Sponsor a Sheep
Have you completely fallen for the charming faces of our Valais Blacknose Swiss Sheep?
You can now officially become part of the flock! By sponsoring a sheep, you directly help us care for these wonderful animals and support the vital work we do here at Blooming Sheep, promoting biodiversity and protecting local wildlife. It’s the perfect gift for an animal lover, or a wonderful way to treat yourself.
Sponsor a Valais Blacknose Swiss Sheep
Sponsors of our Valais Blacknose Swiss Sheep will receive:
1. A plush Valais Blacknose Swiss Sheep.
2. A Sponsorship certificate.
3. 10% off all purchases on our online shop.
4. Early access to event booking, ensuring you have the chance to visit our Valais Blacknose Swiss Sheep.
5. The opportunity to come behind the scenes at lambing and be the first to see our new flock
Sponsorship Costs £55 per year
Not only will you give the recipient something they will treasure but you will also be contributing to our conservation projects.
The main aim of Blooming Sheep is to support conservation and biodiversity so that future generations can enjoy the abundance of wildlife that we see here in North Yorkshire.
Money raised from Valais Blacknose Sheep sponsorship goes towards the creation of new habitats which is at the heart of our extensive conservation project.
Livestock grazing is essential for the majority of the country’s most important wildlife habitats. Grazing animals often choose lusher plant species, which allows less competitive plants and wildflowers to thrive.
Wildflowers attract insects that can be eaten by birds and mammals, some insects are pollinators and are essential for the survival of our native plants.
How Sponsorship helps
The UK’s bumblebees are in crisis
Bumblebees are familiar and much-loved insects that pollinate our crops and wildflowers, so people are rightly worried. With disappearing nature corridors, urgent action is needed to provide habitat and protect their populations.
They are hungry and homeless
Changes to our landscape mean good nesting and flowers are now in short supply.
Wildflowers
Thanks to the sponsorship money we have been able to plant more wildflowers on different parts of the farm.
Wildflowers provide bees, butterflies and other pollinators with food throughout the year. On a single day in summer, one acre of wildflower meadow can contain 3 million flowers, producing 1 kg of nectar sugar. That’s enough to support nearly 96,000 honey bees per day. Over a third of the world’s food relies on insects to pollinate them. Without insects, we’d need to artificially pollinate most of our favourite fruit and veg, which would be really time-consuming and very costly.
Flooding reduction
Established wildflower meadows have complex root systems, which makes the soil very stable. This helps to mitigate flooding by holding on to rain water, and stops nutrients from washing away.
Fighting disease
Native wildflowers can contain compounds which have made a significant contribution to modern medicine. Flowers such as self-heal have antibiotic properties – there’s a clue in its common name, as folklore has recognised its healing properties for centuries. And foxgloves contain a compound called digitalin that can be used to treat heart disease. These are just two of many examples and scientists are discovering more all the time.
Fighting Climate Change
Grassland soils can sequester as much carbon as woodland and also reduces greenhouse gases, which can help us in the fight against climate change.
Wildflower Meadows are at risk
Since the 1930s, we’ve lost 97% of our wildflower meadows in the UK, which is a staggering amount and we need to act now to make sure they don’t completely disappear.
Winter Bird Seed Feed Area
Thanks to sponsorship money, we have created a winter bird food area that provides food through the autumn and winter. This contains grain and seeds such as dwarf sunflower, fodder radish, gold of pleasure, linseed, mustard, quinoa, red millet, spring barley, spring oats, spring triticale, spring wheat and white millet. The area is adjacent to the footpath, so we have added a bench so that everyone walking the footpath can enjoy seeing the birds feeding. We have added plants such as buddleia to attract butterflies for visitors to enjoy in the summer months.
Sponsorship: The Perfect Ewe-nique Gift
Searching for a truly unique and memorable gift?
Sheep Sponsorship is the perfect alternative present for family, friends, and loved ones! Simply choose their favourite Valais Blacknose Swiss Sheep, and then decide how you’d like the gift delivered: we can send the certificate and adorable plush toy directly to the lucky recipient, or send it to you to wrap and present yourself. You’ll be giving a joyful present while supporting our flock and the vital work we do for the environment!
Sponsor a Valais Blacknose Swiss Sheep
Sponsorship costs £55 per year and can be bought for yourself or as a gift.
Louis Vuitton
Our big teddy bear of a sheep, loves cuddles and generally just being with people. He is just the most gentle of sheep and enjoys an ear rub. He’s not keen on orange buckets and baths and his favourite pastime is hiding under trees and collecting twigs in his wool.
Dirty Gertie
A real diva, the Beyoncé of sheep, moody but will do anything for a ginger biscuit, in fact any type of biscuit she’s happy with.
She was crowned Supreme Champion at Wensleydale Show and certainly posed for the cameras and entertained the crowds by walking herself to the main ring to receive her Swiss Bell trophy.
Madonna
A diva in the making but very naughty and very chatty, she’s the one with a lot to say at Blooming Sheep, if you’ve ever visited you will have heard her. She follows us around daily and often pops into the farmhouse for a biscuit and sit down by the aga.
Mr Big
This years tup lamb who is already proving a hit with the ladies, coming second in a class of 19 at the Great Yorkshire Show and 1st at Wensleydale Show. He loves his ginger biscuits and head rubs.
Spitti
Spiritual Spitti is the calmest of our flock but by far the best dancer. Our dancing queen still has the moves and gets down with the lambs. Her calm and kindness is unique and not only is she spiritual she is very lucky due to her mainly black appearance. Although she’s a full pedigree Valais she can’t unfortunately be shown but she often goes to the shows as she loves the attention.
A real diva, the Beyoncé of sheep, moody but will do anything for a ginger biscuit, in fact any type of biscuit she’s happy with.
She was crowned Supreme Champion at Wensleydale Show and certainly posed for the cameras and entertained the crowds by walking herself to the main ring to receive her Swiss Bell trophy.