Southdown sheep wool and cereals due to rising volumes of imports from the British Empire was accompanied by the Wet Years - a six-year period of cold, wet weather with little sun. In the Second World War, the South Downs were commandeered for military training, only fringe farms being left to produce milk for the towns. Sheep farming declined further after the war, although it is now being encouraged again through the designation of the downland as an environmentally sensitive area, and the restoration of arable land to sheepwalk. The Southdown has been placed on a watch list by the Rare Breeds
Southdown, New Zealand Southdown, New Zealand Southdown is an industrial suburb of Auckland, New Zealand. The main company in the suburb was the former Southdown Freezing Works, part of a large industrial zone located near the North Island Main Trunk railway line. The buildings were decommissioned during the 1980s and 1990s, releasing large areas of land to be redeveloped as office parks. For many years the abattoirs located here were discharging large amounts of untreated waste into the Manukau Harbour. This had a detrimential effect on the ecology of the harbour, which at the turn of the 20th century had been a popular