[FiB]

Hi Fiona, also to bear in mind... someone I know of has Bowmonts and sells the fleeces privately to spinners abroad for mind boggling sums... so you'd have to better that I'm guessing?

[SallyintNorth]

Bowmont fleeces recently offered on Ravelry here

[fionadeans]

Ooops sorry! That was a typo error! Ah this sounds interesting.. I know some of it goes straight to Curtis Wools. Are you able to let me know who this person is and I can find out more through them?

Fiona

[Auld Cairnallochy]

  Well everyone I always say if you really want something like Bowmont fleece you may have to put in the effort. We bought our first Bowmont (coloured) from the Macaulay in 2000 put him to some really good Shetlands whose progeny we still have and hope to increase. We then bought our first small white flock in 2004 followed by two more small flocks one of which included a beautiful well made tup in 2005.
  Yes they can have problems with their feet however I have put that down to the outer shall we call it shell of the hoof growing very fast and subsequently folding over trapping muck etc under it which I feel heightens the likelyhood for a lot of the footrot problems. We do their feet every three months and over the years have found footrot infections to have decreased substantially.
   With regard to hardiness, the Bowmont sheep that we now have who have nearly all been raised here (and we are 1000 ft above sea level on a windy hill) all lamb outside and considering the winter we just had from around 40 ewes lambing without assistance in mid April and in the snow that stayed with us until the beginning of May we only lost 2 lambs (both were stuck one suviving for 2 weeks). Our new Saxon Merino tup also sailed through the winter and produced a beautiful fleece to die for and from what we have seen some lovely lambs too.
   It should be said of course that with the severity of the winter and the poor hay quality due to the very wet summer we had to increase the amount of licks and concentrates fed to them however as I reckon youn only get out what you want if you put it in it was well worth it.
   It should also be said that even if you don't want to breed any but only want some for their fleece I found that running them with a Texel Tup gives you a lovely lamb that sells well and tastes good too.

[mowhaugh]

the woman who bought most of them was quoted by the BBC that "she rescued laboratory animals", which was a load of crap.

   That is appalling!  We are two farms down from Sourhope, where the Bowmonts were bred (farms along theRiver Bowmont, hence the name) it is a disgrace that was broadcasted.

[Marches Farmer]

 John Ellman, who began improving his local breed (the Southdown) in 1780, introduced some Merino blood to improve the fleece, which worked beautifully as it now has the finest fleece of any UK native breed.  The Merino couldn't cope with our wet weather, however, and the breed was exported to Australia where, of course, it thrived.

[mmu]

I'm glad you said that , Marches Farmer!

[morri2]

Hi all !  Have just come across this thread after a long absence from the forum.   Fiona - Bowmontmad on Ravelry is me - although I'm a bit late and you've probably found out all you need to know by now.  Just thought I'd make myself know.

Cheers