Swiss Valais Blacknose sheep on display at Braco Show
ByEwan Pate
Jenni McAllister and Raymond Irvine holding a couple of their sheep.
Some of the very first Swiss Valais Blacknose sheep in the country were on display at Braco Show last weekend.
Raymond Irvine and partner Jenni McAllister from Inverlochy, Tomintoul, were so fascinated by these large and extravagantly horned mountain sheep that they imported ewes and a ram and now have a flock of 14.
They mean to go to Switzerland in the autumn to follow the flocks of Valais Blacknose on their traditional annual migration down to the valley grazings from the high Alps.
The Valais Blacknose are predominantly reared for their meat but they produce an abundance of coarse “mattress type “ wool and are normally shorn in the spring and again in the autumn.
Swiss Valais Blacknose sheep on display at Braco Show
