Tom Stayt, Member of the Berrichon du Cher Society:
Like my Father, Grandfather and Great-Grandfather, I keep sheep and show them. It
started at a very early age when my father bought me five Dorset Horns. All I wanted to be was a shepherd.
Early eighties, we took on a 150acre farm, kept 80 pedigree Dorsets and 380 North
Country Mules. I also worked as a contract shepherd/stockman for several Cotswold estates and graded lambs in Stratford market.
We lost the tenancy of the farm on the death of my father. When Foot and Mouth broke
out in 2001, I lost most of my work so I turned my hand to dry stone walling and part-time lecturing at Warwickshire College.
I now keep about 25 Berrichons and try to breed good, sound stock and show them
- my passion.
I believe that the Berrichon is a real modern sheep
which should be up there wih the Texels and Charolais. My ambition is to put them there!
Benjamin Stayt, Tom's son and Member of the Zwartbles
Sheep Association:
Like my Father, Grandfather, Great-Grandfather and Great-Great-Grandfather, I keep sheep and show
them.
My passion is the Zwartbles sheep, a strikingly
handsome black sheep with a distinctive white blaze. Zwartbles originate from Freisland in the North of Holland, and these
beautiful and elegant sheep serve as dual purpose animals - meat and milk. The north of Holland can be very cold, wet and
windy, but their fleeces are able to keep them warm, being very thick and fine.
Due to changes in farming practices,
numbers of Zwartbles in Holland became severely reduced until the breed was adopted by the Dutch Rare Breed Survival trust
in the mid-1970s.
Over the years, a small number of Zwartbles sheep were imported by enthusiasts to Great Britain,
and this lead to the formation of the Zwartbles Sheep Association in 1995. There are now about 500 registered
Zwartbles flocks spread throughout the UK, and they are well able to cope with the lowland and mid-altitude conditions in
England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
It's all there in black and white!
