Formed in 2002 after the Foot and Mouth epidemic with ewes from three leading flockmasters: Jim Dufosee (Blackhill), Richard and Robert Hole (Sherborne) and the Sandercocks (Trevilley), the Blackdown Flock now numbers some 100 breeding ewes.

The flock is managed on permanent grassland in the Blackdown Hills in Devon (hence the flock’s name) in an Environmentally Sensitive Area. It is also within the Blackdown Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) at between 800-1000 feet above sea level

Our aim is to produce good confirmation breeding animals that meet the needs of the competitive commercial market, through careful use of measurement and then targeted genetic improvement, whilst retaining the breed characteristics.

A Ramsden ram was our first sire together with Artificial Insemination(AI) using Huish’s Archie A54 and Zulu Z405. In the next few years the Sire Reference Ram semen from these two famous rams was added to with Ramsden Chaka C133, Gortleigh Charlie C849 and Huish Destroyer D83. In 2006 Sherborne Federal F34, Blackdown Felix F26 (a son of Chaka) and Blackdown Hugo (a son of Destroyer) were used. In 2007 Blackdown Jensen (J56), Harvey (H2) and Homer (H42) joined these stock rams.

As we only retain as sale stock, and our home replacements, the above average ewe lambs, measured across recorded Centurion SRS flocks, and as we only use rams from the top 10% within the Centurion group, the flock has progressed significantly. Targeted use of AI semen and the purchased rams within Centurion means that the flock is the best connected to all other recorded flocks, so ensuring the index data is highly reliable. Our average index for lambs is now the same as the top 25% across the whole of Centurion, and our stock ram average index is higher than the top 10% in Centurion.