Bellestyle 686/B1 (E)

                                               Old Parks 111/C15

                                   Old Parks 111/G61

                       Old Parks 111/K66

            Old Parks 111/M39 (RS) Codon: RR

 

Morlea ‘Ebony Boy’ 1907/N74

                                                                                   Wallholme 60/S4

                                                                       Lowes Fell 50/A5

                                                           Crossrigg 606/C3

                                               Dungoil 2303/E3

                                   Mill House 165/F16

                       Gwestydd ‘Goliath’ 2100/H1 (E)

            Morlea 1907/ K24

                                               Jerriestown 567/C12

                                   Castellau T 1531/D2

                       Morlea 1907/F19

 

~ Born: March 1998

 

~ Color: Black

 

~ Semen imported: 2001

 

~ Breeder & Owner: Jeff & Christina Leake ‘Morlea’

 

~ In 1998 the Morlea flock was one of 13 founding member flocks involved in the establishment of the UK’s Sire Reference Scheme ‘SRS”. The SRS is a group of Bluefaced breeders that select rams based on ‘Lean Index’. Lambs enrolled are evaluated at 8 & 21 weeks for weight, and assessment of carcass and structure at 21 weeks.

 

~ Ebony Boy was selected for collection for several reasons. The first in that he was the highest indexing Bluefaced Leicester ram lamb in 1998 in the SRS (index of 170). The other was that he was a natural coloured ‘black’ Bluefaced Leicester and the hope were that his genetics could improve the chance of producing colored offspring in the USA flocks. As a side note, the UK Bluefaced Leicester Sheep Breeders Association does not recognize or register the coloured progeny produced by pedigreed white Bluefaced Leicesters. The decision was made by several of the foundingUSA producers to accept Ebony Boy as a registered, purebred Bluefaced Leicester for the purpose of fixing coloured genetics into theUSA gene pool.

 

~ There were a limited number of Ebony straws imported to the USA and as a result those genetics are not as abundant as the first three UK imports. The first shipment to Elite Genetics was damaged during import and the tank malfunctioned. The straws that remained in the UK were later secured and their import and subsequent use was arranged by one of the USA breeders. The first Ebony Boy progeny were born late March 2002.

 

* highlighted text denotes a duplication of previously imported bloodlines