Valais Blacknose
Valais Blacknose originated in Switzerland and are widely considered the cutest sheep in the world. They are large sheep with ewes weighing up to 200lbs and rams to 290 lbs. They are easily recognized by their long white coat, black nose and ears and black knees. Their horns (male and female) corkscrew outwards from their heads and females have a black patch around the bumms.
We started our journey with the breed by starting on a breed-up program where you start with a foundation ewe, in our case Scottish Blackface (SBF) and use artificial insemination (AI) to introduce the Valais genetics to your flock. The foundation ewe is first DNA tested to ensure she is a pedigree of her breed therefore allowing you to generational breed up to 100% pure Valais. Your first lambs are F1 crosses (50%SBF and 50% Valais) and then you hope for a ewe lamb. She is then bred using AI again with 100% Valais semen, to produce a F2 generation (25%SBF and 75% Valais). The process continues until you reach F4 for ewes and F5 for rams, at which point they are considered domestic purebred Valais Blacknose.
Some breeders have bypassed the process by importing embryos from New Zealand and the UK to instantly have purebred Valais Blacknose. We did not go this way because it is VERY costly and there is no guarantee that they implanted embryos will take.
