Shetland Sheep

 Home of the Scotch Croft flock

 

 Our flock is comprised of registered Shetland sheep, one of the smallest breeds in the world. Shetland sheep originate from the Shetland Isles of Scotland and were imported to North America in the 1980s.  Shetland sheep are prized for their fine wool and array of colors, offering a variety for fiber artists. The sheep are sheared once a year and produce 2 to 4 pounds of lovely wool. Our focus is to preserve the horned ewe genetics which are rare in this breed. Shetland sheep are recognized by The Livestock Conservancy and is listed as recovering. 

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 Our flock is registered with the North American Shetland Sheepbreeders Association as well as we are members of the Fine Fleece Shetland Sheep Association. The goals for our flock are to produce sheep with kindly (soft) fleeces of varying colors that can be registered with FFSSA, a non-profit dedicated to breeding and preserving sheep which meet the 1927 breed standard.

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 We are Animal Welfare Approved (AWA) for our flock through A Greener World. The certification guarantees that our animals are raised naturally and sustainably with the welfare of the animals as our top priority.

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 Our little flock started in 2020 with nine registered sheep sourced from different lines. We wanted to focus on the rarer horned ewe genetics, and were able to find some which also were bred for kindly fleeces. 

 

 It was exciting to learn along the way about the different fleeces, the array of colors, rarer genetics, and of course the history. Rachel scoured the NASSA website looking at all the pedigrees and tracing each sheep back to its original 1980s import or through imported semen straws. She began thoroughly tracking horned ewes and their genetic carriers and making notes of common ancestors for future flock members.