History of the Bluefaced Leicester

Bluefaced Leicester sheep evolved near Hexham in Northumberland at the beginning of the 1900’s. They are descendants of Robert Bakewells’ improved Dishley Leicester. They were bred to produce top quality crossbred ewes from the ‘native’ Blackface and Swaledale draft ewes. It was found that a darker coloured ram, with a finer skin ‘fleece’ produced a better cross ewe from the blackfaced hill ewes, a cross traditionally called the ‘Mule’. From its original home in the Northern Pennine’s, the Bluefaced Leicester has spread through the upland areas of England, Scotland, Wales, and into Northern Ireland.

In the 1970’s there was an importation into Canada and from there they migrated down into the USA. Recent interest in the Bluefaced Leicester in the USA has given way to the importation of frozen semen from the United Kingdom to expand the genetic base of the Bluefaced Leicester in the USA. With that has come new interest in the breed and expansion from a handful of small flock to a rapidly expanding group of breeders with an increasing number of new registrations from the East to the West coast.

 

General Appearance

The Bluefaced Leicester should have a broad muzzle, good mouth, a roman nose, bright alert eyes, and long erect ears. The color of the head skin should be dark blue showing through white hair, with no wool on the head, or neck. Both sexes are polled. There should be a good length of neck laid into broad shoulders, a good ‘spring of rib’, a long strong back, with no weakness behind the shoulder. The hind-quarters should be broad and deep, the legs clean, well positioned and strong boned. The rams have a proud, stately carriage and the ewes exhibit a feminine look. The wool should be tightly purled, fine, dense, semi-lusterous and opening cleanly to the skin.

 

Color: The Bluefaced Leicester, though predominately a white wool breed, does carry a recessive black gene and natural colored lambs do appear. On a white animal, small dark spots are permissible on the face, ears, neck and legs. Lips and nostrils are preferably black, mottled grey is acceptable.

 

Wool: The Bluefaced Leicester is classified as a Longwool breed with a staple length of 3- 6”, a fleece weight of 3 to 6 lbs., and a fiber diameter of 56s – 60s count, or 24-28 microns, creating high quality luster yarns with beautiful drape.

 

Size: The adult Bluefaced Leicester has one of the largest body weights of the British breeds, some rams having been weighed at over 3 cwt. In spite of this size, when mated to the smaller hill type ewe, the ewe is able to carry and lamb its crossbred progeny without the slightest difficulty. A ram at maturity should weigh 250-300 lbs. They have an excellent disposition and are quite manageable despite their size. Ewes will typically weigh 170-220 lbs. at maturity.

 

Lambing Percentage: The Bluefaced Leicester is the most prolific of all the native British breeds of sheep. It is quite common for registered flocks to achieve a lamb crop in excess of 250 percent. The ewe has the milking ability to match these multiple births.

 

Health: In the United Kingdom there has never been a recorded case of scrapie in a purebred Bluefaced Leicester. Because of their genetic resistance to scrapie, many Blackfaced Hill sheep are being crossbred with the Bluefaced Leicester to improve the scrapie resistance of the ‘Mule’ population, which is the backbone of the UK sheep industry.

 

Recent Events: The Bluefaced Leicester Breeders Association (BFLBA) is a dedicated group of American breeders, intent on the preservation and expansion of this magnificent breed. The original rescue and preservation work began in 1995, with a handful of breeders and the purchase and division of two North American flocks, one from Nova Scotia, the other from Virginia. Then came the task of tracing lineage and crossing the two flocks for the first few years until new genetics could be obtained and imported.

In 1997, the first ewes underwent Laparoscopic Artificial Insemination at Michigan State University using frozen semen from two of the three original UK collected sires. The following year a ‘natural colored’ UK Bluefaced Leicester ram was collected and added to the imported gene pool. The most recent events have been several trips to the UK for the purpose of bloodline selection and the subsequent collection and import of several more rams to insure a diverse semen supply for the future generation of Bluefaced Leicesters.

 

Interest: The increase in popularity of the Bluefaced Leicester is a reflection of its success as a premier breed for the purebred production market, the hand spinners market, and as a sire of crossbred ‘Mules’. The Bluefaced Leicester is proving itself to be a truly multi-purpose breed.