Greyface Dartmoor Sheep

We have 2 pedigree Greyface Dartmoor sheep - Wilma and Merry. They came from a large registered show flock but neither made the grade due to Wilma being the wrong colour and Merry not having enough colour on her nose. Greyface Dartmoor sheep are bred to be white with a grey nose and grey freckles on their face but sometimes you get throwbacks and a coloured lamb appears - like Wilma. I specifically bought her because of her beautiful colouring and Merry was offered to me at the same time due to being unregisterable. She was a miserable looking tiny little scrap of a lamb but she is fast transforming. We also bought another lamb with these two a Greyface Dratmoor cross Gotland called Porridge. She had been destined to go to market with her twin brother and some other lambs but managed to escape back to the field when they were being loaded and saved herself from that fate. And then there are our other 3 Greyface Dartmoor cross girls, Alice, Nora & Dorris. Alice is crossed with a Wensleydale and Nora and Dorris are Valais Blacknose crosses. They came from a lovely little farm not too far away. They are the some of the most docile, friendly and huggable sheep you could meet. Since buying them me and their breeder kept in contact and became friends, which resulted in a few more of their past woolly companions joining my flock too. I have become a huge fan of the Greyface Dartmoor breed and their unique fleece. Click on their photos to read a bit more about each of them and see more pictures.

Greyface Dartmoor sheep are incredibly cute, quiet and easy to handle. They have beautiful long lustre wool that is surprisingly soft it was traditionally used for blankets and carpets. They are descended from breeds that grazed the Dartmoor lowlands. In the 19th-century local Longwool breeds and the Leicester breed was used to 'improve' them. They are a medium size very stocky sheep and their fleece can grow up to 7-9 kg in a year! They make good mums and produce a lot of milk for their lambs. Compared to a lot of modern breeds Greyface Dartmoors are very slow growing and can take 3 years to fully mature.