Welcome to Border Shetlands
Welcome to Border Shetlands
where
we pride ourselves on the wellbeing and quality of our flock of pure bred
Shetland sheep and the
excellence of service we provide to our clients.
Being a small family run farm, where we specialize in breeding pure bred Shetland sheep, we
are able to devote a lot of our time to breeding and rearing the finest quality
Shetland Sheep in France.
 Sue & Mike Longhurst are fully
registered farmers in France and have been
successfully breeding top quality Shetland Sheep for over 5 years. We first decided on Shetland sheep
when we owned a farm in Wales as they are
a small but very hardy breed and the quality of their wool perfectly
complemented the extremely fine fiber worn by our llamas. We soon realized that
even a flock of 50 sheep were relatively easy to manage and maintain, and due to
their small size, toe clipping, shearing, injections etc, were easy to
administer. As time progressed we also realized that they showed
qualities of being curious, very friendly and having quite distinct
personalities. The end result was that we quickly fell in love with the Shetland
sheep breed.
It was with a very sad heart that we had to find new homes for our flock of
Shetland sheep when we left Wales and moved to France, but this was necessary due to the movement
restrictions and export requirements prevailing at the time. However, after
moving here in January 2005, we realized just how much we missed them and after a
short debate we decided to re-start a Shetland Sheep breeding program. In August 2009 we
imported a flock of pure bred Shetland Sheep, including a stunning jet black Ram, from
Holland and have now started our new breeding program. In 2010 we will be
importing another ram from the UK to ensure that we can increase the size of our
flock without inbreeding or crossbreeding and at that point we will maintain a
closed flock.
Our 12 Acre Llama and
Shetland Sheep breeding farm is situated amidst the beautiful rolling hills of the Bourbonnais
region of the Allier, Auvergne, France. We breed llamas and Shetland Sheep
as we believe the qualities of these two animals complement each other perfectly.
Our herd of llamas provide a natural deterrent against predators which may try
and prey on the sheep whilst grazing or at rest and they co-exist in perfect
harmony.
Shetland sheep are extremely
rare in France with only a small handful of breeders specializing in the breed
and even less who keep the breed pure (i.e. those that do not practice cross
breeding). The Shetland is an ideal breed for the first time sheep owner
or small holder who cannot or do not wish to manage the larger sheep breeds yet
wish to take advantage of the unsurpassed exceptionally fine quality of the
Shetland fleece. For those looking for a niche meat market, Shetland
sheep are also famous for the flavor and quality of their meat.
If you are interested in owning or breeding Shetland Sheep we can
advise and assist you. If
you would like to know more about Shetland Sheep, their care and upkeep, please
do not hesitate to contact us. We do not believe in applying any pressure to
purchase on callers and we are quite happy for farm visits so you can get to see
the sheep close up (we do not charge for farm visits). Our aim is to provide
you with as much advice and assistance as possible in order that you can make an
informed decision as to whether keeping or breeding Shetland Sheep is the right
move for you and more importantly that you will be able to provide the right
conditions for the sheep to continue to lead a healthy lifestyle should you
decide to become owners at some point in the future.
We can personally deliver our sheep to any part of France, or we can arrange for
delivery to any location within the European Union using fully qualified and
licensed transporters who are conversant with and conform to the legal
requirements for the transportation of sheep. All our sheep are fully
registered, Scrapie and Brucellosis tested, wormed, vaccinated, electronically ear tagged and in good health.
If you purchase any of our sheep and are not quite ready to receive them yet, we
can keep your selected sheep safe here at the farm until you are ready to move
them onto your new premises .
Thank you for
visiting our web site, we hope you enjoy and benefit from the information and
pictures provided for your pleasure.
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