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Like&subscribe 👍🙏🥳💖The Valais Blacknose, German: Walliser Schwarznasenschaf, is a breed of domestic sheep originating in the Valais region of Switzerland.[2] It is a dual-purpose breed, raised both for meat and for wool.[1]: 281 

Valais Blacknose
Schwarznasenschaf.jpg
Conservation status
alive
Other names
Walliser Schwarznasenschaf
Country of origin
Switzerland
Use
dual-purpose, meat and wool
Traits
Weight
Male: 80–130 kg
Female: 70–90 kg
Height
Male: 75–83 cm
Female: 72–78 cm[1]: 281 
Wool colour
white
Face colour
black
Sheep
Ovis aries
History
Edit

The breed originates in the mountains of the canton of Valais – from which its name derives – and of the Bernese Oberland. It is documented as far back as the fifteenth century, but the present German name was not used before 1884; the breed standard dates from 1962. In the past there was some cross-breeding with imported sheep, in the nineteenth century of Bergamasca and Cotswold stock,[3]: 940  and in the twentieth century of the Southdown breed.[1]: 280 

Characteristics
Edit

The Schwarznasenschaf is a mountain breed, well adapted to grazing on the stony pastures of its area of origin.[3]: 940  Both rams and ewes are horned.[3]: 940 

Use
Edit

The Valais Blacknose is a dual-purpose breed, reared for both meat and wool. The wool is coarse: fibre diameter averages approximately 38 microns, and staple length is 100 mm or more.[3]: 940  The annual yield of wool is about 4 kg per head.[1]: 281 

See also
Edit

Scottish Blackface

Depending on breed, sheep show a range of heights and weights. Their rate of growth and mature weight is a heritable trait that is often selected for in breeding.[24] Ewes typically weigh between 45 and 100 kilograms (100 and 220 lb), and rams between 45 and 160 kilograms (100 and 350 lb).[25] When all deciduous teeth have erupted, the sheep has 20 teeth.[26] Mature sheep have 32 teeth. As with other ruminants, the front teeth in the lower jaw bite against a hard, toothless pad in the upper jaw. These are used to pick off vegetation, then the rear teeth grind it before it is swallowed. There are eight lower front teeth in ruminants, but there is some disagreement as to whether these are eight incisors, or six incisors and two incisor-shaped canines. This means that the dental formula for sheep is either
0.0.3.3
4.0.3.3
or
0.0.3.3
3.1.3.3
[27] There is a large diastema between the incisors and the molars.

In the first few years of life one can calculate the age of sheep from their front teeth, as a pair of milk teeth is replaced by larger adult teeth each year, the full set of eight adult front teeth being complete at about four years of age. The front teeth are then gradually lost as sheep age, making it harder for them to feed and hindering the health and productivity of the animal. For this reason, domestic sheep on normal pasture begin to slowly decline from four years on, and the life expectancy of a sheep is 10 to 12 years, though some sheep may live as long as 20 years.[16][28][29]


Skull
Sheep have good hearing, and are sensitive to noise when being handled.[30] Sheep have horizontal slit-shaped pupils, with excellent peripheral vision; with visual fields of about 270° to 320°, sheep can see behind themselves without turning their heads.[23][31] Many breeds have only short hair on the face, and some have facial wool (if any) confined to the poll and or the area of the mandibular angle; the wide angles of peripheral vision apply to these breeds. A few breeds tend to have considerable wool on the face; for some individuals of these breeds, peripheral vision may be greatly reduced by "wool blindness", unless recently shorn about the face.[32] Sheep have poor depth perception; shadows and dips in the ground may cause sheep to baulk. In general, sheep have a tendency to move out of the dark and into well-lit areas,[33] and prefer to move uphill when disturbed. Sheep also have an excellent sense of smell, and, like all species of their genus, have scent glands just in front of the eyes, and interdigitally on the feet. The purpose of these glands is uncertain,[34] but those on the face may be used in breeding behaviors.[24] The foot glands might also be related to reproduction,[24] but alternative functions, such as secretion of a waste product or a scent marker to help lost sheep find their flock, have also been proposed.[34]

Comparison with goats
Sheep and goats are closely related: both are in the subfamily Caprinae. However, they are separate species, so hybrids rarely occur and are always infertile. A hybrid of a ewe and a buck (a male goat) is called a sheep-goat hybrid, known as geep. Visual differences between sheep and goats include the beard of goats and divided upper lip of sheep. Sheep tails also hang down, even when short or docked, while the short tails of goats are held upw were created to serve these diverse pur