American Soay Sheep at Greener Pastures Farm

Above: Three generations of Soay sheep born at Greener Pastures from our Driscoll line; Daphne, her daughter Cezanne, and Cezanne's daughter Kickapoo.

Below:  Two adorable twin ewe lambs from our Westwood line; Joan Jett and Etheridge.

Above:  Two-year-old American Soay ram Greener Pastures Gauguin strikes a majestic pose on a dewy morning.

© 2000 - 2006.  Website design, text and photos are copyright by Ronda Jemtegaard unless otherwise noted.

Reproduction by any means, electronic or mechanical, is forbidden unless written request

is submitted to and approved by Ronda Jemtegaard of Greener Pastures Farm.

In this age where it's now easy to clone and delete parts of photographs,

and some farmers and webmasters are doing this to published photos of their livestock,

please note that all photos on this website are unaltered in any way!

Colors, conformation, etc are exactly as depicted.

What is an American Soay?

The Soay sheep on the North American continent descend from the primitive Soay sheep originally found on the island of Soay, in the archipelago of St Kilda, 110 miles off the coast of Scotland. Although it is generally thought that the Vikings named the islands "Soay," meaning "sheep island;" it is not yet known how the primitive Soay sheep came to the island.  Soay sheep are remnants of Neolithic times1; whether their introduction to the St Kildan islands occurred during the Stone Age or the Bronze Age2, we know that they have survived alone and unassisted in the harsh environment for millennia.

Soay sheep on Soay and Hirta are considered a landrace.

Soay sheep were originally imported into North America in 1970, and our sheep descend from this importation, retaining the variations in both color and horn types found on Soay and Hirta, as well as good health and hardiness.  One of the many positive attributes of Soay sheep is a high resistance to disease, intestinal worms and hoof ailments.  Their tails are naturally short and do not require docking.  The wool from these sheep may naturally shed each summer, negating any need for shearing equipment.  For truly hardy and low maintenance small livestock, the Soay sheep is an excellent choice. 

A second importation of Soay sheep occurred in 1990.  These Soay sheep, first brought into Canada and later into the United States, are also known as British Soay sheep.  We owned one of the largest flocks of British Soay sheep in North America from 2000 through 2006. 

It had been suggested in a number of articles in recent years (not by us!) that the "British Soays" or "RBST registerable," as those from the 1990 importation are known, are the only purebred Soay sheep on the North American continent.  As evidenced by numerous publications3, Soay sheep have indeed been crossbred on both Soay and Hirta in decades and centuries past.  It is known that American Soay sheep do have both the variety in color and attributes found in the Hirta Soay sheep which do not currently exist in the British Soay sheep of North America.  Visit our British Soay Sheep page for more information about our experiences with this breed.

1   Page 39 of Winter 2004 issue of The Ark, The Journal of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust.

   Page 28 of Island Survivors, published 1974 by The Athlone Press, University of London. 

2   Page 1 of Soay Sheep, published 2004 by Cambridge University Press.

   Page 28 of Island Survivors, published 1974 by The Athlone Press, University of London.

3   Page 41 of Winter 2004 issue of The Ark, The Journal of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust.

   Page 31 of Island Survivors, published 1974 by The Athlone Press, University of London.

   Page 24 of Soay Sheep, published 2004 by Cambridge University Press.

American Soay sheep are a very hardy breed that are the perfect low maintenance small livestock for farms interested in self-sufficiency and/or organic farming.  They do not require shearing, which means that you don't need to invest in shearing equipment or ever hire a professional shearer!

American Soays are estimated to be about 300 in number, and have an interesting history.  Saving these animals from being lost due to the current promotion of British Soay sheep is of great importance.

We breed for hardiness, ease of lambing, wide horns and a wide gene pool.  Our American Soays were purchased from 6 different flocks, giving us a varied gene pool.  Additionally, we have bred a select few American ewes to British Soay rams, giving us a 7th flock in our genetics. 

We have been careful not to overuse the British lines in our American Soay breeding program, as the British Soay gene pool currently available in North America is extremely tiny, and consists only of horned ewes. 

Preserving the polled and scurred genetics still found in some American bloodlines is of critical importance.  Breeders who infuse these lines with British Soay rams are causing these traits to rapidly disappear.  All of the British Soay ewes on this continent are horned, and the British rams pass this trait along to their progeny.  Therefore, we advocate strongly that breeders of American Soay sheep utilize genetics from American Soay rams, especially rams with a polled or scurred dam and without a British Soay sire.

Some of our lines have very fine fleeces, which can be seen on our Fleeces page.  We can provide pairs, trios and more, of high quality, unrelated breeding stock.  If you are planning a starter flock, or looking for additional genetics for your established flock, we have a wide selection, and it changes yearly as we alternate which bloodlines we breed from.

Our American Soays are kept on pasture year round and exclusively grassfed, are healthy and hardy, are registered, are enrolled in the Federal Voluntary Scrapie Monitoring Program, and test negative for Ovine Progressive Pneumonia (OPP).  We provide an accurate and complete health history for each sheep we sell, and we pay for their registrations.  See our Soay Breeding Stock For Sale page for pricing, what is currently available, or to reserve lambs.  View our bloodline pages below to see what we can offer you; we have isolated 5 lines out of our American Soay flock with as little overlap as possible, and our son is working on two more; a black line and a white line.

Because we at Greener Pastures have kept and bred a large number of both American and British Soay sheep, we are an unbiased source of information.  American Soay sheep can be found in small, medium and larger sizes, just as British Soays are.  Both are an excellent choice for those farmers raising livestock for meat.  Our American Soay flock includes several bloodlines producing larger framed animals with this purpose in mind, as well as smaller specimens for those interested in even more petite livestock.