Welcome!

The ABLA was founded in 1973 to promote and register Border Leicester sheep in the United States and Canada.  Our association is experiencing some exciting growth, both in membership and numbers of sheep registered.

We invite you to join us!  Any resident of the U.S. or Canada who owns or is interested in Border Leicesters may become a member of the American Border Leicester Association by application and payment of an annual membership fee.  Print out a Membership Application.

We hope that both members and those just looking into Border Leicester sheep will find this website to be useful.

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A 2-year old Border Leciester ram
Owned by Grace Smith, Charlotte, VT


A brief reminder...

A brief reminder of what a Border Leicester fleece should be to fall within the proper numeric or micron count.

I have been a member of the American Border Leicester Association and raised Border Leicester sheep for just about as long as this association has been in existence.  No time during the last thirty odd years have I seen any mention of changing the “spinning” count on the Border Leicester.  Therefore I assume the numbers remain the same as when I started raising Border Leicester sheep.

It has been brought to the attention of the Board of Directors that some of our members have noticed a change in the overall fleece designation of the modern Border Leicester.  In order to provide new folks and judges where the wool count should fall in our sheep it has been decided to clarify this under the “WOOL” section of our Guide for Judging Border Leicester Sheep.

In addition to item # 1, Locks with purled tips ending in a curl, we will add the following information: “The fleece weight from mature females ranges from 8 to 12 pounds with a yield of 65 to 80 per cent.  The stable length of the fleece ranges from five to ten inches with a numeric count of 36 to 48 which is 38.5 to 30.0 microns.”

If you will examine most breed standards for wool sheep with the various associations you will find they are specific in letting their breeders know exactly where the fleece count should range.

If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact your Board and they can give you some locations on the internet where these numbers plus more additional information can be found on our lovely sheep.

Di Waibel, Mist O Morn Farm, Western Director

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