Valais Blacknose Sheep of Pennsylvania

Breed Up Program

While numbers of pure Valais are still limited in the United States, and rather expensive, there is still a way to own these sheep by breeding up.

Valais Blacknose Sheep of Pennsylvania has used Gotland sheep as their foundation ewes, as well as Scottish blackface. The foundation ewes are artificially inseminated with semen from a purebred VBN ram and the offspring is referred to as an F1. F1 ewes can then be mated with purebred VBN ram or again be artificially inseminated, and their offspring would be considered F2. This would need to be done for 5 generations to be considered an American purebred.

Embryos

When VBN embryos became available in the United States, we were eager to have purebreds! We purchased embryos and had 100% success rate! Now this doesn’t happen all of the time. The success rate is about 50%, however good pre-natal care, and an excellent reproductive specialist can improve those odds. The embryos are surgically placed inside of a recipient ewe who has lambed before, and 145 days later—God willing—a purebred lamb is born. Embryos can be purchased from breeders in New Zealand, the UK, Ireland, and even from breeders in the United States.