Read Priscilla's blog about the joys of raising small sheep: what happens, and when during the Soay calendar year (especially during lambing), fencing and pasture rotation, and an occasional pinch of silliness thrown in for balance. Check it out!
As a service to breeders of Soay sheep in North America, we maintain a pedigree database,
registry and photo gallery collectively known as the Open Flockbook Project. Access to the
OFP on-line pedigree database and photo gallery is completely open. We hope you will visit
the OFP website, and we encourage all keepers of Soay sheep to register their animals and
upload photos.
OFP
On November 2, 2007, twenty British ewes — ten of ours and ten of Kathie Miller's — were artificially inseminated using semen taken from two Soay rams, Mustard and Norris, belonging to Christine Williams in Wales.
For twenty-one weeks since that day, we have been waiting, none too patiently. Did the AI procedure — no trivial matter — succeed? Ultra-sound visualization of several of Kathie's ewes confirmed their pregnancy. Over the last few weeks, the increasingly round shape of our ladies confirmed that we, too, were expecting.
We are pleased to report that the AI progeny have begun arriving. The first were born at Kathie's late last night followed by our first birth early this afternoon.
We acknowledge with deep gratitude the multi-year efforts and commitment of Christine, who volunteered her rams and arranged for the collection of semen in the U.K., and of Kathie, for whom a long-held dream has now come true.
For us, this news is nothing short of thrilling. The new genetics being introduced by these lambs constitutes a milestone in the history of the North American flock of British Soay sheep. We are honored to have partnered in the direct augmentation of the critically limited genetic diversity of the British Soay population on this continent.
Our city friends ask us all the time,
“Why on earth do you live on a farm and burden yourselves with a big flock of
Soay sheep?” The answers could fill a book, but we think the following
thoughts put to paper almost thirty years ago by a renowned Canadian food writer, editor,
chef, and shepherdess capture the essence of the matter better than we can express it
anew:
lifestyle
Though we have only a few adults and yearlings available for sale at this point, we have a
great many British and American/British Soay ewes out there in their pastures growing great
with lamb. The action will start in mid March. Lambs of all sorts will be available for
pickup after weaning in mid-summer.
To learn more about what we will have on offer and how to reserve your Soay sheep, please follow this link: sheep sales
Many of us who have chosen to live in a rural setting with a few acres of green pastures,
some trees, clean air,
perhaps an outbuilding or two, tranquility and so on made our choice in part because we
wanted to be able to keep animals of one sort or another, or will come around to the notion
sooner or later. Odds are the shoe fits, and you already have thought about Soay sheep, or
you would not be here reading these words. You are on the right track. These small, gentle,
easily kept wooly companions can enrich your life and improve your land.
small sheep
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The old Saltmarsh Ranch is nestled at two thousand feet among the northern foothills of the Siskiyou Mountains in southwestern Oregon, astride the Little Applegate River. Arthur B. Saltmarsh, the original homesteader, who settled in the 1880's, built the barn and several other outbuildings still in use. He and his heirs lived here for almost a century.
Today Saltmarsh Ranch is home to about 120 Soay sheep who share the premises with four
livestock guardian dogs, one supervisory llama and her cria, a border collie with attitude,
two cats, six hens and two shepherds, Steven and Priscilla Weaver.
Soay sheep have a much longer history. They are descendants of a feral population of primitive sheep living for at least hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years in complete isolation on the island of Soay in the St. Kilda archipelago located off the northwestern coast of Scotland in the North Atlantic Ocean, some 4581 miles from here.
Today's Soay sheep at Saltmarsh Ranch provide us with many satisfactions, foremost among them the rare opportunity to help preserve an endangered variety of attractive small sheep.