Rare Sheep, British + American Soay Sheep Breeder

I have visited several Soay breeders farms - and they were all beautiful, well managed, and established farms. They served as a good comparison on how different needs, property restrictions, and budgets dictate how good Soay management and breeding can be established.

Those visits caused serious fence envy.

We live on 5 steep acres of dense woods and under story growth of blackberry, salmon berry and red huckleberries. Quotes from several businesses that clear property of the undergrowth and any trees you want down ranged from $2800 to $5000 an acre. We are doing our clearing with Soay.

The top two pictures are an example of "BS" - "Before Soay". They were taken on April 23rd - meaning the trees had just started leafing out and the brambles and undergrowth are just beginning. By summer it is so dense that you cannot walk through the woods without a machete.

We have bear, bobcat and coyote as known predators - BUT the biggest threat to the Soay to date have been domestic dogs running in packs. I use a 9mm to scare them off.

The next three images are pictures taken of several adjoining paddocks which - when all the gates are open - create a large pasture for our ewes. The larger dark masses are root balls of huge forest ferns that have been eaten down. We will eventually go in and remove them.

We use straw as bedding for the Soay and also for erosion control on the slopes.

This area is fenced with "Suggestive Fencing" - meaning it's just a suggestion that the Soay stay put. Soay will not try the fence - UNLESS - you have rams on both sides of a common fence, the Soay are frightened, or if a lamb gets out. And if your Soay want out - regardless of what kind of fence you have - they will get out. Soay leap.

Though you cannot see the fences very well you can see where the woods start getting densely green - the straw covered area at the left and the area to the right are Soay Cleared connecting paddocks.

After fencing, but before the Soay are shifted to a new area, we go in and hand harvest any known toxic plants that are inside the fenced area - wild Bleeding Heart is very prolific. The ultimate goal with this series of inter-connecting paddocks is an entire pasture management system. After the Soay clear the brush we follow with clean up - removing downed trees, branches and other debris and large rocks. Then we plant a high quality forage pasture grass mix.

Eventually the entire 5 acres will be Soay fenced, with lush green pastures. The Soay will be moved from pasture to pasture for forage and parasite control. The bottom two pictures are the Soay in the currently planted pasture.

Collector's Cookbook Now Available

Cooking for a Good Life... while sharing that life with Soay Sheep is now available. Over two hundred pages, spiral bound, nearly one hundred Soay sheep photographs, original art by Vicki Fredricks - a talented artist from Eugene, Oregon, over 150 recipes - many of them generations old, vegetable dye instructions for wool, tips on romance and quiet time, farm stories and the history of the British and American Soay. Click here to order...

Pasture Conversion at Wind River Farm

I have visited several Soay breeders farms - and they were all beautiful, well managed, and established farms. They served as a good comparison on how different needs, property restrictions, and budgets dictate how good Soay management and breeding can be established.

Reserve Soay Lambs for 2008 ~ ~ Click here for more information.

Collector's Cookbook Now Available