[Womble]

As many of you will know, our first sheep were Manx Loaghtans, purchased from my Aunt. However, for various reasons, we really didn't get on with them, and sent all but Alice (the one friendly-ish ewe) to slaughter last year. Meanwhile, in an attempt to repair our battered egoes    we switched our attention to Zwartbles (yes, I know that's quite a change!).

That left us with a dilemma though - what to do with Alice?  The obvious answer was to run her with Ace, our Zwartbles ram in the hope of getting some nice butcher's lambs.

So, in April, Alice gave birth unassisted to twin ewe lambs (4kg each): possibly the world's first ever Zanx Loaghwarts! 





To my surprise they were born polled and entirely black. They were also up and sucking very quickly.


Though significantly smaller than the pure bred Zwartbles lambs, they grew well over the summer:




And now, at 7 months old, look like this!:








So overall, I'm really pleased - they're really canny wee sheep  . They definitely scare more easily than the Zwartbles, but are also very inquisitive and will come to a bucket no problem. As they've aged, their heads have started looking much more Zwartbles-shaped. Their fleeces are also indistinguishable from the Zwartbles lambs in both colour and texture, though I think the staple length is slightly shorter.

Most importantly though, they're now only slightly smaller than the pure bred Zwartbles ewe lambs, which means they will make a good slaughter weight in the same year they're born, which was not true of the Manx/Shetland crosses Alice gave birth to the previous year.

The question now of course is what to do with them!    We don't have room to keep them ourselves, so my current plan is to see if anybody wants them for breeding (subtle hint!  ). If not, I'll keep them over winter, and will send them for slaughter as hoggetts in the spring. And as for Alice?  Well, she's done us proud once again, and will definitely be running with our new Zwartbles tup this autumn  .

[roddycm]

They look lovely! If I were there I would have them for sure!

[pharnorth]

They are lovely looking sheep.  I hope someone takes them off you for another cross.  I care for some Manx Loughtons amongst other breeds and they are not for everyone. It amuses me no end the way they are so utterly unenthusiastic at human contact stamping their little feet if they see you coming. Reminds me of my sons when they got to the Kevin stage.

[SallyintNorth]

Not all Manxes are like that, the two I bought have been friendly with humans from very early on.  One of the original pair is coming with me to Cornwall, along with all of her daughters.  I like her line.

The other line are more flighty, no question about it.  In fact last year's ewe lamb was named Pricket's Silly Daughter, because she was just giddy.   Nice little ewe, just giddy.

Womble, the Zanx Loaghwart ewe lambs look great.  I wonder if it's worth getting a spinner to look at the fleece?  If you're right and it's much the same as Zwartbles, then that doesn't add much appeal to a spinner.   But if the fine softness of the Manx has made itself felt in the fibre, then your girls may be of much more interest to spinners.

[pharnorth]

Ooooh yes please!  Fleece assessment required.   

[Womble]

Yes, Sally's right - maybe half of the parent flock of Manxes will cheerfully eat coarse mix out of your hand. The problem we had was that my Aunt was very ill the summer our Manx ewes were born, so by the time they came to us at a year old, they had hardly seen people, and were thus very flighty; behaviour they then passed on to their lambs.

As I said, the Zanx Loaghwart lambs definitely scare more easily than the pure Zwartbles, but I think that's mainly because they're naturally more alert and looking out for danger, just like their Mum. They will happily follow a bucket though, and I can hand-feed them as long as I'm the other side of a gate. What I can't do is just walk up to them in the field and catch them, like I can with most of the Zwartbles.

For me, this experiment has proved that rare breed Primitive sheep definitely have value for crossing, as well as for keeping pure. The lambs started out small, but have nearly caught up with their Zwartbles pals (they were all treated the same). This could help to add value to primitive flocks (e.g. breed pure some years to give flock replacements, and cross breed in other years for bigger butcher's lambs that finish the same year they're born). I wouldn't cross breed like this with a first time Mum though - Alice did have to work to deliver both of these, and they were bigger than her Shetland-cross twins last year. However, I didn't feel at any point that she was going to need my help!

I also think that the ewe lambs should have value as breeding stock in the right context, as well as going for meat. I was very surprised that they came out 100% black and with no horns, but I think that makes them look very pretty. As you can see from the photos, they're gorgeous, sparky, hardy lambs and would do well in a variety of smallholder flocks.

It's hard to tell if the wool will have value. My gut feel is that it will spin very well, but that it's too similar to the pure Zwartbles wool to be anything particularly special (our Z's do have softer fleeces than most though). However, if they're old enough to assess the fleece, why don't you PM me your postal address [member=10673]SallyintNorth[/member] , and I'll send a sample down to you to get your opinion?

[silkwoodzwartbles]

They look great! Hope someone wants them but if not they'll be very tasty hogget!

[waterbuffalofarmer]

With a name like that you could try and sell them to JK Rowling Love the name and them btw