Valais Blacknose Sheep - USA

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Valais Blacknose Sheep - USA Laurel Highland Farm is on a mission to bring this rare sheep breed to the USA! Feel free to share We also raise Fell Ponies and Olde English Babydoll Sheep!

Laurel Highland Farm, which was established in 1995, is pleased to be one of the first to import Valais Blacknose Sheep genetics to the USA (in the form of purebred ram frozen semen), to begin our long-awaited breeding-up program! Currently the USDA does not allow importation of embryos or live sheep, so "breeding-up" is the ONLY legal way to have this breed here in the USA right now. This saga be

gan in late 2014 when we came across a video of these sheep, which are native to the Swiss Alps (in the Valais region of Switzerland), and we have been working on "finding a way" to acquire them ever since! At first it seemed impossible, as there was also a ban on semen import at the time. Nonetheless, we went ahead and acquired suitable foundation ewe lambs in early 2015, hoping that by the time the lambs were mature that semen would become available. As luck would have it, the ban on semen import was lifted in 2016 we began searching for breeding prospects. USDA criteria are very stringent, but eventually our friends at Highland Valais Blacknose Sheep in Scotland found several suitable donor rams for us! Our foundation ewes are either purebred Scottish Blackface, or halfbred Scottish Blackface/Leicester Longwool crosses. We specifically chose the latter cross as we felt they may have more in common with purebred Valais Blacknose, with the Leicester Longwool genes adding a larger frame, longer fleece, wool forelocks, wool on limbs, more docile temperament, etc. The Scottish Blackface of course add genetics for black faces and black limbs, as well as horns in both sexes, mountain hardiness, Roman noses, and plenty of fleece! Theoretically, more genes that the foundation ewes share in common with the purebred Valais Blacknose, the fewer generations will be required for the offspring to look like the real deal! Each generation will be bred to pure Valais Blacknose (VBN), so 1rst generation will be 50% VBN genetically, 2nd will be 75% VBN, 3rd will be 87% VBN, and so on. We look forward to a successfully AI program with our ewes this fall, and hopefully will have our first lamb crop in early spring of 2018! Laurel Highland Valais Blacknose Sheep is a division of Laurel Highland Farm & Equine Services LLC. http://www.LaurelHighland.com

Little Harley looking festive! ❤️🐾🎄(World’s cutest little shepherd is a good match for the world’s cutest sheep…don’t yo...
17/12/2024

Little Harley looking festive! ❤️🐾🎄(World’s cutest little shepherd is a good match for the world’s cutest sheep…don’t you think?! lol) 💙 ❤️

🐏❤️
08/12/2024

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After successfully patching up The Farmer's jacket last year, Shaun the Sheep, Bitzer and the rest of the flock are back for more festive fun. Carolling at a...

Hope you all have a safe and happy Thanksgiving! .blacknose 🦃💕
28/11/2024

Hope you all have a safe and happy Thanksgiving! .blacknose 🦃💕

Lovely documentary about the Blacknose in Switzerland, including footage of Paul Julen‘s flock in Zermatt.
17/11/2024

Lovely documentary about the Blacknose in Switzerland, including footage of Paul Julen‘s flock in Zermatt.

ABC Rural News provides authoritative coverage of the business and politics of Australian farming, livestock, forestry, agriculture and primary production

Happy Sunday morning (with Laurelhighland Zsazsa) .blacknose 🐏❤️
03/11/2024

Happy Sunday morning (with Laurelhighland Zsazsa) .blacknose 🐏❤️

Laurelhighland Rolex - 6-month-old Valais Blacknose ram lamb bred via imported embryo transfer, out of Moorahill Febe x ...
01/11/2024

Laurelhighland Rolex - 6-month-old Valais Blacknose ram lamb bred via imported embryo transfer, out of Moorahill Febe x Harrie. His dam was the first purebred ewe lamb I purchased in 2018, and his sire was one of the first purebred rams we purchased and imported into UK the same year with Valais Blacknose Sheep Westmorland, in order to help diversify the Scrapie-resistant bloodlines available in UK with quality rams. (Before this there was effectively only 1 bloodline available for semen export to USA and Canada). .blacknose 🐏❤️

26/10/2024

Brilliant. Those were the days! 🐑 🇬🇧

24/10/2024

The fleeces of this flock of beautiful Valais Blacknose sheep in Norway will be used in Snällfäll’s wet felted fleece classes (a.k.a. “vegetarian sheepskins”). The classes are held at Åkerbo Gård in Kristinehamn,
Sweden - home of Marita Tauni ‘s gorgeous flock. I had the pleasure of taking this class last weekend and it was lots of fun! Thank-you Kristina Ek for a great start to a wonderful visit in Sweden!

Laurelhighland Bo Peep II 😍 — 6-month-old twin ewe lamb out of our Maximum Points ewe, Laurelhighland Bubbles, and sired...
14/10/2024

Laurelhighland Bo Peep II 😍 — 6-month-old twin ewe lamb out of our Maximum Points ewe, Laurelhighland Bubbles, and sired by Balamber (Her twin is Laurelhighland Bibbidi Boo.) .blacknose 🐏❤️

Laurelhighland Zsazsa 😍 - big (90 pounds already!), beautiful 5-month-old ewe lamb bred via imported embryo transfer out...
13/10/2024

Laurelhighland Zsazsa 😍 - big (90 pounds already!), beautiful 5-month-old ewe lamb bred via imported embryo transfer out of Westmorland Halle Berry x Balamber. Full sibling imported embryos are available! See embryo catalog at https://www.valais-blacknose-sheep.com/embryocatalog for these and other great choices from a variety of bloodlines, including Maximum Points! .blacknose

😍
12/10/2024

😍

The level of detail on this 👏 🎂

📷 Hayley Garrod

Laurelhighland Bibbidi Boo 😍(Laurelhighland Bubbles x Balamber) - twin ewe lamb pictured at 6 months old and still a bit...
12/10/2024

Laurelhighland Bibbidi Boo 😍(Laurelhighland Bubbles x Balamber) - twin ewe lamb pictured at 6 months old and still a bit wet from a shower! .blacknose 🐏❤️

Northern view from the sheep pasture last night….Wild!
11/10/2024

Northern view from the sheep pasture last night….Wild!

Sweet William - another gorgeous lamb from our 2023 imported embryos from UK (out of Michelle Singer’s surrogate ewe). ...
02/10/2024

Sweet William - another gorgeous lamb from our 2023 imported embryos from UK (out of Michelle Singer’s surrogate ewe). His dam is Laurelhighland Helma (whose sire is Max Points ram, Westmorland Frankie), and he was sired by Balamber. (Balamber has fantastic fleece and seems to consistently stamp his offspring well with it! :-))

Another beautiful ewe lamb by Balamber from our embryo import - out of Westmorland Hickety - congratulations again to ...
30/09/2024

Another beautiful ewe lamb by Balamber from our embryo import - out of Westmorland Hickety - congratulations again to Hesed Farms!

💕HSF Liana💕

Our second ewe lamb that graded only 1 point off maximum!! Another gorgeous Balamber lamb to Westmorland Hickety, who’s a Frankie daughter. She took 3rd in her class. 🤗

In the words of the judges, she’s a “tremendous ewe”. So thrilled with our lambs this year!

Beautiful ewe lamb from our embryo import last year! Congratulations to HSF Lexus (Westmorland Ireland x Balamber) and H...
30/09/2024

Beautiful ewe lamb from our embryo import last year! Congratulations to HSF Lexus (Westmorland Ireland x Balamber) and Hesed Farms! Thrilled to see quite a few lambs from our embryos doing so well at the show this weekend!

💕HSF Lexus💕

Scored only 1 point off maximum and took second place in her class!! She’s such a beautiful little ewe. Can’t wait to see her mature over the next year. Out of Balamber to Westmorland Ireland.

Her full sibling, HSF Lamborghini is available!! Message us for details. Registered and DNA verified full blood.

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Videos

2-year-old Laurelhighland Sugar (a Romney x Cotswold ewe) last night gave birth for the first time. She had beautiful twin F1 Valais Blacknose ram lambs - Laurelhighland Twix, and Laurelhighland Twizzler, each weighing in at 15 and 13 pounds, respectively. Twix is not only big but was also breech, but Sugar successfully delivered him without assistance …Such a good mama! #valais.blacknose #romney #cotswold #f1 #lambsbyblackmagic

Laurelhighland Bo Peep II
Laurelhighland Bo Peep II

Laurelhighland Bo Peep II 😍(Laurelhighland Bubbles x Balamber) - pictured at 2 weeks old #valais.blacknose #worldscutestsheep🐏 ❤️

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Valais Blacknose Sheep in the USA!

Laurel Highland Farm, established in 1995, was pleased to be one of the first to import Valais Blacknose Sheep genetics into the USA! These genetics came in the form of purebred ram frozen semen, to begin our long-awaited breeding-up program! Currently the USDA does not allow importation of embryos or live sheep, so "breeding-up" is the ONLY legal way to have this breed here in the USA right now.

This saga began in late 2014 when we came across a video of these sheep, which are native to the Swiss Alps (in the Valais region of Switzerland), and we have been working on "finding a way" to acquire them ever since! At first it seemed impossible, as there was also a ban on semen import at the time. Nonetheless, we went ahead and acquired suitable foundation ewe lambs in early 2015, hoping that by the time the lambs were mature that semen would become available. As luck would have it, the ban on semen import was lifted in 2016 we began searching for breeding prospects. USDA criteria are very stringent, but eventually our friends at Highland Valais Blacknose Sheep in Scotland found several suitable donor rams for us!

We are very fortunate to have already met Valais Blacknose sheep in person. We immediately fell in love with not only their charming and unique appearances, but also their wonderfully docile nature! (And no, they really don’t look “real” in person either!)

Our original foundation ewes are either purebred Scottish Blackface, or half-bred Scottish Blackface/Leicester Longwool F1 crosses. We specifically chose the latter cross as we felt they may have more in common with purebred Valais Blacknose, with the Leicester Longwool genes adding a larger frame, longer fleece, wool forelocks, wool on limbs, more docile temperament, etc. The Scottish Blackface of course add genetics for black faces and black limbs, as well as horns in both sexes, mountain hardiness, Roman noses, and plenty of fleece! Theoretically, more genes that the foundation ewes share in common with the purebred Valais Blacknose, the fewer generations will be required for the offspring to look like the real deal! Each generation will be bred to pure Valais Blacknose (VBN), so 1rst (“F1”) generation will be 50% VBN genetically, 2nd (F2) will be 75% VBN, 3rd (F3) will be 87% VBN, and so on.