Woodland Creek Farm Soay Sheep Home Page
Woodland Creek Farm Soay Sheep Gallery
Soay Sheep for Sale at Woodland Creek Farm
Soay Sheep Links
Email
Blue Mountain Express, a self-colored light phase Soay ram.
Soay sheep Information
Gevan Marrs
Owner

Woodland Creek Farm

Puyallup,
Washington

(253) 848-5755

Blue Mountain Express

An exceptionally rare self-colored light phase Soay ram. 

Soay sheep are a primitive, hardy, low maintenance breed of short-tailed sheep.

They are exceptionally attractive and can be found in a wide range of natural color patterns and horn types. The most impressive rams have large, curled horns.

Soay sheep are relatively small and easy to handle. They thrive on small acreages on a wide variety of forage. They rarely require any assistance with lambing and have fewer of the medical problems that seem to plague other more "modern" breeds.

Soay sheep are naturally short-tailed so no docking is needed or practiced. As a primitive semi-domesticated sheep, Soay sheep are partway between the wild hair coat and domesticated wool coat. They have both hair types and the relative amounts of hair and wool fibers varies considerably by individual, and it largely inherited, so there are "hairy" and "wooly" and intermediate coat types. They naturally shed ("cast") their winter coats in the spring and early summer - most completely and cleanly but a few less so.

Although some Soay sheep breeders have them for wool, and some for meat, the principle reasons we have chosen Soay sheep for our flock at Woodland Creek Farm is simply for pasture management and the enjoyment of a flock of beautiful animals grazing under towering Douglas-firs. Additionally the genetics of coat colors has become a main interest of our breeding program.

Soay sheep have evolved largely without human influence on remote St. Kilda island of Soay for thousands of years, with more recent introductions to the island of Hirta in the 1930's, where again it has been survival of the fittest, with little or no human intervention, since that time.

All Soay sheep in North America come from two importations (each with very few individual sheep) into Canada - one in 1974 and a second in 1990. See the Soay sheep links for more information on the history of Soay sheep in North America.

At Woodland Creek Farm our main interest is the genetics and production of Soay sheep in the rare, recessive coat colors and patterns (self-colored, light phase, and white spotting, and any combination of these three).

In particular, one line of breeding has the goal of extending recessive white spotting on the recessive self-colored pattern, with a dark phase base, thus the result is a "Black and White" Soay.

A second line of interest is the far more rare self-colored light phase Soay. There have only been about 4 of these ever produced in North America (as of this writing April-2010), and we have two of those here at Woodland Creek (see photo of Express above).

To see more of the range of colors and types represented in our flock at Woodland Creek Farm, browse our Gallery link. 

See the Soay Information links on this Woodland Creek Farm website for additional informational papers on these sheep.

Visit my Blog. It's all or mostly about Soay sheep, but also my Farmall Cub tractor, mini-farming, haymaking, wine-making, and any other things that happen to interest me.  Visit at:

Gevan's Soay Sheep Farm Blog

http://woodlandcreekfarm.blogspot.com/

 

Fall 2007 Soay Sheep Ram Photo Gallery

I always enjoy watching the rams mature and see the winter coats. I've posted a gallery of fall rams on our Picasa public gallery.

Fall 2007 Rams at Woodland Creek Farm

Soay Sheep - 2007 Fall Rams at Woodland Creek Farm

 

 

 

Here are just a few photos of some of our Soay Sheep

at Woodland Creek Farm. (See our Gallery links for more photos.)

(place cursor over photo for caption)

Skylonda Geege '07. A light phase, high % RBST Soay ewe.  

Skylonda Geege '07. Light phase Soay ewe.

Our ewe flock in Apr-10. A variety of less-common coat colors and patterns.

Our ewe flock in Apr-2010. A variety of the less-common Soay sheep coat colors and patterns.

Zillah and Trillium '10 - twin light phase ewe lambs. USA0002 Fiona X Blue Mountain Express.

Skylonda Zillah and Trillium '10. Twin light phase wild-pattern ewe lambs.

USA0002 Fiona X Blue Mountain Express.

Woodland Creek Bandit '10 - ram and dam Woodland Creek Athena. Black and white Soay sheep.

Woodland Creek Bandit '10 - ram lamb and dam Woodland Creek Athena.

Both are self-colored blacks with fairly extensive white spotting.

Three of our 2010 Black and White Soay ram lambs, showing the progression of white spotting on the self-colored black coat pattern.

Woodland Creek Lightning, Rascal, and Bandit. 2010 Black and White Soay ram lambs.

These three lambs show the progression of success in breeding for extending white spotting.

Woodland Creek Trout '10 - ram. Heavy dose of red phemomelanin from the Blue Mountain line of Soay sheep.

Woodland Creek Trout '10 - ram takes a nap in the sun.

Our ewe flock of self-colored black NA Soay sheep heads out to pasture. 
(Lead sheep is not s-c black but all the others are). 5-Jul-2006.  

DPH Kaya '05 19-Sep-05 Self-colored black Soay sheep ewe, twin to Thor  

DPH Thor '05 -  Self-colored black Soay sheep ram, twin to Kaya

  Woodland Creek Chico '06 a very light NA Soay sheep ramFive NA Soay sheep 2006 ram lambs - Nevada, Pepper, Obsidian, Chico, and Teton  

Woodland Creek Farm Soay Sheep Puyallup Washington rare primitive   Woodland Creek Farm Soay Sheep Puyallup Washington rare primitive  Woodland Creek Farm Soay Sheep Puyallup Washington rare primitive  

Woodland Creek Farm Soay Sheep Puyallup Washington rare primitive  Woodland Creek Farm Soay Sheep Puyallup Washington rare primitive  Woodland Creek Farm Soay Sheep Puyallup Washington rare primitive  

Woodland Creek Farm Soay Sheep Puyallup Washington rare primitive  Woodland Creek Farm Soay Sheep Puyallup Washington rare primitive  Woodland Creek Farm Soay Sheep Puyallup Washington rare primitive  

Woodland Creek Farm Soay Sheep Puyallup Washington rare primitive  Woodland Creek Farm Soay Sheep Puyallup Washington rare primitive  Woodland Creek Farm Soay Sheep Puyallup Washington rare primitive  

Woodland Creek Farm Soay Sheep Puyallup Washington rare primitive   Woodland Creek Farm Soay Sheep Puyallup Washington rare primitive  Woodland Creek Farm Soay Sheep Puyallup Washington rare primitive  

Woodland Creek Farm Soay Sheep Puyallup Washington rare primitive   Woodland Creek Farm Soay Sheep Puyallup Washington rare primitive  Woodland Creek Farm Soay Sheep Puyallup Washington rare primitive  

Woodland Creek Farm Soay Sheep Puyallup Washington rare primitive   Woodland Creek Farm Soay Sheep Puyallup Washington rare primitive  Woodland Creek Farm Soay Sheep Puyallup Washington rare primitive