Scottish Blackface
In the Outer Hebrides | |
Ram and ewe | |
| Conservation status | |
|---|---|
| Other names |
|
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Use | meat |
| Traits | |
| Weight |
|
| Wool colour | white |
| Face colour | black, sometimes with white markings |
| Horn status | horned |
| |
The Blackface or Scottish Blackface is a British breed of sheep. It is the most common sheep breed of the United Kingdom. Despite the name, it did not originate in Scotland, but south of the border.[4]: 156
History
The origins of the breed are uncertain. It originated south of the Anglo-Scottish border, and did not arrive in the Highlands of Scotland until the second half of the eighteenth century.[4]: 157 It replaced the earlier Scottish Dun-face or Old Scottish Shortwool, a Northern European short-tailed sheep type probably similar to the modern Shetland.[4]: 156
There are several types of Blackface in the United Kingdom, including the Perth variety, which is large-framed and coarse-woolled, and found mainly in north-east Scotland, in Devon, in Cornwall and in Northern Ireland; the medium-framed Lanark type, with shorter wool, found in much of Scotland and in parts of Ireland; the more compact Galloway or Newton Stewart type, distributed in western and south-western Scotland, where rainfall is higher; and the smaller Lewis type of the Western Isles. There is also a Northumberland Blackface, which is large with relatively soft wool, but is not classed as a distinct type.[5]: 763 [6]
The Blackface is the most numerous sheep breed of the United Kingdom: in the last decade of the twentieth century, approximately 14% of all ewes in the country were of this breed. In the early 2000s there were some 1.5 to 1.7 million ewes, about half as many again as the number of Welsh Mountain ewes and more than double the number of Swaledale.[5]: 763 It is also present in small numbers in Canada, Colombia, France, Nepal, Norway and the USA.[5]: 763 [7]
Characteristics
The Blackface is always horned. The face and legs are black, sometimes with white markings.[8]: 43 Average body weights of sheep kept on hill pasture are approximately 50 kg for ewes and 80 kg for rams; sheep kept on lowlands may reach greater weights, up to 65 kg for ewes.[5]: 763
Use
The Blackface is reared principally for meat production,[2] usually through cross-breeding. Blackface ewes are commonly put to rams of crossing sire breeds: the Scotch Mule results from the cross with Blue-faced Leicester rams, and the Greyface from crossing with Border Leicester. Ewes of these cross-breeds retain some characteristics of each parent – maternal qualities and hardiness from the dam, and fecundity and meat quality from the sire – and are much used in commercial lowland sheep-rearing.[8]: 43 [5]: 906
The wool is very coarse, with a fibre diameter of 28–38 μm and a staple length of about 250–350 mm.[9] It may be used for mattresses, for carpets, or to make tweed.[8]: 43
References
- ^ Barbara Rischkowsky, Dafydd Pilling (editors) (2007). List of breeds documented in the Global Databank for Animal Genetic Resources, annex to The State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Rome: Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. ISBN 9789251057629. Archived 23 June 2020.
- ^ a b Breed data sheet: Blackface / United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Sheep). Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed December 2022.
- ^ Watchlist 2022–23. Kenilworth, Warwickshire: Rare Breeds Survival Trust. Archived 28 September 2022.
- ^ a b c M.L. Ryder (1968). Sheep and the Clearances in the Scottish Highlands: A Biologist's View. Agricultural History Review 16 (2): 155–158. Archived 9 March 2006.
- ^ a b c d e Valerie Porter, Lawrence Alderson, Stephen J.G. Hall, D. Phillip Sponenberg (2016). Mason's World Encyclopedia of Livestock Breeds and Breeding (sixth edition). Wallingford: CABI. ISBN 9781780647944.
- ^ The Blackface Breed. Blackface Sheep Breeders Association. Accessed November 2019.
- ^ Transboundary breed: Blackface. Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed November 2025.
- ^ a b c Susannah Robin Parkin (2015). British Sheep Breeds. Oxford: Shire Publications. ISBN 9780747814481.
- ^ Scottish Blackface. Directory of U.S. Sheep Breeds. American Sheep Industry Association, Production, Education and Research Council. Archived 19 July 2011.