A Swiss Valais adventure
The Discovery:
It started simply enough – I moved to a 5 acre property in Sonoma County in 2018 and within a few months was
confronted with the need to mow the whole property multiple times each Spring. I had a couple of horses but they were not keeping up. The whole mowing situation seemed wrong – it was good grass that should be eaten.
Clearly more animals were needed. I investigated goats but wasn’t convinced. Then one night while watching tv I came across a BBC Scotland program called “This Farming Life”. Most of the farms on the program were breeding and raising sheep. One farm had these darling sheep - Swiss Valais Blacknose.. I was in love (with the sheep). Off to the Internet I went to research these adorable creatures. What I found was that it was VERY hard to find these sheep in the US. There were just a few breeders starting a breed up program where they used a current domestic breed and imported purebred semen to increase the percentage of each generation.
As luck would have it the original team working on the breed up process, Joy and Martin Daly of Shepherds Lane, were located in Oregon - a mere 10 hours away from me! Joy and Martin are popular people and getting a hold of them was not easy. They are however, incredibly helpful and knowledgeable and after a few conversations I was convinced that I could do this.
This is not my first go round with jumping in to animal care without much knowledge. I did the same with the horses 20 years ago and went from taking a few lessons to owning 2 green horses within 9 months. In my defense - when I jump I also commit to learning what is needed to keep the animals safe and happy. I figured while I didn’t know much (anything) about sheep I knew generally how to get the knowledge I would need.
I started with fencing repairs to keep the darlings safe from coyotes during the day and refurbishing an old barn to provide a place for them to be locked up at night. I acquired a truck box that fit in the back of my truck for transportation, and on, and on. A lot of reading, finding a vet that would treat sheep, a shearer and dozens of other things. But finally it was time to go pick the lambs up and install them in their new home.
So here I am, with sheep! Really, really, really, friendly, cute sheep who come to greet me each morning when I let them out of the barn to eat the grass (remember the grass?) They are happy to be scratched and put their noses up for a kiss. Everyone should start their day with a sheep kiss – the world would be a better place. Next….more sheep, baby sheep.
Getting in Deeper:
This is not my fault. My financial advisor (who tries very hard to keep me from a sad and hungry old age) told me I should find a way to get income from my property. I knew exactly what was needed. MORE SHEEP!
I would breed and sell Valais Blacknose sheep. After all they were in high demand and there were not many in the US as of yet. Keep in mind that I have never bred an animal in my life. So I had young female sheep and just needed to find a male to make babies. As there were not many Valais sheep in California I went the artificial insemination (AI) route at first. Found a well regarded vet in Northern California who specialized in AI, I worked with my wonderful local vet Dr. Greene who held my hand through the various shots and treatments to prep the ewes for their adventure.
Because all the experts said that AI on maiden ewe lambs was a long shot I had a back up plan. Once again I went to Joy and Martin and purchased a pregnant F1 (50% purebred) ewe. One way or another there would be babies to sell. Penelope arrived in November 2022 and was due to lamb in mid-December. I read all that I could find on lambing. The supplies to have on hand and what could go wrong. There was 1 page on normal presentations, 14 pages on all the various other possible problems (eek!).
The AI vet was located a few hours away so off we set on December 3 rd leaving the pregnant ewe behind. The procedure went well for one of the ewe lambs. The other ewe turned out to have a segmented aplasia of the uterus making it unlikely (but not impossible) she would get pregnant. Disappointing but with hope in my heart we went home.
That night the pregnant ewe presented us with a pair of F2 (75 % purebred) Valais Blacknose twins. A ram and a ewe. Luckily she needed no help from me and all I had to do was watch and worry. Upon advice from my sister I named them after currencies as a reminder that this was a commercial enterprise. Frankie and Gilda – welcome to our farm.
P.S. It is now August and both Frankie and Gilda are still happily hanging out in the pasture. Gilda has a job – she will be bred at the end of the year, Frankie is looking for a new home – maybe.
And Deeper:
While Gilda and Frankie were the cutest baby Valais Blacknose lambs, I needed more. Unfortunately the attempt to breed my two F2 ewes via AI was not successful. A new plan was in order. The Valais Blacknose community is wonderful - I reached out to Joy Daly once again for advice and she gave me a lead to a breeder in California who had purebred Valais Blacknose Rams. There were very few purebreds in the US - the ability to import and implant embryos was brand new. But Brandi McGrath of Black Sheep Ranch in Oakdale California had acquired 2-3 of the original rams. Better still she offered breeding to outside ewes.
In May of 2023 the whole flock took a road trip to Oakdale (Brandi is a kind person and let Gilda and Frankie tag along). It was great to meet another breeder and talk with her about her adventures and glean a little of what she has learned along the way. Best of all was meeting Atticus, her beautiful Ram selected for the job. The sheep had a lovely weekend away and I picked them up a few days later. They were unscathed except for some chalk on thier butts indicating that they had been mated. Penny and Miss Muffet were clearly marked, Tessa had a little chalk but we had our doubts about her status.
A month after returning home and a round of blood tests determined that only Penny (F1) was pregnant. This was very discouraging as I was really hoping to move along in my breed up program. I scheduled the ultrasound tech for Penny and started to explore other options half-heartedly. Krista the tech came out and found that Penny was once again carrying twins. Yay Penny! The vet had told me that the blood test for pregnancies in sheep was very reliable but when Krista generously offered to scan the other 2 ewes I accepted. Surprise! Muffet was pregnant with twins as well and we were back in business. Thank you Krista!
A delayed but happy update
When we left off last I was waiting for twin lambs from Penny and Miss Muffet. I checked my lambing supplies and invested in a barn camera system. The lambs were due in early October. If you are a Northern Californian, you may recall that the beginning of October 2023 came with a heat wave. Never a happy pattern for extremely pregnant creatures. Poor Penny spent several days with her head directly in front of a fan that I dug up. Muffet seemed less bothered and was not as obviously ready to be done with the whole thing. Of course as a maiden she really had no idea what was coming.
The night of October 5th I was waking up every 2 hours to check the camera. I checked it at 10, I checked at 12, I checked at 2 – all was quiet, sheep lying down. I have a baby monitor set up as well – it has alerted me to a cast horse and I kind of like going to sleep to the sound of horses munching on hay (you might have to be a horse person to get that). At about 3:15 am I heard the unmistakable sounds of mama and baby bleating. New rule, need to check playback on the camera for a few min before assessing that everything is quiet vs. just a brief lull in the midst of labor.
But never fear – out I rushed to find a healthy lamb. Unfortunately, both ewes were attempting to bond with the baby. Knowing that Penny was much closer to lambing I confidently hustled Miss Muffet out of the lambing stall prior to putting Penny and lamb in the lambing jug. Closing the door I looked down at Muffet to see the afterbirth hanging down. Opened door – let Muffet back in and attempted to push a vastly pregnant and uncooperative Penny out of the jug away from “her” baby. I don’t recommend it.
Once reunited with her baby Muffet began to clean it off and then promptly delivered her second lamb once realizing the coast was clear. And then another. Yep – triplets for this first-time Mom. All 3 healthy ewe lambs. What a wonder!
By this time Penny was laboring hard. I’m not sure if it was just that I don’t recall that first lambing with Gilda and Frankie well enough or if this round truly seemed to take a little longer. In due course Penny delivered 2 large male lambs with no assistance from me. I did step in to help dry them off after which I sat down to bask in the joy of new life. Then I noticed that there seemed to be another sack of water with a black center poking out of Penny. Yep triplets for Penny too! A ewe lamb this time.
Then I realized that my flock had just more than doubled in size. And I would need a larger barn.
An ode to the Valais Blacknose Sheep
I highly recommend surrounding yourself with Valais lambs whenever possible. As the proud shepherdess to Louisa, Brownie, Wanda, Domino, Yahtzee, and Bandita, here is what I can report. It is good, very good, to spend hours each evening in the sheep barn. Something about sitting with a Valais lamb on your lap with another demanding attention at your feet and one nibbling on your jacket lowers your blood pressure better than any drug.
What doesn’t lower your blood pressure is walking into the barn to find a 4 day old Louisa stuck in a big water bucket. Visions of hypothermia danced in my head. This of course was the lamb with the best markings that I had decided to keep. I grabbed towels, dried her off and force fed her an energy drink (for lambs). She was unfazed and went back to her pals immediately. I checked the camera and determined that she had been in the bucket for a total of 30 seconds. Realizing that “what-if” was not a game I wanted to play, I put it mostly out of my head (after raising the bucket up out of lamb jumping height).
As they grew, we added in play nights where the lambs were let out of the sheep area into the barn aisle to romp and cause havoc. They ran up the aisle, they ran down the aisle, they jumped up and kicked out and twisted their hips as if there were music playing. They found brooms to eat, they attempted to scale bales of straw and shavings and fell back to the cement to try again.
They have never met a human they didn’t like and spent time on many laps. Brownie in particular was content to sit on a lap until the human’s legs fell asleep. Everyone needs a Valais.
P.S. Domino and Yahtzee are now living their best life in Southern California with a host of other animals who make up a traveling petting zoo operation. They have been given crazy topknot hairdos and seem to be living a happy life. Wanda is still here but is scheduled to head to a new home in Oakdale with Brandi (owner of Atticus). Louisa and Brownie are staying. That leaves Bandita still looking for her forever home. Needless to say she would like to be your best friend.
2024 – What happened to you?
Apparently I overlooked updating my blog for an entire year. In my defense I was very busy doing sheepish things. Since what’s done is done, let’s just go over a few highlights from last year and move on, shall we?
January – National Western Stock Show in Denver, Co. Off to volunteer in the Valais Blacknose Sheep Society (VBSS) booth for a few days. The show runs for 2 weeks each year and has every type of livestock represented. VBSS hosts a booth with information on the breed and a rotating set of lambs available for petting. Over 670,000 people attended and I think most of them came by the booth to see the sheep! Personally I learned so much from Ann Davis and her husband who rearrange their life and farm to make the booth happen supported by a crew of volunteers. I soaked up everything I could about the breeding business, event hosting and my fellow enthusiasts.
March – Gilda had her first set of twins but fair warning - this is not a happy ending sort of story. The lambs were very small and one did not take a breath. The 2nd weighed just 2.5 lbs and did pretty well as a bottle baby but possibly because of some physical issues or just being raised without other lambs never really transitioned to the barn. I was heartbroken when Thumbelina died of injuries sustained in the pasture in May. Lots of lessons learned – breeding ewe lambs too early, breeding a single ewe so you don’t have a good chance of playmates for any bottle babies to name a few. Installed more fencing to keep the sheep and horses in separate spaces.
May – Farm Trails Spring Open Farm Days. This event is put on by the Sonoma Farm Trails organization and many member farms open their doors to share what they do with the public. It poured rain for most of Saturday but still people came to see the sheep! One couple came from Los Angeles purely to meet the Valais. Sunday was a much better day weather-wise. It was heartwarming to meet all the folks who just wanted to see what a sheep operation looked like or take a selfie with the “cutest sheep in the world”.
September – Off to Des Moines, Iowa to the National Valais Sheep Show. Hundreds of breeders, vendors and most of all Valais Blacknose sheep in all their glory. 3 days of educational talks, shows, a costume competition and some shopping. There was a day of competition for the breed up sheep with each generation added Valais genetics showing through. The F4’s definitely look like Valais although we don’t consider them American Purebreds until we get to F5 (97% Valais). The last day was a feast (for the eyes) of Purebred Valais. For the first time, 2 Rams were graded against the breed standard and given “Maximum Points” by the judges. A huge accomplishment for our nascent breeding programs in the U.S.
Footnote* I did not buy any live sheep in Iowa. I might have agreed to purchase some embryo’s from the wonderful folks at Brock Valais Blacknose Sheep, New Zealand.
October – Frantically researched where I could find recipient ewes to carry the embryos and a qualified vet to implant said purebred embryos, not to mention how to wire funds to New Zealand to pay for them. Did I mention my friend, Brandi of Black Sheep Ranch was on the crazy train with me? With the help of a great local club lamb breeder we found that there was a clinic with a well known repro vet coming at the end of October who could do the implanting and they had recipient ewes we could acquire that they would prep. At the end of October we made the leap.
November – Finished breeding my 5 ewes (Miss Muffet, Gilda, Lou, Brownie, and Bandita).
December – Vet scans determined that out of the 5 ewes bred in the Fall, all were pregnant with a total of 13 lambs! Very excited to see more F3 lambs and can’t wait to see the first F4’s out of my breeding program. On the purebred endeavor, we found out Brandi and I each had 1 pregnant ewe out of the 5 ewes/embryo’s we tried. A pretty normal success rate – not that we wouldn’t have been happy with more. On the other hand lambing space was becoming a bit of a problem for me.