Nomad Sheep from Sunnyfield Farm
At Sunnyfield Farm we raise Icelandic and Kathadin sheep. While both breeds provide meat, the Icelandic’s also provide wool. The Kathadin’s are a “hair sheep” meaning they shed their wool and do not need the once or twice a year shearing. The sheep are primarily grass fed with only a little supplemental grain given early lambs. All have free access to a trace mineral salt and kelp.
At Sunnyfield Farm we consider ourselves “grass-farmers” and everywhere we see grass we see the ability to turn that into beef, lamb, pork, chicken, turkey and wool. We do rotational grazing with all our animals, for more information on this please read Joel Salatin’s books and/or we recommend a periodical called “Stockman Grass Farmer”. Our sheep are true Nomads in that they wander town to town grazing for food and profit. You can see our sheep in Peterborough, Greenfield, and Hancock. This past year they did a job for the Hancock Town Library mowing there lawn!! With a sheep herding demo by Jack the Sunnyfield Border Collie!
We try very hard to keep chemical worming to a minimum. Providing new pasture for the sheep is an aid in parasite control. We also breed for parasite resistance keeping the sheep that perform well on grass year after year.
Parasites are not the only problem with sheep. Predators such as coyote’s and domestic dogs will kill sheep, young lambs are especially vulnerable. We try to work in harmony with the surrounding environment; we employ three Maremma’s. These are livestock guardian dogs. Coyotes are free to come and view our sheep but the dogs prevent them from jumping in and helping themselves. In areas that we feel are high risk we will have either Sally, Dante or Raimundo staying with the sheep, sometimes all three! Maremma’s are an Italian breed of livestock dog and we chose them because of their gentle nature with people and kids, while being ferocious in their ability to keep predators out.
We are often looking for fields to graze, an environmentally sound way of keeping fields mowed and fertilized all in one shot. Depending on the land we will often just do it for the grass or if it is a rough area with a lot of labor involved we charge a per head fee. Please feel free to call with your grazing and/or field renewal plans we may be able to help.