About Us
About us
About us
Melissa and Hayden Cowan, along with Emma and Ben, own and operate an 850-acre mixed cropping and grazing property in picturesque coastal North Canterbury, New Zealand.
Melissa and Hayden Cowan, along with Emma and Ben, own and operate an 850-acre mixed cropping and grazing property in picturesque coastal North Canterbury, New Zealand.
We have extensive experience and knowledge in the farming and stud industry.
Hayden is a fourth-generation farmer and stud breeder. He also worked as a shearer for five years.
Melissa works as the Chairperson of the New Zealand Valais Blacknose Sheep Society.
Hayden is the Valais Blacknose Sheep representative at the New Zealand Sheep Breeders Association Board.
Our Journey
Our Journey
Our Valais Blacknose journey started in 2017 when we discovered this unique rare breed of sheep. After doing some research and making some phone calls, our first shipment of embryos arrived from the UK in early 2018. These embryos came from one of the top UK breeders, Jamie Woods, with all embryos coming from sires (namely Prendwick Basil and Prendwick Eros) and dams (Predwick Dot and Predwick Dell-Girl) having scored maximum points based on the Swiss grading, the best genetics available.
In August 2018 our first 18 Valais Blacknose lambs were born and we’ve never looked back! We are also lucky to have the first “spitti” Valais born in NZ. A “spitti” is a Valais that has the reverse colouring, being predominately black, and they are considered good luck in Switzerland.
Since 2018 we have continued to source and import embryos from several top UK breeders, further expanding our genetic diversity.
Our aim has been to build our breeding flock to 50 Valais ewes, whilst retaining our best rams every year for breeding and selling the surplus ram lambs and wethers.
In 2023, we were lucky enough to purchase the New Zealand based Highland Valais flock of Raymond Irvine and Wendy Artzt. This has enabled us to add further new genetic lines to our flock and reach our goal of 50 breeding ewes.
Each year we continue to sell pure Valais rams and wethers and semen and embryos both within New Zealand and North America.
In 2024, we are excited to offer pure Valais ewes for the first time.
Since 2019 we have also taken part in the Valais breed-up programme, initially mating two of our pure Valais rams with our Romney ewes. We choose to use Romney’s as our foundation ewes due to them having similar conformation to the Valais Blacknose. We are really happy with the Valais traits they are exhibiting and now have F3 (87.5% Valais) ewes on the ground, with F4 lambs due this spring.
A bit more about us
The Valais Blacknose Sheep have an incredible temperament, addictive personalities and super cute looks and of course they have a story behind them that everyone loves, coming from the Swiss Alps.
Emma and Ben love spending time out in the paddock with them and because the Valais have such great personalities means they can give them cuddles and Emma can ‘do their hair’ and dress them up for picnics together!
North Canterbury, New Zealand
+64 27 693 9171
- email us
+64 27 693 9171 - email us