[andywalt]

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

[nails]

I don't know a lot about breeds, but it looks like mine, lol and they are Hebridians.

[andywalt]

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?

[gavo]

Heb lambs are jet black.

[andywalt]

ahh so it looks as if I have a couple of hebredians !!!! cool     

[gavo]

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.

[Fleecewife]

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.

[SallyintNorth]

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

[Rosemary]

Andy, you just might never know 

[Padge]

our jacob crosses last year were all hornless

[JulieS]

Looks a bit like some Shetlands I saw the other day.  They had black lambs.

I'm not an expert on sheep though.

[lachlanandmarcus]

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?

[Freddiesfarm]

Looks very similar to my jacob crosses.  But could be anything!

[shetlandpaul]

it depends on size. the colour is right and horns are right for a young shetland ram.

[woollyval]

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!