Valais Blacknose Sheep
Service Overview
Valais Blacknose
The Valais Black-Nosed Sheep is a meat and fleece sheep breed that originated in the Valais Canton of Switzerland and has been known to exist since the 15th century. It is thought to have descended from the extinct Vispertal sheep. It is considered one of the rare sheep breeds. It is estimated that there are approximately 20,000 Valais sheep in existence today. They were brought to England in 2013 and started to be bred.
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Pyhsical Characteristics
It has a layered coat of wool covering its entire body. The dominant wool color is white.
The nose, eyes and ears are black.
There are black markings on the knees.
The ankles and nails are also completely black.
Black tail patches are seen in females, but there is no tail patch in males.
Both rams and sheep have spiral horns that resemble corkscrews. The horns grow and thicken with age. They are known among the people as “Ghornuti – horned sheep”.
Their ears are medium-sized and horizontal.
The height at the withers is between 75 and 85 cm in males and 72 and 78 cm in females.
Yield Characteristics
Live weight varies between 80 – 110 kg in adult males and 70 – 90 kg in females.
Reproductive efficiency is high. The average number of lambs born in a litter is 1.6.
They give birth to their first lambs when they are 14 months old on average.
Annual fleece yield is 4 kg. Shearing can be done 2 times a year. Their wool has excellent felting.
The average fleece thickness is 38 microns.
It has a very long fiber structure. It grows about 30 cm per year on average.
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