why raise Soay sheep, fun stuff, occasional sad stuff
When you raise small livestock as appealing and mellow as Soay sheep, you tend to forget that even smaller animals live right alongside them. The other day I was rummaging through our electronic photo “scrapbooks” looking for pictures of one of our rams who is going to a new home in the next few weeks […]
Ever since we got our first Soay sheep nearly seven years ago, we have bragged to our friends, and frequently boasted online as well, about how great they are for cleaning up neglected pastures and keeping grass pastures healthy. Everything we learned online in the early days reinforced our notion that our sheep were in […]
One of the joys of raising rare little sheep is the seemingly endless stream of “can you believe this?” stories. Just before the holidays, we received an e-mail from a fellow breeder, Mike Reid from northern Oregon, with the latest. Mike tells the story first-hand: I don’t know what to make of it, but it […]
Yesterday’s snowfall at nearby Crater Lake, together with the rapidly shortening days, reminds us that the grass is about to stop growing, breeding season is upon us, and it is time to prepare for feeding hay and the beginning of the rainy season — all closely related events. Preparations for breeding are pretty routine by […]
For Soay sheep and their shepherds, summer is an easy, laid-back season. All the sheep are feasting on grass, so there is no hay to tote. Moving the animals from one area to another to keep them rotating through the pastures is a welcome task, since we get to be with our Soay flock and […]
Yesterday the twins born under less-than-ideal circumstances celebrated their 2-week birthday, and they not only are surviving, they are thriving and growing like little ovine weeds. Tolcarne is, as usual, a superb mother and at least for now is cranking out milk sufficient to meet her lambs’ needs without losing her good conditioning. May I […]