lowri
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Manx Loaghtan sheepI woke up this morning to catch the "On Your Farm" slot on Radio 4, from the Isle of Man, all about Manx Loaghtan sheep. I have kept Manxes since 1993, but they are getting very long in the tooth (literally). My eldest, Bessie, is blind and has only one horn, but fit and healthy! (She is 15). Bambi is younger, at 13 or 14, fit as a fiddle. Toyah is a crossbred, a mistake, her father was a promiscuous crossbred (Manx x Texel), and her mother pure Manx. She is a lookalike, without horns. The fleece is the same. They haven't bred for 2 or 3 years, last time it was a bold ardent admirer (Welsh Mountain tup) who jumped the fence! They didn't all take (and I had 5 at that time). The carcass is superb, especially a Texel cross (but dreadful to lamb the crosses, too big, all have to be pulled).
My ideal would be to buy in a pure Manx ewe and 2 lambs next year, to introduce a bit of new blood, but then I get tangled up with micro-chipping, passports and heaven knows what, so I keep having rethinks. Maybe I'll just keep the old girls for fleece and to look at, it is useful to run sheep with the 2 ponies from the parasite point of view too. We shall see!! 
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