The Rural Voice, 1989-08, Page 24A FAMILY TREE OF CHAMPIONS
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Jo -Ann Todd
The Todd family has been showing purebred livestock since the 1920s. Last
year at the Royal, the fourth generation make its mark with Southdown sheep.
by Peter Baltcnsperger
n the days when the first
Royal Winter Fair was held in Toronto
in 1928, a man by the name of Frank
Todd from St. Helens in West
Wawanosh Township, Huron County,
was earning ribbons and awards at
agricultural fairs around Ontario for
showing his purebred Angus bulls.
Last November, at the 60th
anniversary of the Royal Winter Fair
in Toronto, his great-grandson, Keith
Todd, 13, became the fourth genera-
tion of Todds to show purebreds by
becoming Champion Showman in the
Junior Division for his Southdown
sheep.
At the same Royal Winter Fair, his
father, Hugh Todd, earned Supreme
Champion Market Lamb, Champion
Pen of Three Market Lamb, Champion
Southdown Ram, and Champion
Southdown Ewe to add to the wall
of ribbons already gracing the Todds'
living room. This spring, his sister
Jenean, 11, completed the family pic-
ture when she captured the Champion
Showperson title in her class at the
Clinton Spring Fair, also with her own
Southdown sheep.
How did the Todd family get from
Angus bulls to Southdown sheep?
"Father swapped some Angus for a
bunch of Southdowns back in the
'40s," Hugh says. "Nobody knows
exactly when or why; even mother
can't remember."
Whatever the reasons may have
been, it was obviously a good move,
for the Southdowns have been earning
the Todds ribbons and honours ever
since and have provided the family
with its livelihood and its vocation for
three generations now.
The Todd family came to Canada
from Scotland in 1853. William Tod
(the name was spelled with one "d" in
Scotland) first settled in Milton and
then moved to St. Helens, where the
family still owns the original home-
stead "of over 50 acres of rolling land,
up the road." William's son Thomas
built a house of his own on a nearby
piece of land and operated a saw mill
for many years. It was the third
generation Todd, Frank, who started
the family in animal husbandry with
his purebred Angus bulls and the first
family ribbons from the fairs.
In the fourth generation, Frank's
son Thomas bought a farm across the
road from his father's and "swapped
some Angus for a bunch of South-
down." It was he, then, who laid the
foundations of the new family tradi-
tion of sheep breeding, and of what is
now, by the fifth and sixth generation,
simply called "H & J Todd Sheep —
Tattoo GNT."
But of course it's far from simple,
this business of breeding and raising
sheep. Like any other branch of
animal husbandry, sheep farming is
becoming increasingly sophisticated
and complex. Selective breeding is of
prime concern. The emphasis in the
marketplace is shifting to better, finer,
and leaner meat, and farmers are
stressing higher productivity and
better profit margins to make their
efforts worthwhile.
The Southdown breed of sheep, the
Todds say, is ideal for these develop-
ments. Known for its fine, high-
quality meat, above-average gain, and
good feet and legs for seven to eight
years of productivity, the Southdowns
are well suited to improve other
breeds.
This is the main concern for Hugh
and Jo -Ann Todd: the raising and
22 THE RURAL VOICE