The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: andywalt on March 27, 2011, 09:42:07 pm
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Please may I ask if anyone can identify this breed if it is an actual breed or is it just a cross breed? to me it looks like a primitive breed??
any comments are appreciated
thanks
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I don't know a lot about breeds, but it looks like mine, lol and they are Hebridians.
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well yes I thought this.........i brought my flock last year, suffolk x romneys but two of these black ones, but when i was driving past a flock the other day a few miles away I noticed a flock that looked simular and they had jet black lambs like mine did !! do yours have jet black lambs?
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Heb lambs are jet black.
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ahh so it looks as if I have a couple of hebredians !!!! cool ;D ;D ;D ;D
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Sorry i'm being a bit slow tonight i also meant to say they don't look like my Hebs they remind me slightly of Soay or Castlemilk Moorit but i'm no expert.
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Not Hebs. They look like Norfolk Horn crosses - black heads and legs, but hard to say without seeing their actual size and fleece type. NH are larger than Hebs. Cross-bred Hebs nearly always have white lambs as they are a black recessive breed, but I am not sure of the genetics of Norfolk Horn. The faces are far 'coarser' or bigger than primitives with what looks like a big Roman nose, and from the photo it looks as if the fleece is a single coat, whereas Hebs have a double coat with the top layer around 7" long.
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They wouldn't be a texel or other commercial out of a Jacob, would they? They are a little similar to texels out of jacobs next door to us - but the ones next to me all seem to be without horns
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Andy, you just might never know ;D
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our jacob crosses last year were all hornless ;)
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Looks a bit like some Shetlands I saw the other day. They had black lambs.
I'm not an expert on sheep though.
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The coat is very similar to one of my Shetlands and the face too, but the horns look a bit too upright and flaring compared with my Shetland boys - theirs sort of curl across and then down more, these look more primitive I would say....so Heb/Jacob/Soay etc?
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Looks very similar to my jacob crosses. But could be anything!
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it depends on size. the colour is right and horns are right for a young shetland ram.
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Since you bought them from someone who obviously used a suffolk ram I would say dad was a suffolk......build, legs, ears and general facial features would suggest that. Mum was probably something horned but as to what...... well I had some jacob x suffolks a few years back and they were similar but bigger and hornless. I would plump for them being heinz 57 with a suffolk dad, and x bred mum!
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suffolks are homzygous white so unless put to something with dominant black a black lamb isn't likely.
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Well.....that may well be the science but not always the reality! All jacob x suffolks come out this colour!.......jacob x anything tends to be black! also heb x suffolk or coloured shetland x suffolk is usually coloured too.....my neighbour has lots of heinz 57s!
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jacobs are all dominant black cross anything to a jacob and you wil get a black sheep.
Hebs have some ED the quantity of which is debatable ( fleecewife?)
shetlands are rarely dominant black
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well im very confused now, so I would guess that it was a norfolk horn ram with suffolk x romney ewe
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Hebs are apparently about 20% dominant black - but that sheep isn't black, but then nor are many Hebs ;). It has black head and legs, but a brown body (unless the fleece is true black close to the skin and the brown is just the effect of weathering) Brown lambs are also born jet black. Jacob x lambs tend to have some white bits somewhere. Some breeds do have 'black' animals which turn up occasionally.
Andy, if you discount the colour, are your 2 'black' ewes otherwise the same as the rest of the flock? It is the big face and squat back legs which make me think there is not any primitive in there, as well as the fleece type. Can you ask the person you bought them from, as we all now want to know the answer :D
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I've got a couple of coloured romneys too. So maybe have a good look at the fleece - does it seem like a romney type fleece or is it coarser like a jacob or tighter like a suffolk? My suffx jacobs were a mix of black and white. And just to be really awkward, last year a pedigree lleyn ewe (white) and a pedigree lleyn ram (white) produced twin black lambs! There is not supposed to be any black in lleyns!!!!
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Well definately totally differant from the suffolk and texels that I have they are closer to the Norfolk Horn but there fleece has remained dark brown, Norfolk horn usually turn back to light/white fleece. I will end up asking the previous owner they will have the answer, also look at my next posting as one of the ewes has lambed, and the 1st lamb from my Romney tup !! have a look
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Hi All
Well I have the answer, and all of you that said it was a jocob cross was right, i hve two of them and I confirmed today with the previous owner who told me they are jocab x norfolk horn !! they have both lambed, didnt see the births, very motherly, really like them
cheers Andy
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Hi Andy - thanks for finding out the answer for us. So those of us who said Norfolk horn were also half right :D ;D :D Glad you like them 8)