I regularly get hits on ”Bowmont sheep” or variations Please use the link to our website HERE For more detailed information.
Our Logo used in association with our flock and products
The Bowmont was developed 25 years ago by The Macaulay Institute in Scotland (MLURI) to be an extra source of income for struggling Scottish hill farmers. The idea was to produce a hardy hill sheep with the finest possible quality wool. They crossed white Shetland ewes with fine Saxon Merino ram semen sourced from the best flocks in Australia and New Zealand and crossed the resulting females back to more Merino semen to ensure the best quality genetics. That 75% cross was then “tweaked” with additional Merino input. Some of the sheep were much more than 75% Merino. The resources and the huge bank of semen was there to allow all of this genetic improvement but it still took 20 years of very hard work and refinement to produce the Bowmonts I have here today, i.e good consistent animals which produce fleeces between 14 and 19 microns.
Ram 17.5micron, 16.5micron SF, 17% CV 118.3 Curve aged 3yrs
There was never much interest in the project by Scottish hill farmers largely because they wanted bigger meat lambs from the Bowmont (which will produce a hill type lamb if run at a minimal level) and kept crossing them out to other breed rams so losing the wool quality. This exasperated the scientists who were working on the project and they quickly lost faith in the ability of the early partner farmers to “stick to the rules”!
The sheep were hardy but not quite as tough as was thought at first and failed to thrive in the harsh hill environment of the Scottish borders. The same problem arose in Wales when ADAS bought some and promptly lost many through weather conditions on their high hill research station. The Welsh flock also had a big problem with Johnes disease and lost many without intitally realising why. They also crossed out to more Shetland rams to increase hardiness and lost wool quality.
The very small Bowmont flock in Wales has now gone and the project closed. In its last years it was not breeding any pure Bowmonts at all having crossed out to other Shetlands to try to improve hardiness. They could not keep them alive in their extremely harsh conditions. The Bowmont Braf wool they produced (Braf by the way is Welsh for wool and is not a sign that the sheep is Welsh!!) was from the cross-bred sheep they were producing in the later part of the project and has now finished.
My pure Bowmont sheep were bought in 2005 from the MLURI research farm in Scotland after a great deal of thought. I was conscious of some pressure on me by the staff up there to keep the breed going. They knew I had their cashmere goats and was interested in fibre quality above everything else. It was a big commitment, taking on the result of 20+ years work by a very dedicated, high powered team of staff. I am very fortunate that they have all continued their strong interest in these animals (and the cashmere goats) and fall over backwards to help me at every turn. I also have very strong connections with the Superfine Wool industry in Australia and their technical expertise is enormously helpful to me.
Each sheep has a pedigree longer than mine and can be traced back to the original cross. Each sheep also has full fibre test details. This is something which is not an “optional extra” but an essential part of maintaining a wool flock. Claims of quality are meaningless unless they can be backed up by pure science.
The rams I used for breeding this year (2011/12) have Mean Fibre Diameter results of 14.6, 14.7, 15.1, 16.7, 17.1, 17.4, and 18.1 microns respectively with a CV of under 20. This puts these rams in the Super Fine Merino class and, on a world stage, classes their wool as fine as cashmere. Ages ranges from 2-4yrs for these results. Testing and checking quality is an obsession. You cannot BEGIN to produce fine wool or cashmere if you have no testing programme. It is extremely expensive. Over £1000 a year here goes on testing Bowmont and cashmere samples.
I have the highest possible export health status here and belong to schemes (Maedi Visna and Scrapie) run by SRUC which require blood tests at regular intervals and adherence to very strict rules. I have also embarked on an extensive programme of semen and embryo storage to preserve the original bloodlines and also the new ones I have created. I am committed to keeping these sheep going. They are well worth it!
Going back to basics and starting new bloodlines from Merino Shetland crosses is not an option to increase numbers. I’ve had long discussions with the original scientists involved and all have said the same thing – a few animals would be pointless. When they started they had HUNDREDS of ewes bred to Merinos. It was from that point that there was 20 years of selection work done. Quality of the initial animals is key . Remember not everything called Merino is a fine wool producer! Merino is a general term applied to many varieties of fine wool sheep in the world but without PROVEN origin and a history of wool testing to establish quality and consistency they are not candidates for use. Amateur crossing of a few mediocre animals will NEVER produce a consistent, quality result.
The wool of course is to die for!!! I have small amounts of fleece for sale to hand spinners each year but the vast majority goes to Finisterre my company buyer which is backing me all the way and is committed to the sheep for the forseeable future. I have to honour that commitment by giving them as much fleece as possible so the amounts for hand spinning are limited. This is the trade-off I must make in order to ensure a future for these sheep. So to those who have asked for whole fleeces and been offered 100g, that’s the reason!!
Please note: WE DO NOT SELL BREEDING STOCK. The sheep are a unique, very precious genetic resource and we need all we have to develop and further refine the wool. In addition they require extensive knowledge and understanding of fine wool science to do them justice, something we are still learning of course but which we have now have 8 years experience of.
Type Bowmont into the SEARCH button on the RHS of this Blog to find all my posts about the sheep. Or see Devon Fine Fibres where there is an extensive page on the animals.
Update Autumn 2012:
Had a visit from the ex Farm Manager of the Bowmont/Cashmere project who wrote “Excellent work being done here”. The James Hutton Institute (the new name for the MLURI) also commented that the Fine Fibre Project “is clearly in a safe pair of hands.” Was I pleased? What do you think!
Keep up the good work!
–jayne, the sergeant majorette
By: sgt majorette on February 8, 2012
at 3:48 pm
hi Jayne,
Thanks! I can’t tell you how much I value the comments and support of all you good folks on line. It really helps keep me going when people value what I’m trying to do here.
Farming is a tough, lonely life particularly in an Exmoor winter.
By: devonfinefibres on February 8, 2012
at 4:09 pm
I would like to add my support too Lesley; knitting is an obsession of mine and though I love knitting with merino wool it seems crazy to me that it has to come from the other side of the planet when you have what sounds like the perfect breed to generate a thriving market here in the UK. I’m a bit pernickity about buying British wool whenever I can and I hope that soon an open-minded farmer will see the light and work alongside yourself, and maybe ease your load a little. However, I also agree that a genuine interest in the breed is essential.
Lindsey
By: Lindsey Glew on February 9, 2012
at 1:08 pm
What an incredibly useful and interesting post! I’ve been reading Clara Parkes’ book on wool, but this will just add to it. I’m hoping to be able to order some wool from you in the not too distant future!
PS I bought a wool duvet on the strength of your post too, and we (hubby and I) absolutely love it! Thank you for the recommendation.
By: auntieboo on February 11, 2012
at 12:30 pm
I have followed you for a couple of years. I look forward to the day I can have more of your Bowmont fiber. A friend in the UK traded with me for some Cormo and I received one ounce of your precious fiber washed. Living in the US I am very happy for all that you are doing to keep this breed going, thank you!
By: Kim MacKenzie on February 18, 2012
at 6:00 pm
Thank you Kim. I do try very hard to maintain the quality. There are other keepers of “Bowmonts” out there who have crossed out to other breeds and who do not test their fibre. It’s a case of buyer beware.
How much longer I will be able to do it I dont know. It’s a labour of love.
By: devonfinefibres on February 19, 2012
at 5:11 am
A superbly informative post.
I have been following your blog for a while now, but had never quite managed to understand the full picture re: Bowmont Brafs in this country. I’d heard of the sheep in Wales, and of the original flock in Scotland, but in this post I really feel you explained how your flock has come about, and the relationship between your animals and those other Bowmont flocks.
I have just one question left. I was talking with my partner the other day about sheep (we talk about sheep a lot; we want to keep Portlands in the future) and we were trying to understand whether Bowmont Brafs now constitute a distinctive new breed – like the Wensleydale, or the Shetland or the Herdwick – or whether they will always been considered a merino/shetland crossbred sheep? I hope that isn’t a really stupid question, but your work and the work of the Macauley Institute remind me in some ways of Robert Bakewell’s 1700s sheep-breeding project, and I believe that many of our “heritage” breeds – like the Wensleydale, in fact – are the result of his cross-breeding activities.
So is the Bowmont Braf our newest British Sheep Breed or is that not quite how you see it?
By: Felicity Ford on February 22, 2012
at 10:16 am
Braf means “wool” in Welsh I believe. The Welsh flock, as far as I’m aware, is more Shetland than Merino since they slaughtered their last generation of pure lambs because they were not doing very well. We rescued 4 ewe lambs with accurate pedigree info from original mothers/fathers and the rest were going to slaughter that week. That generation’s father was a ram from my flock (so the ewe lambs were 50% my blood) which they bought from me the year before. I believe he died like many others on their very high hill land.
Before buying my ram they had added more Shetland into the mix to try to keep the sheep hardy as they never did well in the Welsh mountains. They contacted me and I sold them a ram to help them try to get back on track as the Shetland had lowered the wool quality. They also had a problem with Johnes disease which didnt help. They were a waste of time and money for them as a commercial venture. They really do not do well in high country.
We call our sheep Bowmont Merinos since they are mainly Merino with a v small dash of Shetland. The original double cross animal was crossed back to other Australain Merino semen occasionaly during the Macaulay project so some animals were 80-90% Merino. I have all the original breeding records here for every sheep I had from the MLURI (and of course for many others from the original flock – now long dead).
Our sheep produce wool within a very narrow quality tested range – cant speak for anyone else who says they have Bowmonts. We are obsessed with maintaining the highest quality, stable fleece that the Macaulay finally ended up with after 25 years hard work. One outcrossing back to Shetland (or to anything else – I’ve heard farmers used Scotch Blackface, Dorsets and others in the early days in Scotland) will totally ruin that and make the fleece worthless in the market I am working in. We have never kept any other sheep on our farm and have health status rules here which mean other animals are not allowed onto our property. All our sheep are provably pure descendants from the original MLURI flock. The Farm Manager there told me that there was not one other pure flock (obviously I was hoping to work with others). All who had Bowmonts originally had crossed out to other breeds at some point. This was, and remains, a great shame since I was naturally expecting to be able to work with others.
Breed societies rarely work for a commercial sheep like this. The whole point about the Bowmont as originally bred was that it was a COMMERCIAL animal. Not meant for small holders or hobby farmers. There are no “breed societies” in the Australian Merino industry. Only alliances of like minded breeders who produce Merino wool within very tight quality bands. There are groupings for Fine Merino breeders, Superfine and also for Mutton Merinos plus others. It’s the quality of the wool that defines wether you belong to one group or another – not the name of your sheep!! I firmly believe in this approach where the purpose of the animal is the priority.
By: devonfinefibres on February 22, 2012
at 10:49 am
Thanks for explaining about the “Braf” part – I guess that part of the name only really applied to the Welsh flock.
Very interesting what you say about breed societies, too. What you say makes sense – in my experience (which is admittedly extremely limited) breed societies work to protect and promote specific breeds by preserving their characteristics, while the flock books keep track of the bloodlines. The general character of a breed might be altered by specialising – as you do – on something as specific as fibre diameter or micron count. Perhaps for the purposes of maintaining the quality of a commercial product – like wool – preserving the general character of the breed isn’t the focus, hence breed societies are not as relevant. I hope I’ve understood, thank you for explaining.
By: Felicity Ford on February 22, 2012
at 12:16 pm
How are they for wrinkles?
By: Kit Munro on November 10, 2012
at 5:51 pm
Very very few. They were purposely bred out in the v early days. Plainer bodied rams were used to start with and then selection was directed accordingly.
Of course this means less skin ans therefore less fleece. It’s a tough trade off!
By: devonfinefibres on November 10, 2012
at 6:35 pm
Good work, from the shearers perspective you made the right decision. It might not be as much a trade off as you think…
Consult your edition of “Sheep Management and Diseases” H G Belschner, the sheep farmers bible.
My edition (circa 1950) states at page 115:
“…actually the tendency amongst merino sheep breeders generally over a good many years has been to breed toward a plain bodied type of sheep. In this connection it has been interesting to note that, as far as can be gathered there has been no reduction in wool production”
The classer I work with is adamant that kempy fibers are highly undesirable, and wrinkles produce wool with kempy fibers. Moreover, with a wrinkly sheep the result is uneven fleece wool. To that end, the classer I work with has spent thirty years breeding plain bodied Merinos.
My blog is riddled with posts that have pictures of these merinos if you are interested.
By: Kit Munro on November 13, 2012
at 2:44 am