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We're
proud of our sheep because they are the best
combination of the efforts of Stefania Dignum
who single handedly brought them from Iceland in
1985 and the efforts of American breeders since
the first grou in was brought into this country
in 1992 by Barbara Webb of Jager Farms, combined
with the best current Icelandic genetics through
artificial insemination!
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| As
we all know, Iceland has a very different
climate from the United States, and the
dedicated American breeders who brought
these sheep in from Canada spent years in breeding sheep that
were hardy here and could thrive in our warmer climate.
Those breeders have done an admirable job
over the years, selecting for hardiness in OUR
climate, for improved, more luxurious and softer
fleece, and for more and more sheep with the
wonderful colors inherent in the breed!
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| Icelandic
sheep farmers in Iceland have worked for years
toward breeding some of these same qualities in
their stock, but have concentrated on producing
white sheep with superior fleece that would
produce wool to benefit the commercial market,
which utilizes a chemical dye process most
successfully used with white wool.
Genetics for superior white fleece and
meat conformation have been successfully
capitalized upon in Iceland.
Since 1999, breeders in this country have
had access to these genetics through artificial
insemination.
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result of AI, more diverse genetics are
available to us all.
However, we at HeartsEase do not offer
sheep whose sires are Icelandic—the sheep we
offer for sale are second generation, at least.
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| Why?
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we feel strongly that the sheep we offer
to our buyers must have not only the
combination of all the best genetics for
conformation and fleece (AND color), but
that have the best chance of developing
their potential because they are well
acclimated to our climate.
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may ourselves use rams who are from AI, but we
will not be offering direct AI offspring to our
buyers.
We will take the risk of poor heat
tolerance in our breeding rams and breed them to
ewes who are the result of American breeders who
have bred for hardiness in our climate, in order
to produce sheep for our buyers who will exhibit
the heat tolerance which our predecessors worked
so hard for!
So you will see Icelandic sires behind
all our sheep, but they will be at least two
generations back. |
| The
Icelandic rams that are white offer outstanding
genetics for fleece, but not color.
There are now colored AI ram semen being
used to produce color for our markets here.
However, they're not as outstanding for
fleece as the white rams from Iceland.
Our policy is to blend the best of both,
by using colored rams who come from outstanding white AI
ewes that were bred to Icelandic colored rams or the
reverse.
We then use these rams to produce the
very best lambs (with both outstanding color and
fleece) for our customers--and for ourselves,
too, of course!
We started by using AI grandsons and
doubling up on AI blood in our ewes where we
could.
On our lists, you
can count on us to always provide information on
what AI lines an individual sheep traces back
to.
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In
this way, we can offer you the best of
all worlds!
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Ari:
#91969,
a leader ram born in 1991. Ari
is black blazed with white belly
and feet. He is intelligent
looking and is calm and alert in
the barn. Both of Ari's parents
are from lines of purebred
leader sheep. ~ Ari was
the first leader ram AI sire
imported to the U.S.
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Askur
- 93992.
Polled white, born
1993. Askur is a
long bodied ram with a wide
chest and a well muscled hind
quarters. His
lambs did well and were graded
well for meat quality.
Barbara Webb of Jager Farms
says: "Our Askur
lambs were very fast growing,
and were amongst the first of
the year's lambs to reach what
we considered a market weight.
There is no indication that
Askur carries color, but the
fleece is thick and
plentiful."
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Biskup:
#96-822, a horned black ram
born in 1996.
He carries moorit and is
blazed with white socks.
He is said to be sensible
and calm, with an intelligent
look.
Barbara Webb: "We
have used Biskup two years now,
and his lambs are typical leader
in aspect and build.
Their horns are strong,
and their style is very much,
"heads-up".
Biskup was the second leader AI
sire imported to the U.S."
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Blaevar:
# 90974, born 1990, is from the
Hestur Research Center. He is
white, horned and carries solid.
He is described as having a
tight curl to his horn, a broad
head and thick neck. Although a
bit high on the shoulders, the
neck is well-muscled. Broad
chest with springy ribs, strong
back and a meaty rack. Good leg
muscle, and strong, straight
feet. His fleece shows lots of
tan all over and has soft, fine
tog. As scored on his individual
body parts, he netted an overall
score of 8 out of a possible
score of 10. Barb Webb, Jager
Farms: "Our experience
showed his lambs to be easily
birthed and very lively. The
fleece is softer than most other
AI offspring. We have had five
lambs from Blaevar; a set each
of twins and triplets. His
lambs are smaller than those
from some of the other
sires, explaining why they
birthed so easily. We like his
lambs a great deal"
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Butur
is white, horns are close
to the head, neck is thick and
ribs are well sprung. The back
is domed with thick muscles,
muscling in loin and legs is
excellent. Legs are placed
widely. Butur has exceptionally
hard muscles. Butur's offspring
were analyzed in 1994 and he
came first of the rams tested at
that time in legs and front,
he tied 2nd with back muscle and
rib fat, and he came 2nd with
dressed weight. Last fall 43 of
Butur's lambs were slaughtered
and 18 of those or 42% were
classified A-1 (Top grading). At
the same time a group of very
promising ram lambs sired by
Butur came up for evaluation so
it is obvious that Butur is very
strongly prepotent. Eighteen two
year old daughters of Butur are
kept at Hestur and are very
promising.
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Dropi:
#91975, born 1991, is also from
the Hestur Station. He is white
with speckles on the head and is
horned. Dropi is described by
the South Ram AI station as
having a long, strong head with
a broad neck well connected to
the shoulder. The shoulder is
well muscled but rather narrow.
He has a broad wide chest, a
muscular rack, and his les is
muscular, big and deep. His feet
are thick and his gut is big. In
summary, he is a powerful ram
with excellent leg muscles. His
fleece is white, fine and curly
with average quantity. There is
tan on the back of his head, his
tail and up along his back.
Dropi carries color. Barbara
Webb: "We had two ram
lambs from Dropi in 1999 and
they are both stocky and
powerfully built. White and
well-horned, they are a bold,
impressive set of twins.
We had a set of Dropi twin ewe
lambs in 2000, and they have
proven to be very good
mothers."
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Faldur:
#92990, born 1992.
Faldur is a polled, pure
white ram.
He is well muscled, short
legged and long bodied.
He scored 99 for 114
lambs graded and 101 for 19
production years of daughters.
Barbara
Webb: "We have
one set of twins out of Faldur
in 1999 and they are quite
impressive.
Square, stocky, short
legged, meaty and bold, they cry
out to be used as a flock sire.
Faldur has strong polled
genes, and we have high hopes
for the Faldur line in our
flock!
One of the twins is now a
highly regarded stud ram at
Yeoman Farm in Ontario, and the
other was used as a clean-up ram
for us this past fall.
His lambs were
particularly broad in the chest.
We expect to use Faldur
again for AI, as his lambs have
outstanding builds."
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| Glaer:
97-86 , polled white ram.
Glaer is described by SouthRam
as a fresh looking, powerful ram
with a good overall harmony..
Very broad and vigorous
head. short and thick neck
excellently connected to broad
and muscular shoulders.
chest is wide and conformation
good. Back is broad and
rounded. Loins broad and
very well muscled. rounded
and well shaped gigot muscle
with great muscling. Feet
are straight. Wool white
with no tan fibers. Great
wool, lustrous and quantity well
above average. Glaer isn't
progeny tested bust has been
noticed for great offspring
carcass grading and good
performance of his sons.
Glaer has great breeding index
for carcass grading. In
lamb evaluation 2002 many of
Glaer's offspring were dashing,
showing great
conformation. Glaer
received an extraordinary
overall rating of 86.5, one of
the highest ever given.
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Hnykill
- 95820. Hnykill is white,
polled and carries mouflon and
spotting. He has extremely
good conformation with muscular
shoulders, back and loins, and a
well-shaped, deep leg. His
wool has a quantity less than
average, but the thel is dense
and the tog is short. Both
his mother and his daughters are
prolific with good milking
abilities. According
to Barbara Webb: "We
had seven Hnykill lambs in
spring of 2001, three sets of
twins, and a single, three of
whom are spotted mouflons!
There is heavy phaenomelanin
frosting, particularly in the
faces and legs of the lambs.
This frosted mouflon was
uniformly evident in the Hnykill
mouflon lambs, so we are
considering it to be a variant
gene of the mouflon pattern.
There was hope initially that
this Hnykill mouflon was the
single gene for the gray/mouflon
pattern, a gene we do not yet
have in North America, but that
has not proven to be the case.
This frosted mouflon pattern is
quite distinctive, with a
wonderful array of grays, taupe,
gold and browns.
The Hynill offspring
were all well-built, and grew
out quickly. On the
whole, very good looking lambs.
We used a spotted mouflon
Hnykill son this past fall for
breeding and his lambs are quite
fat and sassy, and with very
fancy frosted mouflon fleeces.
We have found the Hnykill lamb
fleeces to have short and fine
tog, good thel, with an overall
feel of soft cotton."
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Hunn:
#92-809,
born 1992, and is from the
Hestur Station.
He is a Thoka ram,
meaning he carries the Thoka
multiple birth gene.
He is white and horned,
and has proven to carry both
gray and moorit.
Evaluated in 1994, he
received a total of 80.0 points.
His eye muscle thickness
was determined in 1993 to be 33
mm, and his back fat thickness 4
mm.
He is
described as having
coarse shoulders, wide chest,
and good conformation, with
muscular back and loins, strong
feet and well muscled legs.
He is long bodied and
vigorous.
His wool quantity is
above average with lots of thel.
Barbara
Webb: "We had
three Hunn lambs in 2000, a set
of ewe lamb twins, and a
ram lamb. We used
Hunn again this past fall, and
now have seven Hunn lambs on the
ground, including a set of
quads! We used the moorit/gray
Hunn quad for breeding this fall
and are very pleased with his
lambs, in terms of both build
and fleece."
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Sveppur
is white, polled with vigorous
head. Broad but rather coarse
shoulders. Good conformation and
exceptionally thick eye muscle.
Loins are broad and muscular as
the thighs. Sveppur has well
placed and strong feet.
Wool:. No black fibers were
found. Great quantity with thick
thel and medium coarse thog."
Sveppur carries on excellent
thighs and long body.
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*Information
from SouthRam AI station; quotes
from Barbara Webb, Jager Farm
Icelandics |
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Icelandic
Sheep
Frances
Smith ~
Wendy Fast
8406
Green Road
Dansville,
New York 14437
585-335-3439
Email |
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