The History of Blackshire Sheep

The concept of a black Wiltshire that was fully shedding happened by accident. One of the breeders where we sourced our initial flock from had an anomaly appear in 2010 when a black ewe lamb was born, named Lucky. She went on to produce a further 5 more black lambs over the next 5 years.

In 2014, the first black ram lamb was born and named Luigi.  Unfortunately, the breeder had to let go of this breeding program giving us the opportunity to purchase this nucleus flock of black Wiltshire sheep comprising 2 mature ewes, a 2 tooth hoggett and 3 lambs from that season.

Unfortunately, Luigi was not full shedding, but the opportunity to have a black ram was not to be missed. We ran him across our full shedding white Wiltshire ewes and had a number of black lambs born in 2015 including another black ram lamb (Mitchell) that shed 98% in his first Summer.

We sold Luigi to another local breeder and used Mitchell across our white flock for the next two seasons. In the meantime, we ran out high quality Wiltshire ram Titus across the black ewe flock to keep spreading the genetic diversity while improving the shedding in the flock. 90% of our 2016 black lambs fully shed.

In 2017, we purchased a new Strickland ram to run over our black flock and maybe of this season's lambs are exhibiting his tight short fleece and shorter tail. 

If you're looking to add Blackshire sheep to your flock, please get in contact with us.