Kerry Hills

Since 2006 we have been working to establish a small flock of Kerry Hill sheep here in the US. Difficult to do when they don't exist in the US and you can't import them from the UK due to USDA regulations. So what to do? Breed up.

It goes something like this:

We began what seemed like a simple process of finding a Kerry Hill breeder in the UK that wouldn't mind helping out by having Kerry Hill ram semen collected (from 2 rams), then frozen, then shipped.

Then there was the matter of getting some ewes (we found some lovely cheviots) and then a vet capable of artificially inseminating (AI) our ewes (apparently this is laproscopic surgery for sheep and you can't just run them down to the vet clinic down the street).

Then there is the birth, and the hoping for ewe lambs (0% KH Mom plus 100% KH Dad=50% KH lambs). Getting little boys for your trouble isn't the end of the world, but you can't artificially inseminate them...first they don't appreciate it and second you get nothing for your trouble.

Once the 50% girls are old enough you AI them and the resulting lambs are 75% KH (50% Mom+ 100% Dad= 75% lamb) Then those ewe lambs are AI'd and their progeny will be 87.5% and their AI progeny will be 93.75%, and their AI progeny will be 97%. You'll never get to purebred this way, but most breed registries that recognize 'breeding-up' shoot for 97% or 15/16 pure.

The picture on this post is one of our 50% ewes (Bella) with her 75% ram lamb (the ram lamb 'prince' also on the side-bar with a 75% ewe lamb). So we're 2/5s of the way there, and this blog will describe our efforts.

Hope you enjoy.