shetland sheep
Our lovely flock
Here at Sweet Arrow Farm we raise a variety of small livestock, but our focus right now is our flock of Shetlands. Shetlands are a small-stature breed that maintains its natural hardiness, thriftiness, easy lambing, adaptability and longevity. Shetlands survived for centuries under harsh conditions and on a meager diet, although they do very well under less rigorous conditions. Having retained many of their primitive survival instincts, they are easier to care for than many of today’s commercial breeds. They are a calm, docile, easy to manage breed. Each has it's own lovely personality. Our flock is primarily pasture feed, supplementing with hay in the winter and some grain during breeding season and for nursing ewes. We have 21 sheep in our flock right now, 20 ewes & 1 ram lamb. We have a variety of beautiful colors in our flock and plan to breed to keep the variety. Each spring we shear them ourselves and have a plethora of beautiful fleeces to use or sell as we please. With a lot of sheep comes a lot of wool. I needed to figure out what to do with them, so I learned to process and spin the wool. I donate some to my local fiber guild & sell some to hand spinners. I recently entered some of our fleece into a fleece show/sale and received a 1st in the Shetland category. If your interested in Shetland fleece feel free to contact us. Right now we are still in the learning process, but our long-term plan is to continue to use and sell the fleece and at some point we plan to, yes I know gasp, butcher & eat a few. Shetland is a smaller breed, but they are known as an all-purpose breed and "produces very high quality meat with outstanding flavor and fine texture." |