

Horace arrived home that evening and set­tled in quickly, He had been well han­dled by John and Jill and was quiet and easy to lead, and on meet­ing Mr Softy they have become the best of friends. We have found John and Jill very help­ful and have now acquired another sheep, Emily from them, she is beau­ti­ful and again well han­dled and very friendly. Young Horace is now run­ning with the ewes and has marked nearly all of them within a week.

If you are look­ing for Dorset Down Sheep we rec­om­mend John and Jill Swain, their Dorset Down flock are a credit to them they are very suc­cess­ful in the show ring. We would not hes­i­tate to buy more sheep from John and Jill Swain: their sheep come highly rec­om­mended from us.

Best of luck and keep on sheep farm­ing please!