My love and admiration of the Jacob Sheep came quite by accident. I grew up raising Suffolk sheep for 4H and raised them to sell to fellow 4H'ers along with taking my own home raised lambs to the fair. After several years of raising Suffolks I was happy to be done with sheep at the age of 18. Skip along a few years and now me an always passionate horse woman and now married, all I wanted to do was be with my horses - riding and traning. My husband comes home and asks if we can get sheep, my instant reply was "NO!" I was still very burnt out on sheep. Finally I conceded to getting four of these very strange sheep that I knew were "heritage." That part sounded good to me, being fascinated by breeds such as Spanish Mustangs and Highland Cattle. Next thing I know, my husband pulls in with the horse trailer and 11 Jacob sheep! Pretty soon I'm online researching this multi-horned, spotted breed. The more I read, the more fascinated I became. I soon reserved a ram from a lady up in Oregon (who has become a very good friend and mentor - www.kenleighacres.etsy.com) because I knew that more than likely my sheep were unrelated to something from up in Oregon. From then on we've added new rams and have learned more and more about fleeces, spinning, felting and dying.
We use our sheep, from the fleece, to the meat, to the horns. Bits and pieces that we don't eat go to the farm dogs. Our sheep lead happy lives grazing large pastures and are rotated from one to the next throughout the spring and summer months. Breeding groups are put together in fall and in the early spring months, lambs arrive! We concentrate on "Preserving a Heritage Breed," which includes diversity amongst the flock, parasite resistance, and natural mothering instincts. Our flock is registered with the Jacob Sheep Breeder's Association (www.jsba.org)