The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Rosemary on February 02, 2014, 03:43:31 pm
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http://www.saltmarshranch.com/ (http://www.saltmarshranch.com/)
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It's really good to have flocks of Soay in America, and other countries, so we don't have all our eggs in one basket in the awful event of a major disease outbreak here. There is not this insurance with some breeds such as Hebrideans which are found only in Britain, with the exception of a couple of flocks on the Continent (subject to many of the diseases, rules and regulations, being members of the EU, as we have here).
Foot and Mouth was one disease which threatened British native breeds, not because it's fatal to sheep per se, but because of the governments way of dealing with the animals by slaughtering them. Those that escaped the slaughter were then to be subject to scrapie resistance genotype rules which would have wiped out Soays and North Ronaldsays which are naturally of the 'wrong' genotype. Had it not been for a fight for reason to prevail, those breeds would have been consigned to history by idiot and mistaken science. So having some populations far far away is our best defence against this sort of short sighted madness.
Aren't they cute ;D
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Good stuff, will visit next time I'm passing (wife from OR)
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A breeder of Shetland cattle is just establishing a herd in Australia - sh's Australian and has a farm out there. She's doing it by embryo transfer as the Australian health regs are very strict - and she's funding it herself, which I think is awesome. :notworthy:
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A few years ago I was contacted by a wannabe Heb keeper who lived on a small island off the Oz coast. We looked in great detail into embryo transfer - the only way for sheep too. The cost was astronomical and in the end he just couldn't afford or justify it. Such a shame.