HERITAGE SHEEP & FIBER ANIMALS
ICELANDIC & NAVAJO-CHURRO
WENSLYDALE & CALIFORNIA RED SHEEP
Click here to see sheep for sale
Our expanding sheep herd now consists of beautiful fiber and meat producing animals including
Icelandic, Navajo-Churro, and Wenslydale heritage sheep
as well as
Wenslydale-Finnish crosses
, and beautiful
California Red sheep
. This wonderful blend of sheep offers a variety of wool and fiber types to satisfay handspinners, felters and knitters of all sorts.
Our purebred, CLRC- registered
Icelandic Sheep
joined the ranch in August 2006. We were initially very attracted to this dual-coated, primitive, unimproved, rare breed of sheep for their conservation value and their multi-purpose fleece, dairy capabilities, low maintenance requirements, and especially their fantastic ability to thrive on native grasses and noxious weeds. In a very short time we have grown to love them and expect to increase our flock as rapidly as we can acquire good breeding stock. We breed for natural disease and parasite resistance, so breeding stock you get from us will be hardy and gentically superior to sheep raised with high amounts of chemical dewormers and unnecessary vaccines.
The Navajo-Churro S heep, like the Icelandic, is primitive, hardy, adaptable, disease resistant, long legged and fine boned. The gourmet meat has a delicate, sweet, lean flavor, unlike commercial lamb meat and the coarse fleece has long been used in traditional Navajo rugs. These sheep are listed as endangered by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy. The Navajo-Churro sheep is descended from the Churra, an ancient Iberian breed introduced to North America by the Spanish in the 1500s and is considered America's first sheep breed.
We will offer natural colored wool and fleeces, rovings, yarns and occasionally high quality animals for breeding and fiber. We will also have organically raised, Certified Naturally Grown , grass-fed, free range lamb and mutton for sale. Icelandic lamb meat is a high-quality, gourmet meat that tastes mild and tender but yet wild and fresh flavored and redder than store bought grain fed, store-bought lamb. You'll taste the difference! Visit our sister site at Heritage Natural Meats to order your own.
BALDUR our 2006 Icelandic ram. A black, spotted badger patterned grandson to the impressive Icelandic sires Ari and Biskup, he is 2nd generation American and will be a herd sire for our sheep . His Leader Sheep qualities are very apparent in his alert demeanor and tall conformation.With his very full, lush spiral fleece and wide set horns, we expect him to have quite a great influence on our herd in the years to come. He produces the most wool of all the sheep here.
BRUNHILDA , 2005 ewe. Lovely wavy black- grey fleece with many shades of silvering and perfect wide swept horns. She is tall with good substance and size, long-bodied, prominant leadersheep personality, demonstrating her very nice breeding on both sides with imported AI sires Biskup (Leadersheep) and Morro. Brunhilda is the leader of our flock and is a wonderful mother.
Brunhilda lambed in March 2008 with a gorgeous moorit ewe lamb. See her on our sales page!
THOKKA (of no relation to the fertile Thoka line) is a beautiful Moorit 2006 Icelandic ewe with wonderful thick corkscrew curly fleece that is dark chocolate brown with reddish tips. She also of very fine imported Icelandic breeding, including AI sires Bambi, Biskup, Morro and Hynkill. Thokka produces the finest moorit fleece of all the sheep, loaded with thel but well balanced with the tog. She is silvering as she ages adding more color complexity to her fleeces.
Our sheep enjoy the company of our two alpacas Machu and Pichu. Some of our wool products will be blended with the alpaca fibers for a softer handle. Raw alpaca fiber for sale can be found on our Wool page.
Here are the new girls for 2007: Mouflon, Moorit and Moorit Mouflon Icelandic ewe lambs and a purebred Moorit Navajo-Churro ewe lamb. With them we now have a wide variety of colors and patterns.
These three registered llamas and thenew 2008 cria are all shiny silky llamas with beautiful dual-coated fiber. We plan to show these llamas in the future. Llama fiber for sale can be found on our Wool page. Our female cria is for sale.
OUR CALIFORNIA RED EWES
Summer 2008: These two sweet little lambs are sired by our moorit Icelandic ram Vidarr. Interestingly enough neither shows any trace of him. The ram lamb looks like a purebred California Red lamb, but the ewe lamb is a throwback to her dam's Barbados Blackbelly heritage. These ewes are very milky and milkable. We recommend them for anyone interested in making cheese.
