It's so good to be baa baa back

From the Echo, first published Thursday 2nd Oct 2003.

PORTLAND sheep have come back home, thanks to the determination of one island farmer.

Dorian Diment is restocking his 60 acres of tenant farm with 39 pure-bred Portland sheep, two years after he lost his entire stock during the foot and mouth crisis.

Mr Diment, was farming a mixture of Suffolk cross and Portlands when the disease struck in 2001. He said: "It was devastating. I lost them all."

Mr Diment, who started a TV aerial business to get back on his feet, added: "Aerials subsidise the farm. If it wasn't for that we wouldn't be able to have the sheep back."

Mr. Diment says he loves all sheep but there was "not much point in having commercial sheep like Suffolks because the grass here isn't much good for them'. He added: "Besides, Portland sheep belong on the island, so I thought it would be right to have them again."

Portland sheep cost up to £100 each and are now one of the rarest breeds. They are small, with no wool on the face or on their tan-coloured legs. The lambs are born fox red and lighten to either white or grey. Both sexes are horned and the ram's horns have a heavy spiral. Mr Diment is borrowing a ram from another farm for a year.

The flock will be used mainly for shows and breeding, and a few lambs will be sold as rare breed meat. But Mr Diment doesn't expect to make his fortune. "There's not much money in farming these days," he said.

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