Valais at Gratitude Acres

The wonderful world of Valais Blacknose Sheep!

NEWS: We have partnered with CCM Valais Blacknose Sheep in the UK and are now offering semen, embryos, bred ewes and purebred lambs!

Pictures, pedigrees and details

The question of which foundation breed to use is a much-discussed topic. Horns vs no horns, size and type of wool comes into play. I chose Cotswsold ewes as foundations because of their similarities in size and wool. The Valais standard wants well defined staples with a lot of shine/luster to them. And the Cotsolds have all of that! We brought all of our ewe lambs (2 F1’s and one F2) to the 2022 NJ sheep and Fiber show and showed them in the wool class- a class of 12. They placed First, second and fourth. Their wool is phenomenal and the judge thought so too!

Why Valais Blacknose Sheep?

The short answer is because they are the most personable, loving, cuddly sheep ever! Falling in love with Valais Blacknose Sheep happens instantly. However; getting your hands on them was impossible at the time I first learned about them. Years later I realized that we could get our very own by participating in a Breed Up Program. We jumped in with both feet; clearing land, building shelters, putting up fencing, acquiring foundation ewes, going through the AI process and then what seemed to be an endless wait to finally be able to welcome our own very first F1’s. We added Embryo Transfers during our third breeding season and ended up with our own 100% purebred ram. And he’s not the last one, as we’re doing it again in October. It’s official- we’re even more in love now!! We welcome you to come visit us, but please be forewarned: You will lose your heart to these wonderful sheep!!


Ongoing Support

We offer all our customers ongoing support. This means that we are happy to help during the process of acquiring sheep – no grudges should you chose to go elsewhere- we WANT you to be happy with your decision. We strive to be as open as we can and are happy to share what worked- and didn’t work- for us. We are there for all the questions you have after you take them home if you are new to sheep and we LOVE the pictures we get once our babies leave us showing us how happy they are in their new homes! We do hope to stay in touch and be able to count you as a member of our continuously growing sheep-family- sheep or no sheep. Stop by anytime for some sheep talk but be prepared to give back scratches to our girls!


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