and Info
Registry artwork by Dorota Kudyba.
How Does the Valais Blacknose Sheep Breed-Up Program Work ??
Yes, they really are the world's CUTEST sheep......
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USDA says no importing of live sheep or embryos from UK,
( all breeds of sheep, not just Valais Blacknose ).
This is to prevent spread of diseases like Scrapie and Schmallenberg.
(think Mad Cow Disease)
Learn about GENOTYPING here.
So the only way for us in US and Canada to get these amazing sheep
from UK is to "breed up".
You do this by finding the ewes with the closest genetic traits
to begin breeding those ewes, for five generations,
to 100% purebred imported Valais Blacknose (VBN) frozen semen imported from overseas.
Choosing your initial ewes having as many characteristics as possible
increases your chance of early offspring looking more and more like the
goal of Valais Blacknose.
However, it has been made VERY CLEAR, VERY quickly that the Valais Blacknose genetics
come through VERY FAST !
Learn where to find FROZEN SEMEN here
So first year you would breed your ewe using 100% Valais Blacknose imported frozen semen
and it's offspring would be called an F1 - which would be 50 % VBN.
Second year you would breed those F1's using 100% VBN imported frozen semen and
it's offspring would then be an F2 - which would be 75% pure VBN.
Breeding F2 using 100% frozen VBN semen would result in F3
which would be 88% Valais
Breeding F3 using 100% frozen VBN semen would result in F4
which would be 94% Valais
Breeding F4 using 100% frozen VBN semen would result in F5
which would be 97% Valais