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Just some stuff on us and our thoughts on raising
our Icelandic Sheep.....
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"Our Home and Tom" |
We moved here from the Milwaukee area in
the summer 7 years ago after Tom retired from the Post Office.
We had a couple pygmy goats, 2 angora goats and a llama there.
When we moved out here, we wanted to get another llama so our
llama, Barnaby Jones, would have some company. Tom contacted
Priscilla Meinholz at the Wool Farm near Madison. She had a
llama and so I went to check him out. Well, Priscilla also had
sheep – Icelandics – and since I always had in the back of my
mind that I wanted sheep, it was my opportunity. I chose Jessie
James, a moorit ram, that followed me around and Hughie (price
was right) an Icelandic Romney wether--no llama. |
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Everything went well for the
first year for the boys, but in the second year, Jessie James,
started having needs, so we got 2 ewes from Priscilla.
That following spring we had
one lamb from each ewe—Snow’s ewe survived and Cinders little
guy died of pneumonia (I think it cost us $300 in vet bills and
a lot of tears).
That’s how we started. We
have continued to grow each year. This year we bred 12 ewes and
had 20 lambs. |
"Lambing Barn" |
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"Entrance to the Farm" |
We learn a little more each
year both by hands on and from the very helpful ISBONA group
through Yahoo.
Some breeders are now using
artificial insemination from animals with great genetics and it
also eliminates keeping a ram. We are very proud of the quality
of our sheep and now have a closed flock, which means we will
not be adding any new animals to our flock. We have separate
breeding pens and have only bred unrelated rams with ewes.
Jessie James’ ewes have been bred with Dillon, (moorit horned
badgerface), and Dillon’s ewes have been bred with Jessie. This
year we added Tut to our breeding rams and he did a spectacular
job. Tut is the son of our Louise, a grey horned ewe and Dillon,
a moorit badgerface. His lambs are beautiful. |
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We are pleased that many of
our customers have bought our wethers because they either want
sheep for fiber or they just like the breed. Wethers have so few
needs and are so much fun. There’s no worry that they are going
to “ram” you when you enter the pen. They eagerly come up to you
for a handful of grain. Tom and I are not meat eaters—so we have
a few more wethers around than other breeders.
Because we want customers who
are new to sheep to enjoy them, we are more than willing to
share everything we have learned. The most important thing is
good fencing. You will need to be ready to do some fencing and
if you plan on breeding, you will find that you may need more
fencing and gates. (This is one of the reasons I work!)
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"Entrance to our Shop" |
We have found raising Icelandic Sheep makes our
life complete. Thank you for reading this all and then do give us a
call!
Kris
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