26/07/2026
๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ฝ & ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ฝ ๐๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฏ
"Look out for these two at the next sale?" ๐
Our friend, Ross Gollan, sent us this video as a joke. He found these sheep while running at 900m altitude, suggesting we should use these feral Blackface tups on our Lurgan flock to breed in some extra hardiness.
To be fair, they probably are incredibly hardy.
But this video is also a great opportunity to talk about something many people have heard of, but few have actually seen: ๐ณ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ฝ.
These sheep originally came from domestic flocks. Over time they weren't gathered, continued breeding amongst themselves, and a few generations later they've become truly feral.
They often look a wee bit different from today's Blackface sheep, almost like an older-fashioned Perth type Blackface. They also behave very differently. They don't naturally gather towards a fank, they don't work to a sheepdog in the same way, and once disturbed they simply disappear back into the hill or forestry.
Nature has done the selecting for them:
No worming.
No dipping.
No flystrike prevention.
No shearing.
No supplementary feeding.
Only the toughest survive.
They're fascinating animals, and they're certainly not "doing anything wrong". In many ways they're thriving.
Unfortunately, they can also create one of the biggest challenges for sheep health in our hill areas:
๐๐ก๐๐๐ฉ ๐ฌ๐๐๐.
๐
๐ช๐จ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ค ๐๐ก๐๐ง๐๐๐ฎ, ๐ฌ๐'๐ง๐ ๐ฃ๐ค๐ฉ ๐จ๐ช๐๐๐๐จ๐ฉ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ฉ๐๐๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐จ๐๐๐๐ฅ ๐๐ฃ ๐ฉ๐๐๐จ ๐ซ๐๐๐๐ค ๐๐๐ซ๐ ๐จ๐๐๐๐ฅ ๐จ๐๐๐. ๐๐ ๐จ๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ก๐ฎ ๐๐ค๐ฃ'๐ฉ ๐ ๐ฃ๐ค๐ฌ, ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐ซ๐๐๐๐ค ๐๐จ ๐๐๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ช๐จ๐๐ ๐๐จ ๐๐ฃ ๐๐ญ๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ก๐ ๐ค๐ ๐๐๐ง๐๐ก ๐จ๐๐๐๐ฅ.
However, it's worth remembering that ๐ง๐จ๐ญ ๐๐ฏ๐๐ซ๐ฒ ๐ฌ๐ก๐๐๐ฉ ๐๐๐ซ๐ซ๐ฒ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐ฌ๐จ๐ซ๐จ๐ฉ๐ญ๐๐ฌ ๐จ๐ฏ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฌ๐ก๐จ๐ฐ ๐จ๐๐ฏ๐ข๐จ๐ฎ๐ฌ ๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ง๐ข๐๐๐ฅ ๐ฌ๐ข๐ ๐ง๐ฌ. Some sheep develop very little reaction to the mites and can carry them for prolonged periods with few, if any, visible signs. This is one of the reasons feral sheep can be such an important consideration in area-wide scab control. If they share boundaries, grazing or contact points with farmed sheep, they can act as a reservoir, making it incredibly difficult to eliminate scab from an area.
For hill flocks, this becomes particularly frustrating.
Even achieving a 99% gather isn't good enough if the remaining sheep are carrying scab. Add in neighbouring feral populations that can't easily be gathered, and it's easy to understand why scab remains such a persistent problem in Scotland.
Our general advice to sheep scab control:
1. Test before you treat.
It's always good to know your starting point. Skin scrapes are excellent when they're positive, but a negative scrape doesn't rule scab out. The blood tests are great and much more sensitive but it can take up to two weeks to get results back.
2. Aim for clean gathers.
We appreciate that this is a very difficult one and this often means working closely with neighbouring farms to treat sheep at the same time.
3. Use dipping over injectables where possible.
With widespread concerns about resistance to the injectable macrocyclic lactones (cydectine, zermex, dectomax etc.), dipping remains the most reliable treatment for confirmed sheep scab. Where available, cage dippers can be a lower-stress option than plunge dipping, particularly for pregnant ewes.
4. Don't forget the wider picture.
Managing feral sheep populations is a difficult topic with no simple solution. It requires cooperation between neighbouring farms, landowners and organisations such as Forestry and Land Scotland. While not all feral sheep carry sheep scab, unmanaged feral populations can make area-wide control much more difficult if scab is present. Successful control often depends on considering all potential sources of infection, not just the farm flock.
If you farm in hill country, you've probably come across sheep like these: roughies (unshorn), untagged, often living high on the hill or tucked away in forestry, and behaving nothing like a flock that has been gathered all its life.
They're a remarkable example of how domestic animals can adapt back to living wild.
They're also a reminder that successful sheep scab control is rarely just about treating your own flock.
Sometimes the challenge is much bigger than that.
