After initially trying a few other breeds we ultimately ended up with Romneys because of their hardiness in damp weather, their natural resistance to hoof rot, their ease at lambing, their gentle demeanor around dogs, and their fine quality fleece. Fleece weight and lambing rates are often much higher on improved pastures, however it is important to remember that these sheep were often expected to survive on very little at certain times of the year. In 1904, William Riddell and Sons of Monmouth, Oregon, imported the first Romneys to North America, where their popularity increased rapidly. When we first got into sheep we had started with Shetlands. Their wool is quite long and full giving them a soft teddy bear appearance. Henry Fell, in Intensive Sheep Management posits that the Romney is, “A breed which ha[s] all the virtues save one, that of prolificacy… will thrive happily at extraordinary densities and seems to enjoy it.” A number of large Romney flocks in New Zealand have in the last several decades achieved better than 1.7 lambs for every ewe exposed to the ram, showing much better prolificacy than Fell had observed in England. Whether shorn once or twice a year, the wool clip from the purebred Romney flock is sought by commercial wool buyers and craftspeople. The Romney Marsh is a fertile piece of low-lying wetland which lies on the south-east corner of Britain. Often swept with harsh winds and heavy rainfall, the Kent landscape is abundant with lush forage. Romneys come in an assortment of colors: very white, cream, or a variety of blue greys, charcoals, very light greys, very black, and even an occasional brown. The American Romney fulfills these needs, and will continue to be increasingly important in both large and small commercial programs. Though less commercially valuable than solid white sheep, natural color fleece demand has grown considerably among knitters and weavers and thus natural color Romneys are starting to become relatively common once again. Black with slate gray is preferred over black with pink. Its origin lies with the old, established dual purpose Romney Marsh breed which was improved with Leicester blood in the nineteenth century. Please provide a description of this breed as well
It is said that you can graze Romneys 4 to an acre on marginal pastures but up to 8 per acre on optimal sites; hence, it really does pay to manage your grass wisely. Project initiated April, 1994 - Initial web site opened February 22, 1995. Additional submission information. A handspinning-quality fleece may often sell for three to ten times what a commercial buyer would pay for it. We use a grass/alfalfa mix or 1st cutting alfalfa at the very most with 2nd or 3rd cutting alfalfa generally being considered too rich for the sheep and mostly avoided. The breed was recognized in it’s native area by the 1800s. William Riddell is credited as being the first person to import Romney Sheep into the United States. However they were mostly quite flighty around people and we found out quickly that they were very dominant around dogs choosing to bully them at almost every opportunity that they got. Our sheep always have access to fresh hay, even when they’re brought in at night, and to date we’ve been fortunate enough to have had few run ins with bloat (a big knock on wood). The idea is to try to graze the warm season pasture more heavily during the heat and dryness of the summer after all of the cool season grasses have gone dormant; it also provides much better habitat for some of the local wildlife (i.e. It is yet to be determined though if the sheep will graze any of these North American native grasses or how well they will tolerate the flooding themselves. The wool covers its head but leaves it wide face clean which is covered by a fine white hair emphasizing their black noses. The Romney Sheep breed is a large breed of sheep that is sturdy with a long well-developed body and has wool from head to hoof. dogs may put on it. Demands by consumers for lean cuts of meat from well-muscled carcasses make it evident that the future of the lamb market rests with breeds having these attributes. A pink nose should be considered a disqualification in any color Romney. We try to cull out any stock which we deem to be “excessively vocal” as we don’t want sheep which do nothing more than sit around the pasture bleating all day long unprovoked and we also remove any unusually aggressive and temperamental animals from the breeding flock as well. Due to the similar land topography and weather conditions, the Romney breed made an easy transition to New Zealand and the Falkland Islands, where it became quickly established and still remains the predominant breed. Sheep also seem to be more vulnerable early in the spring as soon as they’re introduced to fresh pasture for the year. Romney breeding began to decline and demand had shifted toward solid white fleeced animals with natural color (NC) sheep being mostly bred out of the remaining population.