I have analyzed the BBSSI registry and the news is not good. I believe there are fewer than a half dozen breeders of polled blackbellies and each of those have bloodlines that trace back to Claude Hughes' flock.
The rest of the U.S. breeders probably have Barbado or, if they have any polled genetics, there seems to be a wayward horned gene (recessive in sheep) that expresses itself occasionally.
The Oklahoma State University Web site maintains that there are NO Barbados Blackbelly in the U.S.; that all of the sheep looking like Barbados Blackbelly are in fact Barbado. While that rankles me (as a breeder striving to develop reliable polled genetics), I have begun to see more truth in it. So, in the U.S., yes I believe that the true polled Barbados Blackbelly is disappearing rapidly and that the genetics of the breed here are in crisis. That is why I am working so hard at preserving the breed and at educating people about the differences between the two breeds.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with Barbado sheep; they are beautiful. But there is this attitude among Barbado breeders that they don't want to be known as Barbado breeders (as if that is inferior to Barbados Blackbelly, which it is NOT) and insist that their sheep are Barbados Blackbelly. There is a school of thought (held by the woman who runs the North American Barbados Blackbelly Sheep registry) that we should create a new breed--the North American Barbados Blackbelly and all U.S. BB and Barbado sheep will fall into that single breed. I say hogwash to that.
I have not been able to find another polled ram that is worth keeping. Several years ago I purchased a ram from Claude Hughes and it was a disaster. Sure enough, I got polled ram lambs, but that ram introduced incredible wooliness in my flock and he also had a white crown gene that, although I think it is quite becoming and is found in many BBs in Barbados, makes the purists unhappy. So I butchered him. I have a polled ram of unknown ancestry that I am testing right now. So far he has given me one polled lamb and one polled lamb with tiny scurs. That is not acceptable, either. I long for another ram like Zane--good, strong, reliable genetics. I also have three excellent ewes. But trying to increase my flock without excessive inbreeding is difficult. Although I wrote the article "Growing Your Flock with Only One Ram," the ALBC conservation breeding program depends on 1) having a few more ewes than I currently have and 2) being willing to part with Zane after I have bred three polled sons off of him. Because I've had to spend so many breeding seasons culling Claude Hughes' woolie ram's genetics and culling the horned genetics that Charles Beam represented as polled, poor old Zane's genetics haven't been used as extensively as they should have. Now that I have three good ewes that he can breed, I should be able to move forward a bit. Except now the drought is getting so severe that it would be foolish for me to increase my flock much larger than it currently is. I am hoping that by working closely with the National Animal Germplasm Program (see http://home.comcast.net/~carolelkins/ for details), we can manage the few polled sheep in the U.S. on a national level with help from experts in genetics.
And in answer to your last question, no I have not detected any difference in taste between the horned Barbado that I have butchered and the polled BB that were butchered because they were too woolie. Even that woolieness with its lanolin did not affect the excellent flavor of these sheep.
Carol
At 10:34 PM 11/29/2003 -0800, Rick Krach wrote:
Carol, do you have any knowledge of just how many supposed Blackbelly owners are really Barbado owners? Do you think that the two breeds are literally becoming one? I know that you are attempting to raise pure BB instead of Barbado, so am curious about how you feel; and I know that we've had to give up making an issue of BB vs. Barbado in the list itself. Thanks.
ps. any difference in taste that you have found between BB and Barbado?
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