Naming lambs

naming schemes & related fun stuff

Fun with naming Soay twins

Fun with naming Soay twins

Before Soay lambing starts in earnest around the country, I thought you might get a kick out of some of the naming pairs our ordinarily serious and conservation-minded colleagues have chosen for their twins. It’s all well and good to use place names, flower names, national park names, girl scientist names, and similarly earnest themes. […]

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Lamb Camp Day 1: Campers arrive and so do their first lambs

Lamb Camp Day 1: Campers arrive and so do their first lambs

Our friend Ida had so much fun visiting us during lambing in 2013 that she applied to return this year. In my last post, I tried to set the stage for Lamb Camp 2015 by sharing the backstory of Ida’s first visit. By the time Ida and daughter Whitney and niece Audrey arrived on April […]

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Naming themes: the annual ritual in action

Naming themes: the annual ritual in action

Soay sheep breeders delight in finding clever names and elaborate naming themes for their lambs, perhaps to compensate for the fact that we play no role in the lambing process — our ewes are entirely self-sufficient in that department. There are lamb “crops” named for trees, automobiles, famous scientists, spices, towns in Oregon, Native American […]

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Saltmarsh Soay Pioneers

Saltmarsh Soay Pioneers

One of the most enjoyable, ordinarily light-hearted rituals on our farm is the annual selection and implementation of lamb naming themes.  This year, picking the right theme took on a certain solemnity as we welcomed lambs with the first-ever new genetics in the British Soay flock here in the U.S., thanks to the wonders of AI, […]

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A Soay by any other name is still …

A Soay by any other name is still …

If dipping navels and trimming hoofs are the spinach and carrots of shepherding Soay sheep (as in, “eat your vegetables, dear”), the choice of a naming theme for our Soay is the dessert cart.  Naming themes are about as close as most Soay shepherds get to unmitigated frivolity. They are fun to come up with, fun […]

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