By BECKY TALLEY
Sheep Industry News Associate Editor

(January 1, 2009)  They are called Mules, but they aren’t the long-eared equine species that most would think. These Mules are of the ovine persuasion, and they are a crucial part of the United Kingdom (UK) three-tier breeding system that is gaining popularity with some sheep producers in the United States.

“People are beginning to recognize the value and help that this breeding system offers them,” says Graham Phillipson, of Littledale Farms in Richland Center, Wis., who has been a driving factor in increasing the popularity of this type of breeding system among American producers.

The value, he relates, lies in the fact that the sheep in the three-tier system are hardy, thrifty, need very little upkeep, are solely grass fed and produce a wool and meat product that is highly desirable among consumers.

The UK three-tier stratified  system consists of taking hardy self-foraging hill breed ewes, such as the Scottish Blackface and  North Country Cheviot, and breeding them to a Bluefaced Leicester sire to create the F1 Maternal Mule ewe that is further bred to a heavy meat-breed terminal sire, such as a traditional English Suffolk or Texel ram.

The result maximizes the maternal traits of prolificacy and milkiness passed down by the Bluefaced Leicester and incorporates the hardiness of the hill breeds, to create Mule ewes that will produce efficient, consistent market lambs. This balanced breeding compatibility enables the Mule ewe to easily raise twin lambs and maintain milking ability from birth through weaning without any depletion in either ewe or lambs.

It is important to note that a true Mule can only be created by breeding a Bluefaced Leicester ram and another purebred hill breed, as using crossbreds will not add the intended values of the system. This breeding combination that makes up the F1 Mule results in a maternal ewe whose breeding value is greater than the sum of its parents.

Phillipson first became involved in the breeding system many years ago, after having purchased a flock of North Country Cheviots (to have something to work with his border collies), a traditional Scottish breed, and noticed both structural and breeding problems among the flock, including the ram.

“One of the problems was that the ram’s body was too heavy for his frame, and it got worse as he got older,” he says. “We went to various shows and realized that North Countries had been altered, and felt that they weren’t correct.”

On a trip to Scotland, Phillipson visited the farms of North Country Cheviot producers and learned more about what should be happening with the breed. Along the way, he also gained an interest in the Scottish Blackface breed, which is the predominant breed in the UK for the entire three-tier breeding system.

At that point, Phillipson decided to try to obtain semen from the hill breed producers in the UK, as he felt that many of the traditional English breeds in the United States had been inbred and crossed, to the extent of causing many genetic impurities due to a lack of new genetics in the flocks.

After years of working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and waiting for a protocol to collect and ship semen from the UK, the first imported semen arrived in the United States in 1997. Phillipson used it to artificially inseminate (AI) his hill breed ewes in 1998, and was thrilled and astounded with the results.

“Improvement was just so dramatic, it was just stunning. The lambs had good strong frames and the ewes produced lambs of consistent size and weights. With the original lines we didn’t get uniform sizes,” he says, adding that these new lambs had the same birth weight and all grew at the same rate as well.

Today, Phillipson continues to improve his Scottish Blackface and North Country Cheviot flocks through laparoscopic AI (LAI) of Scottish semen, to keep the flocks genetically pure and upgraded to the latest UK High Index Sire Reference Scheme standards.

In addition, the English Suffolk terminal sires he uses are also bred by LAI using imported UK semen, and has worked closely with the University of Wisconsin Madison on the process. Through breeding, his English Suffolk sires currently are 7/8th pure English Suffolk, 1/16th Bluefaced Leicester and 1/16th Scottish Blackface. The original breed used was Scotch Mule ewes which are Scottish Blackface crossed with Bluefaced Leicester that were then LAI’d with English Suffolk semen to produce half Suffolk and then LAI’d subsequently over a period of several years with alternate semen lines.

The inclusion of the Scotch Mule genetics allows the rams to retain the hardy thriftiness of the hill breed, which allows the animals to winter outdoors in below zero temperatures, rain, snow or wind and still thrive in the grass-fed management system only without supplements – all important traits for market lamb efficiency.

“They grow really fast,” he says of the resulting market lambs from this system. “It’s sometimes quite alarming how fast they do grow.”

The lambs will finish out in around 20 weeks at 85 pounds to 95 pounds with a carcass yield of about 50 percent, as these animals have smaller frames than typical U.S. market lambs and have a low fat content, resulting in fewer waste products at slaughter.

These lambs are a perfect fit in ethnic and modern markets that are becoming a large player in the market-lamb industry, as they fit the demand for a smaller carcass.

“Our customers have been very happy with the quality of meat and astounded with the 50-percent yield,” he says. “The quality and consistency of the meat isn’t haphazard. It’s not random. It’s predictable and consistent.”

In addition, the wool from the Mules has gained recent popularity among handspinners because of its long staple and fiber strength.

“A lot of spinners tell us that they can spin it in one thread without it breaking. Some years ago we couldn’t hardly give the wool away, but handspinners have saved the day,” Phillipson relates.

Phillipson says that while this breeding system may not work for everyone, smaller flock producers who live mostly in the entire northern part of the United States can have great success with the required breeds and breeding system, as these breeds thrive in cooler climates.

“We at Littledale sell Scotch and Cheviot Mules and try to get people to follow the program. It’s slow, because it is really about genetics, not size and weight,” he says.
Despite the time it can take, this breeding system is gaining popularity amongst producers and is becoming more recognized by the industry. 

This year, the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival and North American Mule Sheep Society (NAMSS) held the first ever Mule show, drawing 14 entries – more entries than most other breeds shown at the event. A judge from Scotland evaluated the Mules, Bluefaced Leicester and hill breeds and was pleased with the progress American breeders have made and said they were getting the conformation and breeding values  correct.

Phillipson also formed the Scottish Blackface Breeders Union earlier this year, and the association currently has 20 members. The union is promoting the production of Scottish Blackface sheep for the purpose of improving the purebred breed and breeding Mules.

“People are interested in these genetics, and when seen, they quickly realize they can make a dramatic difference in their flocks,” he concludes.

For more information on the UK three-tier system, visit www.littledalefarm.com, or visit the Scottish Blackface Breeders Union site at www.sbbu.org.