Herman Hills Farm
The farm is home to registered Wensleydale and ACSA Cormo sheep. We have top quality Wensleydale and Cormo breeding stock and excellent fleeces.
Wensleydale Sheep
We participate in the upgrading program with our Wensleydale sheep. Our ewes are bred via artificial insemination with semen imported from the UK. We have high percentage Wensleydales ranging from 87% and higher.
Please contact us for more information about our Wensleydale sheep.
The History of the Wensleydale Sheep
The mating of a Dishley Leicester ram with a Teeswater ewe in 1838 produced the famous ram 'Blue Cap' who was the founding sire of the Wensleydale breed. He was a striking ram, with blue pigmentation on his head and ears that is now the hallmark of the breed, great size (203 kg as a two-shear) and wool of distinctive quality. The modern Wensleydale has inherited these qualities. It is a large sheep with long-stapled, lustrous wool that falls in long ringlets almost to ground level in unshorn sheep. The breed has a quality known as 'central checking’ that prevents the formation of kemp in the fleece.
The Wensleydale is a very large longwool sheep, described by the British Meat and Livestock Commission as "probably the heaviest of all our indigenous breeds." It is a visually striking sheep with considerable presence. It has a bold and alert carriage which is accentuated by its broad, level back and heavy muscling in the hindquarters. It has a distinctive deep blue head and ears, which should be clean except for a well developed forelock of wool. Both sexes are polled.
The Wensleydale breed was developed to provide rams for crossing onto hill ewes, mainly Swaledale, Blackface, Rough Fell, Cheviot & Dalesbred. The female crossbreds develop into prolific, heavy-milking, hardy breeding ewes while the wethers, under natural conditions and on marginal ground, provide quality carcasses at higher weight, with no excess fat.
Today the breed is established throughout the United Kingdom and extends into mainland Europe.*
Cormo Sheep
We have a small handspinner’s flock of ACSA Cormo sheep. We are breeding to achieve excellent fleeces.
Coated fleeces are available early spring.
Our Cormo sheep are coated year round to keep the fleeces free from unwanted vegetable matter.
Please contact us for more information about our Cormo Sheep.
Cormo Sheep Information
Cormo is a new scientific sheep breed. I.K. Downie of Tasmania was the driving force behind the creation of the Cormo breed. The Cormo Breed is a one-time crossing of Tasmanian stud Corriedale rams on 1200 selected superfine Saxon Merino ewes. This was the beginning of the development of the Cormo breed. The result -- 1/4 Lincoln, 1/4 Australian Merino, and 1/2 Superfine Saxon Merino - is fast becoming one of the best wool producing breeds in the sheep industry today.
Original Selection Criteria
High clean fleece weight
Must have a fiber diameter 17 to 23 micron range
Fast body growth rate
Must have a high rate of fertility*
*All information from ACSA