Our Breeds

While raising purebred sheep we will always prioritize maternal strength but as small, purebred producers our business is also diverse enough to aim attention at efficient meat and wool production.  Colin started with Border Leicesters when he was twelve years old and I at the same age with Finns.  We’ve both worked with these sheep, made friends of fellow breeders, volunteered with their breed associations, thought about getting rid of them at one point or another, and finally built a life around them.  No breed of sheep is perfect for every shepherd and setting.  Every breed has its drawbacks and I believe firmly that breeders need to be open about what they are when selling sheep.  That’s what I’ve done here.  

Why Border Leicesters

I’m in a good position to promote this breed because I started out not liking them.  The original source of aversion was a childhood overflowing with Border Leicesters raised by my peers.  In other words, a lot of kids brought a lot of Leicesters to the county fair, and I didn’t want to be a part of the mix.  Those kids were fiercely competitive.  Still, over the years the breed didn’t grow on me not because I thought they did anything wrong, but they didn’t do anything that stood out.  Three years with beasts of the breed under my care and I now consider that reason I was disinterested an asset.

My belief that no sheep can do it all is one I don’t hide but if backed into a corner I’d have to say Border Leicesters are the one for our region.  The Border Leicesters thoroughly combine maternal strength with efficiency for the most complete package I have ever come across in a ewe breed.  They deliver lambs without trouble who are vigorous and hardy but are relaxed enough to handle when the shepherd’s assistance is needed.  Compared to my frenzied Finn ewes always counting their lambs, Border Leicesters bring calm attentiveness to the months of lamb rearing.  Dams produce ample milk for twins with exceptional growth rates and carcass characteristics.  The Border Leicester’s lactation doesn’t do much beyond sixty days but at that point our lambs reach hefty weights with adequate muscling plus notable post-weaning rates of gain.  The Border Leicester lambs who don’t fall into the better third of the bell curve move into our meat program and excel still.  Now is when I call upon by contextual knowledge from butchering and attest to the meat quality in Border Leicesters – from racks to loins, legs and everything in between quality is not lacking. 

I hope I’ve made it clear that we like self-sufficient sheep and the Border Leicesters are that but I also like breeds that, when there is reason to work with them they don’t make it difficult.  I can rotate them around pastures alone, load them onto a trailer without a dog, and pass them onto new 4-Hers with confidence.  It’d be wrong of me not to mention their stubborn streak, but it bears more entertainment than trouble for the shepherd.  Think trying to slip past you out the gate in search of food or dip their head into a bucket of grain while you feed but not jumping fences or being too flighty to catch.  Their fleece is not fit for commercial expectations but the long, lustrous locks can do well for small and crossbred producers alike through niche markets.  White and colored wool averages a low to mid-thirties micron, grows fast enough for two clips per year without the mess of head and leg wool, and is high yielding.  Most importantly, these sheep do a lot with a little.  Efficiency cannot be ignored as climates become more fragile and resources scarce.  Border Leicesters are easy keepers and easy on the shepherd, catching your eye with erect ears, stealing your heart with their composed and curious disposition, and convincing you to keep them around when you look at the bottom line.

As promised, here are the drawbacks.  This might be because of my Finn raising influence but I’d like for greater prolificacy in the breed.  Less single born lambs and more consistent twins please.  On the subject of reproduction, rams could use a higher libido as well.  Their feed efficiency can cause some individuals to pack on the pounds too easily meaning both feeder lambs and ewes can become too fat.  Border Leicesters open fleece can make them susceptible to respiratory disease during wet springs and falls.  We don’t find this to be an issue as long as all other areas of health are in check.  Lastly, ovine progressive pneumonia (OPP) is a known issue in the breed.  When sourcing Border Leicester breeding stock we always recommend looking for tested flocks.  All things considered, they are still my first recommendation to new shepherds, 4-H youth, and experienced producers looking for a do-it-all kind of ewe in the Northeast.

Why Finns

There are really two camps of thought on the Finnsheep; you think they’re perfect or think they’re useless.  I’m here to talk you into the middle ground.  I’ve been playing in the gene pool for as long as I’ve had sheep, dug deep into the breed’s history, made a lot of phone calls that started with, “Hi, I’d like to talk about Finnsheep”, and sheared a good number of purebreds and crossbreds in various production settings.  I’ve run into a lot of far too positive misinformation which sets the foundation for negative experiences amongst new shepherds getting into Finns without a realistic understanding of their strengths and weaknesses.  Then I get to meet these misled shepherds when I come to shear and find people forced into the “Finns are useless” camp when expectations go unmet, apologize for the false all-positive advertising, and try to explain how and why these sheep can work for you.  The breed has not been in this country very long but they were brought here for the sole purpose of making maternal crosses.  That’s still the optimum role they can fill because as purebred sheep, they’re no walk in the park to raise.

            American Finns are the prolific powerhouse.  They literally have litters of lambs, making triplets to septuplets normal.  Finns are also aseasonal breeders meaning they will naturally breed out of season and they reach sexual maturity earlier than most sheep.  Rams are ready to breed around four months of age and ewes should be able by seven months however, they can do it even younger! Ask me how I know.  Whenever you breed them, once those babies are on the ground Finn ewes should be the most attentive mothers imaginable.  I still remember Colin’s reaction to a Finn during our first lambing together.  They do lamb with ease because those lambs tend to me fairly small at birth and ewes are extremely milky, most ewes able to feed triplets.  I’ve observed in my own ewes their lactation accompanied by their patience as the key to feeding more than twins.  They make the milk and take the time to stand around enough and let all three lambs nurse.  Now is when you should be asking, “Okay, if ewes can feed triplets why on earth do you tolerate quadruplets and quintuplets and septuplets?”  This is where I normally lose those in the, “Finn are useless,” camp but hear me out.

            American Finns are meant for crossbreeding.  It does take some wildly dedicated purebred producers to raise seedstock to go into crossbreeding programs but I do not recommend raising purebred Finns to many folks.  They are not meant to be the hardiest, most low maintenance, easy keeping ewe breed out there.  Ewes need extra nutrition and an experienced shepherd during late gestation since large litters can set them up for a variety of metabolic issues.  Lamb vigor is not a trait all breeders today focus on so when starting out with purchased ewes, this can be a problem.  Again, ask me how I know.  I have selected hard over the years for slightly larger and hardier lambs but it’s not a uniform trait across the breed and even so there’s a notable difference between the Finn lambs and Border Leicesters during their first few weeks of life in our flock.  Finnsheep can be rather fun with guaranteed bottle lambs and the cutest little faces.  But never ever select a breed of sheep for cuteness or wool color alone!  All of the above issues are resolved with one easy system.  Can you guess it?  Crossbreeding!

            Half- or quarter-Finn ewes can take a poorly performing ewe flock and put them in a position to actually make a profit thanks to all those above average reproductive traits.  You can even tinker with your maternal cross to get a more precise percentage of Finn to reach a specific prolificacy goal.  For everyone 1% of Finn influence you will increase your lambing percentage by 1%.  Is that not the neatest tidbit you’ve ever heard?  Using Finns in a maternal cross maximizes the strengths of the breed, adds a shot of hybrid vigor to your ewes, and won’t lose you any on a boat load of bottle lambs and tiny fragile newborns.  Getting this message across to producers has been an uphill climb Finn believers have been fighting since the 70’s.  Call me crazy, but it’s a mission I’m excited to carry on for another set of decades.

            I already mentioned some of the drawbacks during gestation and lambing but there’s more.  Being so reproductively motivated shall we say, Finns can be a handful when in heat and they’re cycling year-round.  Lambs can breed at such a young age it’s also important to wean lambs in time to prevent the young ones from doing things they shouldn’t.  The youngest I’ve seen a lamb breed was three months of age, lambing at eight months.  Many need shearing more than once per year due to a proneness for felting but they don’t all grow enough to shear every six months either.  Much of the breed lacks muscle shape and they are slow growing.  I haven’t mentioned fleece quality because it is all over the place.  The breed standard today claims a medium fleece, but I have seen everything from dual coated coarse wool to the fine end of medium.  Lastly, an emphasis on unique coloring has taken the spotlight so we find less prolific, less consistent, not always sound Finns a commonality.  Despite what this list might suggest, I do love these sheep.  They’re just not a great fit for everyone and that’s not a fact I think we should hide.

At the end of the day Colin and I can always agree on what we want in the barn: maternal breeds with clean legs and heads.  We want strong dams and simple shearing.  Those priorities won’t work for every producer or in every region of the country.  When looking into breeds of sheep to raise yourself talk to other shepherds in your area.  I know that’s more work than a Google search and scrolling through Facebook groups, but you won’t regret it.  Every breed is portrayed by someone as the best, most perfect, no problem sheep.  Don’t believe them.  I love our big Leicesters and motherly Finns immensely.  But there’s plenty of other options in the ovine species.