The Valais Blacknose Sheep Breed

Wikipedia Description

The Valais Blacknose, German: Walliser Schwarznasenschaf, is a breed of domestic sheeporiginating in the Valais region of Switzerland.^[2] It is a dual-purpose breed, raised both for meat and for wool.

The breed originates in the mountains of the canton of Valais – from which its name derives – and of the Bernese Oberland. It is documented as far back as the fifteenth century, but the present German name was not used before 1884; the breed standard dates from 1962. In the past there was some cross-breedingwith imported sheep: in the nineteenth century with Bergamasca and Cotswold stock,^[4]: 940 and in the twentieth century with the Southdown.^[3]: 280

Characteristics

The Schwarznasenschaf is a mountain breed, well adapted to grazing on the stony pastures of its area of origin.  Both rams and ewes are horned with helical or spiral-shaped horns. Ewes may have black spots on the tail, but rams may not.

Use

The Valais Blacknose is a dual-purpose breed, reared for both meat and wool. The wool is coarse: fibre diameter averages approximately 38 microns, and staple length is 100 mm (4 in) or more. The annual yield of wool is about 4 kg (10 lb) per head.