STILL WATERS FARM
ICELANDIC SHEEP
ICELANDIC SHEEP - THE EPITOME OF VERSATILITY
Breeders of Icelandic Sheep Since 1996
ISBONA Members Since 1999
Like many of you, we were transplants from the “Burbs” and have built our farm from scratch on 23 1/2 acres of wooded-lot, here in Lebanon, Maine. Having raised a few other breeds before finding Icelandics, we were very familiar with some of the trials and hardships of raising some of the domestic breeds i.e. hard lambing, bum lambs, etc...
When we heard about the characteristics of the Icelandic breed, we were a little skeptical, but research and a lot of observation showed they were great lambers, very low incidence of bum lambs, very hardy (harsh climate animal). Even after this, not being convinced, my wife took me to meet Deb and Rich Kimball of Solidago Farm, they answered my questions thoroughly and concisely.
The meat is very light and fine-textured. Best lamb we ever had!!! They are a triple purpose breed world renowned for their wool products, and are a dual coated animal. Icelandics are sheared twice a year and the wool and roving are very popular with hand spinners because of the wide variety of natural colors and patterns.
They breed in late fall and lamb in early spring avoiding the problems associated with winter lambing. Twins and triplets are also fairly commonplace with this breed. The lambs are fast growers and mothers are fierce protectors of their young. An intelligent breed, most of our flock know their names and are easy
to handle.
We are very impressed with this breed because they have exceeded our expectations.
It has been 10 years since we started with Icelandics, and we love having them and learning from them.
Our goal is to improve conformation, wool and milking abilitys of our sheep, for that reason we have been using VAI ( Vaginal Artificial Insemination), importing semen of the best sires Iceland has to offer. 2007 will be our 5th year of using AI, and results are incredible!
Thanks to Southram we are also able to become a closed flock, bringing in sheep only from clean and trusted farms.
As of last year we are a Certified Scrapie Free flock, we also test for OPP, and are Foot Rot free.
We use herbal medicine as much as possible, cull severely, and select breed for worm resistance and heat tolerance. Now our goal is to work on horn issue. As you know, horned and polled genetics of Icelandic sheep in this country have been mixed due to small number of available bloodlines.
We will forever be grateful to Stefania for all the work she did for this wonderful breed. Now we have the responsibility to not only preserve, but to improve all aspects of Icelandics. Culling is a big part of it, and the hardest one at that!
God Bless,
George and Olga.