It's Tupping Time

It's the time of year when the tups come into their own as kings of the crofting fields. For some time now they've been gathering: crofters have been borrowing, hiring and buying them, and putting them into the best fields, fattening them up ready for action.

The one above is is a fine Blackface tup, surveying his kingdom from the top of a knoll in Ormsaigbeg. The Blackface is a wonderfully hardy animal, well suited to our sunny local environment. They even have their own Association on the internet - here.

This tup is a newcomer to the area, a Texel/Charollais cross who goes by the name of Big Eddie. Texels seem to be very popular around here as a good cross with the local, hardy Blackface ewes, but the Charollais strain is more unusual. More about Texels here, and more about the Charollais breed here - not to be confused with the Charolais cattle, website here, the only thing in common being that both are white.

Both the ewe, on the left, and the tup here are Cheviots, the tup being a North Country Cheviot. These are big, fine-looking animals which, like all other self-resecting sheep breeds, also have their own website, here.

We also have some more exotic breeds. This small, black tup is a Hebridean, a member of a breed that goes back a long way in Scottish history. His clan website is here.

For anyone who's interested in the huge range of breeds of sheep kept in Britain, the site here offers a real education. The Diary had no idea there were so many!