Black Cheviots?

TexelBen

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
North Yorkshire
Seen a few posts about black Cheviots on Facebook, all seem to be American, are they a thing in the UK?
Are they any different apart from the colour?
bbd19e70966d0605c7bbaf734ef01a6a.jpg
 

TexelBen

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
North Yorkshire
They are common here, too. Black is a recessive gene, comes through every now and again.

Exactly the same as a 'normal' white Cheviot, but black.
Ewe lambs usually get pulled out/sold on their own - money for the kids...
Good to know, I'd never come across any before.
You don't fancy selling them as blue Cheviots then? They could be the next big thing! [emoji16]
 

AftonShepherd

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
East Ayrshire
I had 2 in my first 13 years working with Cheviots, then 10 in 2 years, then none last year. No idea why the 10 as they're out of at least 3 different tups. Kept 4 black ewe lambs and the 2 that lambed last year had pairs of white lambs.
 

Bill dog

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Scottish Borders
I’ve a black Cheviot/ easyram texel shearling tup that is my 7 yr old sons . Kept him to be a teaser, but the young un refused to let the vet near him with a scalpel!:cool:
So this yr he helped the 2 Suffolk’s with the 150 commercial lleyns and romtex ewes ! Will be an interesting lambing !:rolleyes::ROFLMAO:
 

Nithsdale

Member
Livestock Farmer
Good to know, I'd never come across any before.
You don't fancy selling them as blue Cheviots then? They could be the next big thing! [emoji16]


I think it's pretty rare for a black Cheviot to give black lambs... you'd need to do a bit of genetic selection to create a Black strain of Cheviots.

Or thinking about it - if you put a black tip to black ewes you MIGHT get black lambs, it'd definitely increase the chances of it.
 

Old Tip

Member
Location
Cumbria
I have a black tip only true black lamb I’ve had in thirty years of breeding Cheviots. Got a fair few ewes with black patches and one that has a complete black saddle.
 

yellowbelly

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
N.Lincs
Or thinking about it - if you put a black tip to black ewes you MIGHT get black lambs, it'd definitely increase the chances of it.
.....you WILL.....
A black tup (2 recessive genes for black) on a black ewe (2 recessive genes for black) = black lambs

Oh so the black is suitably recessive that my black tup should throw mostly white lambs! I’ll be keeping the ewe lambs then , winner winner !:)
If your ewes are homozygous for white then you'll get all white lambs, BUT they will all carry one black gene. When you breed them to a black tup you've then got a 1 in 3 chance of 'em throwing a black lamb, the others will be white (but black carriers).
That's how black genes get 'hidden' in a population and then. from time to time, black sheep pop up from nowhere, as if by magic.
 

Alias

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Lancashire
Happy to be corrected but iirc black sheep cannot be registered with the society
It must be possible to register black cheviots because the Kelso flock had one in at the Clitheroe society sale about 3 years ago. He said that he has a flock of them which he runs separate from the rest.
 

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