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Montadale sheep


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Dave Clark and Cheryl Branibar have them, or did. They're in Lexington. Cheryl is on Facebook, so you could connect with her there. They are large. Dave obviously works his and they've hosted trials using their flock, but they could give you plenty of information since they've raised them for a while.

 

J.

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They are large.

 

A quick search tells me that the ewes are 150-200 lb - WOW! I think I'll stick with my Perendale/Perendale x Cheviot flock (120-150 lb ewes, nice fleeces). *MUCH* easier to wrangle (without a fancy sheep handling system, other than small pens and helpful dogs).

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Hello.

We have been Montadale breeders since 1989. We have a closed flock of about 100 brood ewes in Lexington, VA. Our original flock was Bud Boudreau's Maryland Montadales which they sold when they moved back West in the eighties.

I don't recognize anyone by their special BC Board names except for Julie, so please don't take any of my remarks personally.

To answer some questions here, I would never recommend any Novice shepherd buy a wool breed in the South without extensive commitment to maintenance and a good shepherd mentor who lives nearby to call on.

That being said, the Montadale Sheep Breeders Association is the most progressive & supportive group of people for youth starting flocks to shepherd that I have ever seen. I am obviously a fan of the breed for decades. We have only bred Montadales all these years with just introducing new rams to our ewe flock.

We have also managed to start our young working border collies and host sheepdog trials with our
Montadale flock. However, they are not easy to dog since they remain "fresh and challenging like Western sheep" so I would not recommend them for puppy or novice sheep. They are also a large breed which can be intimidating to some.

We are looking forward to our Spring 2018 crop sired by our new Champion Montadale rams from N.A.I.L.E.

If you have questions or feedback, I will do my best to answer or point you in the direction of help.

Thank you for posting to this topic.

Cheryl

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  • 2 weeks later...

We have had Montadales for 10 years, they are a large breed, our mature ewes are 175 + our 2 yr old rams are about 275-300lbs, they have a wide range of personalities, some of ours are big babies, some are skittish, we hand raise every lamb, we currently have 8 ewes and one ram, our lines are out of Huey Salfner and the Caveys, both Maryland Breeders, We show our Montadales at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival and they are competitive in the Medium White wool class, we go up against Dorsets and others, we have had several reserve champions over the past 10 yrs, At our Howard County Fair we have had several Champion Rams and ewes, but at our fair we show them as a meat breed, The downfalls I have with the breed is the shearing, and foot issues, their feet seem to grow twice as fast as our Suffolks, I would not have them for training young dogs, they are aware of their size and intimidate my young dogs, I use my Kathadins for that, another plus for the Montadales is that they taste fantastic ! we have bred all of our ewes, the first should come in a month, let me know if you are interested in lambs or have any other questions, Tom

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