BSSBA News

One of the questions or concerns we have heard for BSSBA's Grade Up program is that it takes a lot of time - true! It's a process that does take some time.  This example lineage chart is a visual flow chart of the BSSBA Grade Up program: As you can see from the visual, after getting an unpapered ewe approved to be a "foundation ewe", it will take about 4 - 5 generations of recorded ewe lambs bred to BSSBA registered purebred rams before the offspring, all those generations out, can be considered to be registered* with BSSBA.  The thought process behind this several generation process is that there is a chance the unpapered foundation ewe could be a well-disquised mix. So it takes several generations of breeding to registered, purebred rams for the offspring down the line to be considered pure. In all likelihood, the sheep applying for Grade Up program are purebred sheep whose lineage/ paperwork just fell through the cracks for various reasons (some mentioned here:  Co...

Babydoll Southdown Sheep Breeders Association & registry (BSSBA) has come to see that over the years, people have stepped away from registries while still remaining interested and invested in quality Babydoll Southdown sheep. There are also a number of shepherds with amazing Babydoll Southdown sheep that they acquired without papers before realizing the importance of having a registered flock. Now there is also a small group of Babydoll Southdown sheep breeders who submitted their original paperwork of pedigree (some over a year ago) only to never see it returned as expected. In an effort to not only recover but also improve the Babydoll Southdown sheep gene pool, BSSBA is implementing a “B Book” / Grade Up program for our registry members. This is not a quick process or an inexpensive venture. However, for those interested with quality Babydoll Southdown sheep that are stellar examples of the BSSBA Breed Standard, BSSBA wants to offer these shepherds a chance to not only be a ...