Galvanized with the experience of a wonderful 3 week tour of Farms, Shows and research stations in Australia last October to celebrate the Australian Wiltshire Horn Sheep Society's 50th Anniversary, I am always amazed at the progress in popularity and quality of stock that has taken place since I first visited Australia in 1971 and saw the only Wiltshire Horns on the continent - namely one ram and 9 ewes. Thanks to the few far sighted, dedicated and capable people who took up the challenge, the society is now nearly 100 members strong and flocks of anything up to 1000 pure bread Wiltshires are thriving. Over 90% of the land mass of Australia is anything from semi arid broad acre pastures to 'Sahara' like desert. The Merino breed of sheep were until now the only breed that could be kept, and for 200 years they provided the farmers with a good income from Wool which was what they were and still are by far the best producers of. The Wiltshire Horns with the strong constitution have proved again that they too can thrive on this sparse pasture so long as they are not over stocked. Out of the 10 stud flocks we visited 4 of them were developing polled type of Wiltshires like the 'Easy Care'. The 'Wilti Polls' were the first in the field and their society founded in 1996 now has 80 members. They were developed by Tom and Annie Hughes whose property at Kars Station, Broken Hill is roughly the same size as the Isle of Wight, Isle of Anglesey or the Isle of Man and they run an average of 1 ewe to 10 acres on very dry land - this year they have only had 2 inches of rain which is exceptional. The Hughes's are also share owners of a family company called Clifton Hills on the Northern boundary of South Australia which covers 15,000 square km (slightly larger than Northern Ireland!) The other efforts at polling the Wiltshires were very encouraging but are still in the early stages, partly because of the individuality of the persons involved and partly because the vast distances apart lead to breeders doing their own thing but the ability of those pioneers and the huge potential of the market makes me feel as optimistic of the future in Australia as here in the UK.

Since the summer newsletter the Easy Care breed society now has 20 members. It is encouraging to see how geographically spread out we are. Please contact each other to compare notes - I propose to maintain a list of members on this site so please contact me with your email address if you'd like to be included. You are the founder members of the society and I am sure the future will recognise your foresight. Although we have not taken a very high profile in the press of late the number of enquiries is still very high. I don't know how long it will be before we will have enough Easy Care sheep to satisfy the demand. The important thing is not to drop the standards and to this end it is proposed to hold an open day and the first AGM of members here at Glantraeth, Anglesey on Saturday 24th May 2003 when we shall have an opportunity to inspect my flock and after lunch have a speaker or two followed by a general discussion. So please mark the date and if you have any interested friends bring them along. In the meantime I wish you all a healthy and progressive year.

Iolo Owen

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