When we first looked into sheep, we wanted a breed that was tri-purpose, tough, and beautiful. The Icelandics fit that picture perfectly, and it's been awesome to see how our flock has grown from ten sheep back in 2018, to over sixty fantastic wooly friends now. They are members of the Northern European Short Tail family of breeds, which includes Finnsheep, Icelandic, Shetland, Gotland, and several other less well known breeds. As the name implies, they have a naturally short tail so don't need to be docked, yeah! Their ancient genetics make them resistant to many of the diseases that plague lots of "improved" breeds.

Icelandics have a unique two layered fleece: their Thel is a fine inner layer, often 20 microns or less, that has tight and corkscrew-like curls; and their Tog is a rough outer layer, generally in the 40 micron range, that is long with distinct curls or waves. The two layers can be separated in order to make fine garment yarns with the Thel and rough/tough yarn with the tog, or they can be spun together to make traditional Icelandic Lopi yarn. All of that lovely fleece comes in a wide variety of stunning color and pattern combinations.

Another interesting trait the Icelandics share with their other Northern Short Tail friends is the ability to shed their wool in the spring. During the late winter, their fleece breaks off at the base and a new coat begins to grow. Once the new coat has a bit of growth, the older fleece begins to shed. At that point the shepherd can "roo" them, which simply means pulling the previous season's fleece off. We find that, though it is more time consuming than shearing, rooing is very rewarding and is actually a great bonding time with the animals. We use that time to trim hooves, check conditioning and get everybody ready for heading out on pasture for the summer.

In addition to all of the great fleece, our girls produce milk that makes the most amazing ice-cream you've ever eaten! They may not produce a ton of milk, but what they lack in quantity they completely make up for in quality!!!

We are selecting for sturdy sheep who demonstrate a good balance between fleece, milkiness, and meat that thrive on native pasture, can the cold winters and hot summers of the inner mountain west and roo well. We're maintaining both horned and polled lines.
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​Our entire flock is biosecurity tested.