[DartmoorLiz]

We run scottish blackface sheep.  Whenever I come away from doing anything to our sheep I come away with bruised thighs.  I also recently had to catch and treat my ram for maggots in his horns that he could not get to to sort out himself.  Why do we breed sheep with horns?  Does anyone know of any lines of scottish blackface sheep without horns?

[Marches Farmer]

You would surely need to cross them with a breed polled in both sexes.  After three generations the polled breed would be genetically dominant but you'd no longer have SB's.  The ram lambs might still have small horns or scurrs, though.

[SallyintNorth]

It's one of the main reasons people switch to Mules, or Texels, or other polled type.  Or even to Swaledales, whose horns don't curve outward quite so much as those on Blackies.

[shep53]

We breed them with horns because they've always had them and it will be a breed standard and modern SBF have very wide horns  .   In the early 1980's there was talk of export sheep needing to get rid of horns so DERBYSHIRE  GRITSTONE'S were used on SBF and a couple of polled flocks were bred , but of course never caught on and  last I heard from my scanner about 6yrs ago was that 1 flock had gone back to horns , not sure about the other

[SallyintNorth]

I'd think that would be a really good sheep, DG X SBF.  Super fleece, it would have.  

[DartmoorLiz]

Thanks, very useful,  I'll look out for a DSG around here.

[SallyintNorth]

Clocking that you're in Devon, and I'm about to move to Cornwall... If you do create some DG X SBF, do shout when you are clipping them, won't you? !    

[DartmoorLiz]

OK.  Wow - perhaps you'll become Sally in the South West. Am having more success introducing the idea DG to the flock than I expected so this could be more than just a discussion.

[SallyintNorth]

We were wondering about ZallyDownZouth - but no decision has been made as yet!