Valais Blacknose

The breed belongs to the Upper Valais, in the canton of Valais and the Bernese Oberland, and its ancestry is documented as far back as the fifteenth century. The German name was settled in 1884 and the breed standard in 1962. Switzerland counted between 10,286 and 19,732 head in 2023, with 9,380 ewes registered, and there are flocks in Austria, Germany and the Netherlands.

None of them could be shipped here. United States import rules closed the door on live sheep from Europe, so the American population was not imported, it was bred up. The first American breeding used semen from fullblood rams in the United Kingdom in the fall of 2017, crossing onto other breeds and raising the Valais percentage generation by generation. Fullblood embryos followed in 2020, and the first fullblood Valais Blacknose born on American soil arrived in January 2021.

Rams run 180 to 290 lb and ewes 150 to 200 lb. Rams stand 30 to 33 inches at the withers, ewes 28 to 31.

The fleece grows over the entire body, carries a staple of four inches or more, and yields around 10 lb a head a year over two shearings. It averages about 38 microns, which is coarse. This is carpet, felt and craft wool, not a next-to-skin fiber, and anyone buying the breed for its fleece should know that before they buy.

The markings are the standard. The face, ears, knees, hocks and feet are black on an otherwise white animal. Ewes may carry a black spot on the tail; rams may not.

The breed is kept and sold as a calm, people-friendly animal, and that reputation is most of why it sells. Be aware that it is a reputation rather than a published standard: the American registry sets out percentages, pedigree and DNA rules, and it publishes no temperament requirement at all. Handle the actual animal before you commit to it.

In Switzerland this is a dual purpose breed kept for meat and wool on hard mountain ground.

In the United States it is neither of those things in practice. It is a show and smallholder breed, and the money is in breeding stock rather than in what the animal produces.

Twice-yearly shearing is not optional. The fleece grows over the face and legs as well as the body, so a missed shearing is a welfare problem rather than a lost clip, and wool blindness is the thing to watch for.

The rest is mountain-sheep management. The breed was selected on steep, thin ground in the Alps, so it wants dry footing and it does not need coddling through cold.

Buy the paperwork as carefully as you buy the animal. The American Valais Blacknose Sheep Registry recognizes Fullblood at 100 percent, American Purebred at a minimum of 93.75 percent for ewes and 96.875 percent for rams, and American Percentage from 25 percent for ewes and 50 percent for rams. Those are different animals at very different prices, and the difference is not always visible in a photograph. Ask which category the animal is registered in, and ask for the DNA parentage verification the registry requires on every lamb it registers.

More than one American registry exists for this breed. Confirm which one a seller's papers come from and whether it is the one you intend to register your own lambs with.

Recent sale prices on HoofnHorn, where there are any, are further down this page.