Colonial Williamsburg Rare Breeds Program
A little ways away from the hubbub of Merchants Square is a large barn where sheep, chickens, and horses are kept in between driving shifts. There, Georgia Thoms ’23 met with some of the crew members who take care of these beloved Colonial Williamsburg animals. Continue reading to learn about the history behind the Rare Breeds program and its role in livestock conservation.
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Orangutans, elephants, giant pandas, rhinos, and tigers are some of the first animals that come to mind when animal conservation is discussed. However, did you know that livestock species can also become endangered?
An adjunct of Colonial Williamsburg’s Coach and Livestock program, the Rare Breeds program has succeeded in taking livestock species historically accurate to Virginia’s Colonial Period off the endangered species list.
The program was founded in 1986 starting with the Leicester Longwool sheep. Now, the Rare Breed program includes cattle such as the American Milking Devon and American Milking Shorthorn; fowl like the Dominique, Nankin Bantams, and Old English Game, as well as Cleveland Bay and American Cream Draft horses.
Apprentice Stud Groom Lauren Kehoe explained the goal of the program and its successes.
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“We were hoping to find breeds of livestock that were endangered [and] that are historically accurate and establish them and help raise awareness of these breeds,” Kehoe said. “So, for the last year, [Leicester Longwools] were basically extinct in the U.S. You couldn’t find them in the U.S., so we had to import them from Tasmania to get a purebred.”
After starting their own flock, the program was able to lend out rams for breeding and thus create satellite flocks all across the United States.
“The Leicester Longwool is a success. They actually have been taken from functionally extinct to threatened. There’s 1,500 or so registered Leicesters in America now,” Kehoe said.
Animal Husbander Thomas Stover worked in history museums for twenty years before applying to become a Coachman with Colonial Williamsburg’s Coach and Livestock program.
“I did that for about six months, and then I moved over to animal husbandry, and it was just serendipitous,” Stover said. “I fell in love with it.”
Determining if a breed is historically accurate often involves a close examination of artifacts like woolen cloth, letters, papers, portraits, and advertisements.
“A lot of primary research is from descriptions of cattle in lost and found ads,” Stover said. “Papers, inventories, things like that. The Leicester is a good example because we do know that Washington did have them at Mount Vernon. We know that Governor Dunmore had a Cleveland Bay Horse.”
From there, the program collaborates with outside farmers, both amateur and professional, as well as historic living museums like Mount Vernon to raise awareness about endangered and threatened livestock breeds.
“We will never be able to breed enough animals to save a breed,” Stover said. “Our job is to convince other people to breed them as well … I think that’s what really makes us a successful Rare Breeds program.”
Genetically, many of these breeds were bred to function as jacks of all trades — for example, a horse could plow the field and also be trained for riding and driving carriages while cattle could drive carts and provide milk or meat.
Apprentice Animal Husbander Anna Rinehart explained the beneficial versatility of these livestock breeds.
“They’re not over-producers in any one category, but they’re pretty good at a few different things,” Rinehart said. “Some of these groups have this kind of genetic diversity that can be useful in different circumstances but aren’t necessarily needed for modern farming.”
As for the program’s larger importance, reintroducing species that are not mass-bred increases genetic diversity and helps prevent the possibility of a viral eradication of agricultural animals, something which would have an astronomical impact on the world’s food supply.
“Not only does it bring awareness to agriculture, but it brings awareness to the fact that more than manatees and giraffes become endangered … [People] don’t really understand that we’re losing breeds of livestock,” Kehoe added.
The processes of cross-breeding and selective breeding started with Robert Bakewell in 18th-century Williamsburg.
“There was a time period in historical interpretation where you were trying to get animals that looked like [certain] animals, so they were cross-breeding,” Stover noted.
Thus began the more scientific approach to animal husbandry and agriculture practices.
“People selected for desirable characteristics for faster growth, finer bones, fashion, maturity, standardization, and more meat for desirable cuts,” Kehoe said.
In the modern program, Rinehart described a specific breeding pattern for Leicester Longwools which includes a rectangular body; a wide stance (for a large respiratory system); darker snout, ears, and eyes; and thick, coarse wool.
The Rare Breeds program has managed to not only create an accurate living history for modern tourists but has also become a leader in conservation efforts for livestock. However, modern constraints do affect the program.
“I would say sometimes you can have a little bit more difficulty when it comes to how you set up your pasture space,” Kehoe said. “Sometimes we do have to consider visibility, so right now we’re balancing what postures we think would be best for our lambs.”
Given how the animals live in a tourist destination, a serious concern is that they are at risk for naïve visitors to introduce deadly foods.
“We try to keep people from feeding the animals because that can be a problem,” Stover said. “In 2017, we lost like nine sheep because someone threw in a poisonous plant. They didn’t realize it was poisonous, but they threw it into the sheep pastures.”
Other modern aspects that affect the program include the need for less visible identification tags and the confinement of modern veterinary practice to the barn rather than the pastures.
Stover explained how other sections of living history are able to start with colonial practices and show the improvement to the modern era, but with living creatures, modern veterinary practices are a priority. Historically accurate elements such as wood fencing, tin feed buckets, and wooden troughs are left as secondary additions.
“We start in the 21st century, and then we go to the 18th century because our sheep are no more 18th-century sheep than [an employee is] an 18th-century person,” Stover said. “They deserve modern medical care, and they deserve modern nutrients and things like that. And so we get to start there and bring people back with us, as opposed to the other way around like most other departments.”
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Regardless of these small setbacks to historical authenticity, the program has positively impacted the agriculture industry for over thirty years. As the largest living history museum in the world, Colonial Williamsburg has access to research resources and the publicity to provide opportunities to educate and inspire the public — including students at the College of William and Mary — through a variety of programs and historical interpretation.
“We have the rare breed talk that we do twice a week now, we have private volunteers from William and Mary, we also have other volunteers that help us out here,” Stover said. “We do a variety of programs like carriage rides … and we will herd the sheep through town. So we try to be pretty active and involved in the interpretation side of things.”
The crew enthusiastically agreed that volunteers from the College are a great addition to the program.
“It is something I would very much like to see grow,” Stover said in reference to the student volunteer population within the program. “I think it’s one of the most important things that we do because we students are the future of this program. And so getting all involved and helping you take that out into the world — it’s extremely important, and it’s my favorite part of the program.”
During my visit, I was lucky enough to meet the first lamb born this season. Over the course of the next few weeks, the lambs will be put in pastures accessible to tourists. Ask the crew members and volunteers questions on their rounds to learn even more about the history behind the animals in Colonial Williamsburg. Just remember, treat the animals with respect and don’t give them any human treats — they may not be endangered anymore, but they are still a threatened species!
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