Breeding Goals

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Our Breeding Goals

We strive to produce well balanced Icelandic sheep that are the multi purpose breed they were intended to be. We achieve that balance by utilizing some of the best polled AI genetics available from Iceland and by using top quality breeding rams from our own flock as well as rams from reputable flocks throughout the United States. We use the Icelandic Breed Standard rules as a guide when evaluating our sheep to select breeding stock. They were formed by the late Dr. Halldor Palsson who was the leading sheep specialist in Iceland for a quarter of a century.

In general, we look for polled, calm, parasite resilient, individuals with good meat, milk and wool potential. With an emphasis on meat conformation we select fast growing animals from ewes that are easy lambers with exceptional udders and milking ability. As a handspinner, I personally handle every fleece, evaluate it and select breeding animals based on my records. We feel our proactive breeding strategy creates strong, healthy, outstanding examples of the breed. Rams - We look for rams to have and produce in his offspring the following characteristics: Strong libido with a masculine look Calm with a good temperament (non aggressive) Strong maternal line Even, soft and lustrous fleeces of quality and quantity Vigor at birth Good rate of gain Good general health and nice conformation Ewes -* We Look For ewes to exhibit and pass on the following characteristics to her offspring: Easy lambers with good maternal qualities Milky and raise fast growing lambs that reach breeding and butcher weights by fall Calm with a good temperament Reliable twinner (singles are more acceptable to us than triplets) Even, soft and lustrous fleece of quality and quantity Feminine looking, with good general health and conformation For more information about the Icelandic sheep breed click here to go to the ISBONA website. Back to Icelandic Sheep		Here at Whippoorwill Farm, we specialize in starter flocks for new shepherds and offer unlimited after-sale support. We retain only the very best of the lamb crop for ourselves and for our customers. We stand behind the quality of our breeding animals and will not knowingly sell inferior stock. We keep a moderate size flock of adult sheep which enables us to know the strengths and weaknesses of every sheep. We cull harder than the average shepherd, selecting for only those qualities that we desire. We never sell culls as breeding stock nor sell anything that we wouldn't keep for ourselves. Finally, all of our sheep are raised around other animals and lambs are handled at birth much like imprint training of new foals, making our sheep easy to work with and a joy to have. We believe our breeding and shepherding standards make our sheep ideal for the small farm, first time shepherd or shepherdess as well as capable of thriving in a large scale production setting. Yearling ewe with twin ewe lambs Culling Culling is an important practice for any serious breeding program. Before purchasing your sheep from a breeder it's important to ask the breeder about their culling practices and criteria. A breeder that offers everything for sale and only butchers the lambs that didn't sell at the end of the season is a breeder to steer clear of. At Whippoorwill Farm we select our breeding stock based on our flock goals which is approximately 50 to 75% of our ewe lamb crop and approximately 25% of our ram lamb crop, the remaining lambs go to fill our meat orders. There are occasionally lambs with exceptional temperaments and fleece quality that find homes as pets or fiber animals so it's important to ask if looking for those sheep. They are sold unregistered. Biosecurity We practice and enforce reasonable biosecurity measures to insure the safety of our flock. All visitors will be asked to wear protective boot covers or disinfect shoes before entering the sheep yard. All new animals are quarantined for a minimum of two weeks and up to two months before joining the rest of the flock. These are necessary measures to prevent the infection and spread of serious communicable diseases. Our flock is enrolled in the National Volunteer Scrapie Eradication Program and will become certified scrapie free this summer.

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