Trio of Mystery Rams

[brianholland]

My wife and I were in the Borders of Scotland when we spotted these magnificent rams oozing confidence and so proud.

While there my wife got some great shots of the red deer rutting, red squirrels and roe deer so what a holiday - fantastic.

I wondered if the sheep were Swaledale rams but somehow think I may be wrong.

Can someone please share their knowledge and held with identification.?

[Farplace]

They look like purebred Swaledales to me. Hardy sheep, bred for life on the hills. Look at this web page: Breed Information

[Johnny Redgate]

They do lool like Swaledales but I imagine from where you saw them that they are most likely to be (Scottish) Blackface which look quite similar. Try the breed society websites for more info.

Nice photo of rams doing what they do most of - loafing about waiting for action. What are they thinking???

[Meta menardi]

Originally Posted by Johnny Redgate

What are they thinking???

Don't we look handsome!

[STYRBJORN]

"If any of you lot even thinks ""mint sauce"" there is going to be big trouble."

Ric

[Johnny Redgate]

Ah, I had hoped it would be deeper than this. I was going to name mine after philosophers - Socrates, Plato and the like. Unfortunately my wife did the ram registrations whilst I was away and they ended up named after birds - Swallow, Swift etc. Not very "ramly".

[theresa dockery]

I think you're right: Swaledales/Dalesbred, something of that ilk.

Not Scottish Blackface though (I have those in my area, they look a bit different).

[Johnny Redgate]

I'm not entirely sure where the visible differences between a Blackface and a Swaledale lie but here's a quick photo I've borrowed for comparison.



Blackface are very common on high ground in the Scottish borders. Both Swaledale and Blackface have some common ancestry anyway.

I think the whole system of sheep breeds developed for specific localities is very interesting. For instance, I live near Clun in Shropshire where there are two local breeds for very similar ground - the Clun Forest and the Kerry Hill not to mention the other fairly local hill breeds - the Hill Radnor, Badger Face and the Welsh Mountain. So, ignoring all this, we chose to keep big Dutch sheep called Zwartbles. At least we can tell them from our neighbours.

[theresa dockery]

Originally Posted by Johnny Redgate

I think the whole system of sheep breeds developed for specific localities is very interesting. For instance, I live near Clun in Shropshire where there are two local breeds for very similar ground - the Clun Forest and the Kerry Hill not to mention the other fairly local hill breeds - the Hill Radnor, Badger Face and the Welsh Mountain. So, ignoring all this, we chose to keep big Dutch sheep called Zwartbles. At least we can tell them from our neighbours.

For me, a Scottish Blackface looks more like this (at least, where I live):


The rams have larger, more spiralled horns than the ewe pictured above.

The 2 breeds do share a common ancestry and whether there is actually any real difference between them at all is debatable (they're more like a type than separate breeds). The trio of rams have unusually brown fleeces.

I love the Badger Face sheep (particularly the black ones with pale markings), they're very cute!

[brianholland]

Originally Posted by Johnny Redgate

They do lool like Swaledales but I imagine from where you saw them that they are most likely to be (Scottish) Blackface which look quite similar. Try the breed society websites for more info.

Nice photo of rams doing what they do most of - loafing about waiting for action. What are they thinking???

Hi Johnny,
Thanks for your imput and yes they are forming a queue for a ewe,

I think they might be saying "Over to ewe!" but then I might be wrong.

Thanks again the web site was helpful and hopefully can be used on similar situations..

Brian.