Road Trip to Vermont

Sunday morning farmer Ken, Kate, Dave, and Hunter made the two-hour drive to South Royalton Vermont to pick up our breeding flock of Navajo Churro Sheep.

Upon arriving at Orion Rising Farm the crew started to load up the 4 ewes. The loading of the girls was pretty uneventful until after having them in the trailer Farmer Kate noticed a beautiful darker female in a small group off to the side. Mentioning her to the Bob, the breeder, she learned that the little gal was headed to butcher that afternoon. Farmer Kate didn’t like the sound of that and bought her as well! So with now, 5 ewes loaded up on the trailer it was time to get the rams!

The Girls

Loading of the big rams was a harder process as there was no ramp and they had to be lifted into the trailer. Farmer Dave and Breeder Bob were able to lift each ram into the trailer with Farmer Ken manning the door so the already loaded one didn’t escape.

The Boys

The process to grow the Birch Rise Farm breeding program to include Sheep started over 6 months ago when Farmer Hunter and Farmer Kate took a road trip to this breeder and toured the farm. She discussed wanting to purchase rams and ewes to start a breeding program and wanted them to all be from unrelated bloodlines. Breeder, Bob, was very knowledgable and selected two rams and 4 ewes that would be great to start with. All of his sheep for sale are 14 months old and ready to start mating. The others that did not get selected headed to a butcher in NY to be featured in restaurants in NYC!

After arriving home the team separated the sheep into two groups to start the breeding process. Two ewes with the Black Ram and three with the white.

Stayed tuned for more information on the Navajo Churro sheep!