Back to Black

[Hen-Gen]

Picking up a 4 month old boy in August. 15st of muscle (when he grows up) - hope he's friendly!

[Fairfax]

How lovely.

How does it work with sheep. Does having a black ram mean you get black girls? Or does the ewe have to be black too? Or is it hit and miss. I know I don't see many black lambs near me.

[Hen-Gen]

In most breeds black is a recessive colour so black lambs appear randomly among flocks of white breeding sheep. However in two breeds, Zwartbles (as above) and Black Welsh Mountains, the mutation is a different one called dominant black. So all the lambs he sires will be black.

[Fairfax]

Thanks Hen-Gen.

[CP]

Is he really that black? Looks like he's been painted!

[manic nonie]

He's a nice lad well done, i hope he is friendly he'll be big

[SkyChild]

Oh he's gorgeous! He looks like he's been covered in bootpolish, I've never seen such a black sheep!

[shire horse girl]

He is stunning didn't realise rams weighed so much

[brooksidepoultry]

He's nice, yeah we tend to have a few black crossbreeds in our flock & did have a flock of pure zwarbles too & we would have probably 20-50 black lambs a year out of 300-400 but the breeds like, suffolks, Clun forests & shropshires are all born black & (not as dark as him) but the coats turn white with age x

[Hen-Gen]

Its odd that . Your man Adam on Country File has a small flock of Portlands and they're all born fox red. Although you could fill a library with books related to the productive qualities of farm animals its notable how scant the material is on coat colour inheritance.

[brooksidepoultry]

Mmm they are nice the portlands x

[Chris Kurzfeld]

Very nice boy . I keep Ryelands - both white and coloured - with them if you breed white to coloured you will always get white but they have to be registered as coloured because they have one coloured parent. White coloured to true coloured can produce both (I have had white and coloured twins) but true cloured to true coloured produces coloured.

[Hen-Gen]

Very pretty sheep, Ryelands. Put me in mind of those Kosset Carpet ads from years ago. (Expect you're too young to remember those).
I have two Suffolk X Texel and two Cluns (on order). Might seem extravagant buying a ram for four ewes but:-
1) I've entered into a 'management aggreement' with a neighbour who has 150 Shetlands.
2) Can't resist playing with the genetics, even though they'll end up in my freezer.

[manic nonie]

he it nice, we had some ZW X tex X sufflocks on one of the places i worked they were crackin meat animals and very handlable compared to the mad gimmers (Blackies), I'm normally working with.
the growth from that cross should be really good.

[Chris Kurzfeld]

Put me in mind of those Kosset Carpet ads from years ago. (Expect you're too young to remember those).

Unfortunately I am not too young to remember .

Might seem extravagant buying a ram for four ewes but:-

I did the same 2 years ago - for 3 - I had 2 white coloureds and 1 white ewe and wanted to try and build up a coloured flock. Couldn't find a coloured ram to hire so I bought one - he was a lovely boy and sired some very nice coloured ewes (plus a few rams for the freezer ). I sold him after 2 years and now have found someone who will hire me hers for this year. I sold my original ewes too then decided what I had left wasn't enough to keep the grass in the paddocks down so now also have 2 Ryeland Xs.