What breed are these sheep?

LostCovey · 29-08-2011 03:36PM #1

Hi all,

Just wondered if you had any ideas on this.

A friend "came by" these sheep - they were more or less thrown in with a larger group he was buying to seal a deal - in the west of Ireland.

He was told they are Jacobs, but they don't look like Jacobs to me, and all of them are polled.

Any ideas on what they are? I wondered if they might be Welsh Mountain. They are smallish, maybe Cheviot sized or a little bigger, but have quite good conformation, nice lambs. There's three ewes and their lambs, and they are all clearly the same breed, as are the lambs.

Thanks in advance,

LostCovey

PS they were sheared since this photo was taken a couple of months ago.

Cran · 29-08-2011 04:00PM

Have seen black welsh mountain sheep before, and these do look slightly like them but slightly bigger. Any of the lambs male, as Welsh black rams have horns.
Would say more likely just suffolk cross carrying the black gene and all are related rather than a specific breed though...

LostCovey · 29-08-2011 04:10PM

Cran wrote: »

Have seen black welsh mountain sheep before, and these do look slightly like them but slightly bigger. Any of the lambs male, as Welsh black rams have horns.
Would say more likely just suffolk cross carrying the black gene and all are related rather than a specific breed though...

Thanks Cran, that was fast!!

Yes there was one ram lamb and he was polled too. That's quite likely what they are so - they do look like Suffolks but smaller and small-headed, compared to what I would have expected.

LC

5live · 29-08-2011 07:47PM

The angle on them is bad but i would have thought suffolk would be broader across the head than those, even half breds

scub · 29-08-2011 08:13PM

how about a Swiss Black-Brown Mountain Sheep?

http://www.bergschaf.com/

They hardly rambled in from the neighbours though lol

caseih · 29-08-2011 08:35PM

they are jacobs just their crossed with suffolk a couple a times,,, had a few here some years ago...

LostCovey · 29-08-2011 11:34PM

caseih wrote: »

they are jacobs just their crossed with suffolk a couple a times,,, had a few here some years ago...

That's possible.

One of the lambs has a small splash of white near the top of its head, but I left that out as I thought it was a red herring. It is the only Jacobish feature aming the lot of them.

Thanks very much for all the suggestions, I will pass them on.

LC

EGAR · 29-08-2011 11:36PM

Did they come from Gort or Kylebrack?

LostCovey · 29-08-2011 11:41PM

EGAR wrote: »

Did they come from Gort or Kylebrack?

Possibly, but via Partry!

EGAR · 30-08-2011 10:23PM

http://www.nationalsheep.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=9&Itemid=41

Have a look here. am on a slow connection so pics wont load for me.

LostCovey · 31-08-2011 12:19AM

EGAR wrote: »

http://www.nationalsheep.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=9&Itemid=41

Have a look here. am on a slow connection so pics wont load for me.

Thanks EGAR, gosh they look very like those Welsh Mountain, don't they (apart from the bits of white on the face). I wonder what Suffolk x Welsh Mountain would look like?

LC

fanadman1 · 11-12-2011 10:43AM

LostCovey wrote: »

Hi all,

Just wondered if you had any ideas on this.

A friend "came by" these sheep - they were more or less thrown in with a larger group he was buying to seal a deal - in the west of Ireland.

He was told they are Jacobs, but they don't look like Jacobs to me, and all of them are polled.

Any ideas on what they are? I wondered if they might be Welsh Mountain. They are smallish, maybe Cheviot sized or a little bigger, but have quite good conformation, nice lambs. There's three ewes and their lambs, and they are all clearly the same breed, as are the lambs.

Thanks in advance,

LostCovey

PS they were sheared since this photo was taken a couple of months ago.

we keep those at home :L there just refered to as the black texel up her :L i accualy take pride in haveing them and allways hold onto my ewe lambs as replacements as they can be hard to find i've seen black ewe lambs going for upwards of 130 euro each :L mabey were just silly up here