Rambouillet History

Sheep barns at the Experiment Station in Rambouillet, France.

The Rambouillet had its origin among the Moors of North Africa during the Fourteenth Century. Distant ancestors of today's Rambouillet accompanied Moorish conquerors to Spain, and their descendants were left behind when the Spaniards drove the invaders out.

Spain's resulting Merinos were a valuable legacy of that otherwise unhappy period, along with Europe's first true horse culture. Both were jealously guarded. The quality of Merino wool allowed the Spaniards to dominate the European wool trade, and to maintain that dominance the government strictly forbade export of the precious breed. Spain did export much of its raw wool clip, however, for lack of sufficient processing capacity. Neighboring France was a major buyer and became heavily dependent upon a stable supply to keep its own mills in operation. By the mid-eighteenth century, the French began to fear that increasing Spanish industrialization might lead to an embargo on Merino wool as well as Merino sheep.

That concern and the desire to develop domestic production to offset it may have played a large part in Louis XVI's establishment of the experimental farm at his Rambouillet estate. The farm was advertised as a place where examples of the choicest plants and animals from around the world would be studied. High on the list, if it could be obtained, was the Spanish Merino.

If such flattery was a ploy, it worked where direct entreaties had failed. As a gift to his cousin Louis, the King of Spain ordered that a small flock representing the finest strains of Merinos be released for export to the Rambouillet farm. A total of 318 ewes, 41 rams and 7 wethers arrived at Rambouillet on October 12, 1786.

It was the first significant release of Merinos to the outside world and except for one small addition provided the sole basis of the eventual Rambouillet breed.

Within the next few years the Spanish empire began to crumble and Merinos found their way throughout the globe, mixing and mingling with various other breeds and types. The strain assembled at Rambouillet remained unusually pure, however, even through the tumult of the French Revolution when their owner lost both the throne and his head. Parceled out to a handful of dedicated caretakers, the Rambouillet Merinos not only maintained their superior fine-wool characteristics but also developed a body size and confirmation seldom seen outside the mutton breeds.

By the mid-1800s a few American breeders had begun importing Rambouillet rams to cross onto domestic flocks, primarily the by-then common and somewhat deteriorated Merinos. A select group of American sheepmen, however, attempted to emulate the small clique of Europeans who maintained pure Rambouillet stock.

This led to a split between the Purists and those who attempted to graft the Rambouillet name on a cross bred offering. The culmination of that rift was the 1889 meeting that produced the Rambouillet Association.

A tract in an early edition of the annual American Rambouillet Record elaborated in some detail on the concerns that brought the association into existence. Its anonymous author wrote that "most" of the early importations of Rambouillet rams into America were used to increase fleece bulk on existing Merinos and to improve their "size, vigor and constitution".

Unfortunately, he continued, this tended to reduce total fleece weight, which in the more common Merinos was often a result of excessive grease. In response, many breeders shifted selection toward "the greatest possible weight of fleece in proportion to the weight of carcass, regardless of the proportion of scoured wool to the raw material".

In short, they bred the grease back into the point where it formed "a black crust on the surface of the wool". They also sacrificed frame size in the process, returning nearer and nearer to the common Merino while retaining the Rambouillet name.

This practice was aided and abetted by the Civil War, when demand for wool soared and buyers were unable to discriminate against heavy-shrinking clips. Consequently, the Record explained, "nearly all of the pure races of the French Merino disappeared", jeopardizing not only the wool attributes that had been bred into them, but their near mutton-breed carcasses as well.

It was to preserve those dwindling numbers of pure Rambouillet that the Association was formed. It became permanent with its 1890 meeting, and soon afterward began publishing the Record.

The first issue lists Grinnell as president; L. B. Townsend of Vancouver, Washington, vice-president; L. G. Townsend of lonia, Michigan, as treasurer; and Samuel D. Pierson of lonia as secretary. By 1892, L. B. Townsend was shown to reside in lonia, Michigan, along with L. B. Townsend, so all of the group's original members were essentially Michigan men, as were the two directors who did not otherwise serve as officers.

In addition to the six officers and directors, the Association appointed a judge whose task it was to "rigidly examine every flock and reject any and all sheep or flocks regarding which there was the slightest doubt as to purity of race". The first Record includes only six flocks which survived the cut.

"Some flocks were entirely rejected and permanently excluded from record," the publication stated with finality. Sheep which qualified for registration were to be permanently identified "by means of metal ear-tags", with name and number stamped thereon.