A BROWN lamb?

By Lydia

A week ago Tuesday marks the date of the most exciting happening on our farm so far! Mercy, my first ewe lamb, completely surprised us by giving birth to two lambs of her own! I had no idea that she was pregnant! (I had just gotten her and her twin brother back last month after they had been away for five months on another farm. You might remember this story, from our post back on February 17th . . . “And This We Know ”. It is kind of a long story, but a blessed one!)

And that was not the only surprise . . . one of the two lambs is BROWN! Have you ever seen a brown sheep before? I never had! So . . . . we got to wondering . . . . who might be the ram that fathered these lambs? Quickly, we e-mailed the kind man who had adopted Mercy and Justice back in August. We told him about the new lambs, and wondered if he could tell us about his ram. He wrote back and said that he was an American Blackbelly ram. Since I had never heard of this breed before, I did some research!

This breed of sheep originally came from Africa and later to Barbados, which is part of the Caribbean islands off the coast of South America. This led me on a bit of a “sheep trail” in looking at their habitat on the island of Barbados. On an official Barbados site, the Blackbelly sheep are actually listed as their island’s wildlife, known to roam the countryside and even the town streets!

Eventually, they were brought to the United States with most herds found in Texas! And many are found on “game” ranches (more on this later).

Blackbelly’s are known to be quite wild and frisky. And I have noticed this in the lambs. They hop around a lot and jump on things, almost like goats!

The most amazing difference between my sheep and the American Blackbelly breed, is that they are not of the “wooly” variety . . . they are “hair” sheep. The rams also have a mane, almost like a lion’s! (We kids think that looks a little strange! You would never guess that they are sheep!)

Another huge difference is that the rams grow huge curling horns (similar to that of the Bighorn mountain sheep ram). If the horns were uncurled, they would be as tall as the ram, which is 30-32 inches! Some people use this breed specifically for the purpose of “trophies” on game ranches. Thankfully, the ewes are polled (meaning no horns), but may have loose horn “scours” (little stubs) that are not attached to the skull.

But the best thing about the Blackbellies is that they are resistant to parasites, hoof rot and tetanus! That will be such a blessing not to worry about them getting those sicknesses!

I also read that Blackbellies are known to keep their pregnancies a “secret”, and that sometimes the only way to tell that a Blackbelly is pregnant is when you see 4-8 little legs underneath the ewe! Hmmmm . . . I wonder if that could have affected Mercy’s ability to conceal her pregnancy? The ewes can have up to two pregnancies a year, and unlike most sheep, they can be bred at all times of the year.

I am planning to buy another Ridue-Arcott sheep, this time a ram, to breed with Mercy, and when they are ready, Shirley and Goodness. I am very curious to see what those lambs turn out to look like, because when you first cross a hair sheep with a wool sheep, they might not fully shed their wooly undercoat that is under their hair.

I am hoping that the sale of Shirley and Goodness’ lambs will be profitable because of the quality of the American Blackbelly’s meat. Unlike other breeds, it is supposed to be very mild, lean and tender.

I hope you enjoyed learning with me about this unfamiliar sheep breed. And stay tuned to see what this interesting sheep cross will turn out to be like in the future!