Long journey to bring 'cute' Valais sheep breed to Camperdown

The seven lambs are about four weeks old but Belinda Cardinal said it wasn't easy getting the embryos to Australia.

"It was a nightmare," she said.

"Everything slowed up because it took four years to get the material here and the last year was when the pandemic started and Brexit was in full swing as well.

"It was all a bit up in the air."

Dr Cardinal said she had to wait an extra eight months because there weren't any staff working in the UK labs during the pandemic.

"We couldn't get results, we couldn't ship the stuff because we needed the results to give to the Australian government," she said.

After the embryos arrived, they were implanted into recipient sheep and their first pure-bred Valais lambs were born in April last year.

But the seven new lambs are the first ones that have been born naturally out of Valais mothers.

And there are more on the way with another ewe expecting in December.

Dr Cardinal said they were still the only ones who had imported the breed into the country but there were three other groups trying to do it at the moment.

"We could do with the genetic diversity for the breed," she said.

"Every Valais sheep or every cross bred Valais sheep that you see in the country at the moment has all come from us."

Dr Cardinal got the idea to import the breed after seeing them on TV and the internet years ago.

"Everyone was going spare over these really cute sheep that had arrived in the UK," she said.

"I was busy with dairy goats but I thought 'if you are going to have sheep, that's what you'd get'."

But she put it on the back-burner for a while.

Dr Cardinal said she had imported dairy goats for about a decade from America.

"It's a very similar protocol," she said.

Valais are originally from Switzerland where they are a dual-purpose breed used for wool and meat.

"But everywhere they have been exported to from Switzerland - the UK, America - they're really for the breed," she said.

"They've got a very different personality to most sheep. They are very, very friendly. They're more like a big dog than a sheep."

She said the breed had a carpet wool broad micron fibre but was long.

"They grow 12cms every six months, so shearing's twice a year," she said.

"For most people they are pets and companions and gorgeous paddock ornaments."

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