[devonlady]

I read that a Valoise Blacknose ewe carrying twins sold for 4,000 (yes, four thousand!) guineas at Carlisle sales!!

[Foobar]

...and a mule ewe with VB embryos implanted went for a little less I think!

[Womble]

I know!  I'm sorry, I just couldn't help myself - they're SOOOO cute and fluffy!!

Do you think I may have paid too much? 

[shygirl]

Reminds me of the mangalitza craze a few years ago.

[Cheviot]

Can anyone tell me what purpose this breed serves in the UK, apart from looking really cute, and at the moment being ridiculously expensive 
Regards
Sue

[Keepers]

Can anyone tell me what purpose this breed serves in the UK, apart from looking really cute, and at the moment being ridiculously expensive 
Regards
Sue

None, its an expensive pet, nothing more nothing less, they do not have the feet for our wet lowland grass and without the fluffy wool are nothing special, a big sheep with big horns that get in the way

If people want rare surely they would do better to buy our own British rare breeds

If they really want a fluffy pet sheep with horns, then good luck to them I suppose

[Buffy the eggs layer]

They dont want rare they want cute and exclusive.


My suggestion would be that rare breed keepers make more of an effort to "cuten up" their sheep. How about this as a starter for ten.......

[SallyintNorth]

It's alpacas all over again.  The only people who make money are the ones who get in at the start and push the offspring at ludicrous prices to the next tranche of make-a-quick-buck-ers.  Suddenly there's an oversupply and no-one really makes any money.

Because there's now embryo transfer, that second stage is going to come really quickly...

[SallyintNorth]

If they weren't so fashionable and such ludicrous prices, there are a couple of interesting and valid things here, IMV.

• They were geographically isolated, so it's completely valid to establish some pure breeding flocks elsewhere to preserve the genes - and to have a viable UK population, that does need a few breeders to take them on
• They have a couple of attributes that are unusual among hill sheep.  They are amicable, biddable, sheep, and they have a large frame.  I could fancy a bit o' that mixed into some of our native hill sheep   Scottish and Hexham Blackface breeders put a bit of Swaledale in now and again to maintain the height and keep the back level; Swaley breeders use a touch of Blackie now and again to maintain the frame size.  The Blackie men might prefer a bit of VB - doesn't introduce the tell-tale white nose (Blackies used to have completely black faces, I hear) and may calm the skittish flighty sheep down a touch.

[Keepers]

If they weren't so fashionable and such ludicrous prices, there are a couple of interesting and valid things here, IMV.

• They were geographically isolated, so it's completely valid to establish some pure breeding flocks elsewhere to preserve the genes - and to have a viable UK population, that does need a few breeders to take them on
• They have a couple of attributes that are unusual among hill sheep.  They are amicable, biddable, sheep, and they have a large frame.  I could fancy a bit o' that mixed into some of our native hill sheep   Scottish and Hexham Blackface breeders put a bit of Swaledale in now and again to maintain the height and keep the back level; Swaley breeders use a touch of Blackie now and again to maintain the frame size.  The Blackie men might prefer a bit of VB - doesn't introduce the tell-tale white nose (Blackies used to have completely black faces, I hear) and may calm the skittish flighty sheep down a touch.

Very soon it will become a blackdale  or a swaleface 

But very good point! I just searched the blackface history and they used to be much darker faced, far less pretty looking but most likely hardier! the blackfaces these days have very swaley type faces indeed, I did used to wonder why they were called blackfaces

[Rosemary]

But very good point! I just searched the blackface history and they used to be much darker faced, far less pretty looking but most likely hardier! the blackfaces these days have very swaley type faces indeed, I did used to wonder why they were called blackfaces

There was a letter recently in The Scottish Farmer bemoaning the spoiling of the Scottish Blackface by the show / sale ring.

[SallyintNorth]

The use of 'a touch of foreign' in sheep-breeding is one of the reasons I am a fan of hybrids.  If you breed Blackies pure for ever and ever, you get squat little sheep with dippy backs; Swaleys get narrower and narrower; Texels get porkier and porkier and harder and harder to lamb...

[Keepers]

But very good point! I just searched the blackface history and they used to be much darker faced, far less pretty looking but most likely hardier! the blackfaces these days have very swaley type faces indeed, I did used to wonder why they were called blackfaces

There was a letter recently in The Scottish Farmer bemoaning the spoiling of the Scottish Blackface by the show / sale ring.

I know of breeders overwintering show/sale-ring tup lambs indoors on straw, feeding them all winter for the so important sales, breeding for "bone, horn and head" increasing the width of the muzzle and mouth, these breeders buying from other breeders doing the same thing, so that they can post up on the website "lambs out of 30,000 tup and 15,000 ewe"
I have taken photographs of these sheep for the breeders where the sheep have been led outdoors, photographed and then put away again, I have some fantastic photos of the sheep at shows, but these will never survive if put on a hill

I feel the breed has split, many staying up on the hills and breeding for functionality, but unfortunately the ones down below or the ones on the hills but keeping indoors and feeding are ruining the breed for every body else

Very sad way for a once (still) hardy hill breed to go!

[Womble]

Just out of interest then, how many embryos could I expect to get out of one ewe, and for how many years? Also what percentage of those might be viably transplanted into mules etc?

(just trying to maximise the return from my wee impulse buy you see  )

[Marches Farmer]

The Blackie men might prefer a bit of VB - doesn't introduce the tell-tale white nose (Blackies used to have completely black faces, I hear) and may calm the skittish flighty sheep down a touch.[/li]
[/list]

Over the years the number of our Badger Face x Southdown ewe lambs that have taken on the charactersistics of their very docile Papas rather than their mostly far less docile Mamas is .... one.  We shall put her to a Southdown tup this Autumn just out of curiosity.