Ewes and lambs - many different colors and patterns
When friends heard that we were moving to 50 acres, many times the response was "Well, you can get horses/cattle now!'' I guess our thinking was that we would want something smaller, that didn't eat so much, that we could have more of per acre. Since living in Oregon for the last few years, I've taken up spinning to complement my knitting. I started researching sheep breeds and was amazed at the variety of wool types they had. I began to think "What type of wool - fleece would I like to have/spin/knit?" After a couple years of reading sheep books, visiting sheep gatherings, talking with fellow shepherds and doing online research, I decided on Icelandic Sheep.
* First, as a spinner, the joy of having so many sheep with natural colored fleeces to spin is a delight! Icelandic Sheep come in quite a variety of colors, from basic white, to several shades of black, silver black, black sprinkled with gray, creamy white, red brown (moorit), buff, oatmeal, grey with brown, etc. Icelandic Sheep have a double coat. The outer coat - Tog is a medium weight, the Thel (inner coat) is very soft. They are known for their "Lopi" yarn which comes from Iceland (the yarn is tog and thel spun together). The two may be separated or spun/carded together. Thel can be used for next to the skin soft yarn. Icelandic lamb fleeces are extremely soft as well, rivaling cashmere for softness. We look forward to shearing our prime fleeces in fall from our flock and keep a list of local sheep-shearers to have on hand.
* Icelandic Sheep are medium sized, Ewes are around 150 pounds and rams around 200. They have more meat to bone ratio than commercial breeds. Their meat is very lean and mild. The flavor is really wonderful - you know you are eating lamb, but it tastes different than any lamb I've ever had. Almost like a super mild cabrito/lamb flavor. Our two young children devoured their first Icelandic steaks! I couldn't fill all my lamb orders this year. They do well on pasture and good grass hay - we do feed alfalfa at different times of the year.. They do not need to be fed grain. We do give them sheep salt (mineral mix) with added selenium. Also kelp meal and brewers yeast which adds minerals and helps to make the fleeces nicer. Icelandic Sheep don't need their tails docked, they have a naturally short, narrow tail. They are a breed that matures early, rams as early as 5-6 months and ewes may be breed in their first year. Icelandics have a tendency to twin and often have triplets.
* Many folks are milking their Icelandic Sheep - we are looking forward to doing that this spring now that we have our sheep shed up and running!
*Icelandic Sheep pelts are beautiful, soft and luxurious.
I have a passion for learning as much as I can about the health and feeding of our flock. I work closely with our local veterinarians, Oregon State University and other Universities as well.
During these difficult financial times we are meeting even more people interested in raising their own Icelandic Sheep for meat, using their fleeces and learning how to spin their own yarn, a renewed interest in weaving, felting and fiber arts! More folks are passionate about supporting and eating locally grown food - and our customer base continues to increase!
Purebred Icelandics are the only sheep we raise and is our main focus. This is our fourth year of raising Icelandic sheep, and we continue to be very enthusiastic about what they have to offer!
