A WINSTON farmer and a Barnard Castle vet have become the first on the dale to import some of the rarest sheep in the world.
Seven months after coming up with the idea, farmer Steve Nesbitt and vet Will Barker celebrated the arrival from Hungary of 13 Racka sheep on August 19 with a small party at Alwent Hall Farm, near Winston.
Hungarian Racka sheep is one of the oldest breeds in the world and are unlike any other domestic sheep with both sexes having unusual spiral-shaped horns that can grow up to two feet long.
Fully grown they stand about two-and-a-half feet tall at the shoulder and have a distinctive spiral coat of wool.
Mr Nesbitt said: “We were the first to export Texels back to Holland; the first to send Charolais cattle embryos to France and now we are the first to import Racka from Hungary.
“They arrived on Saturday lunchtime and once we got them settled into sheds, we had a bit of a party to celebrate because there were some people who thought we would never be able to do it.”
The hardy breed dates back centuries and was once the most common variety in Hungary but numbers have declined with only around 3,000 remaining.
He added: “Will and I instigated it. He asked me what I thought about Racka and I didn’t know what they looked like. Once I saw the photos of them, I said, ‘Why not’. There are four of us involved. Will and I and then two others, but they haven’t even seen them yet.”
The pair, along with Mr Barker’s son Hamish, visited Hungary in May to look at suitable flocks, assisted by former Cotherstone resident Gordon Cross who now lives near the country’s capital, Budapest.
Mr Nesbitt said: “We went over to have a look and Gordon took us to a few places with another fellow that knew
