Under the Son Farm

Registered Shetland Sheep

 

Some of our Shetland ewes—musket, black, moorit & fawn

Sunrise over the pond

Under The Son Farm has the goal of raising the best possible Shetland sheep to meet the demanding niche markets that are suited especially for this hardy breed.  To that end, we have Shetland sheep with fine quality spinning wool, excellent  purebred breed stock, and gourmet flavored grass-fed lamb to offer.  We have all of the main colors in our flock and strive for correct conformation, tails, and horns.  We believe there needs to be a correct structure under the fleece to produce a healthy, hardy, long-lived animal that give us wonderful wool and great lambs. 

 

Registered Purebred Shetland Breed Stock is an essential part of what we do here.  Striving for the perfect Shetland, we simply breed for the best.  Many hours are spent researching correct conformation and fleece type and then pairing the right ewes with the right ram in order to utilize the strengths of both to ensure top notch lambs.  We select our flock sires to have a high quality, conformationally correct, meaty carcass on them as well as a wonderful Shetland fine fleece.  Several sires are utilized every year as this produces a large, genetically diverse lamb crop.  

Ewes must conform to the breed standard and have the ability to produce healthy, growthy lambs to be retained as breed stock. We retain only the cream of the lamb crop and offer only lambs with exceptional conformation and fleece for sale.  All other lambs are sold as market or freezer lambs. 

There are UK genetics from most of the AI rams offered at Supersire Ltd in the flock as well as some straight domestic genetic lines.  We have F1 rams from our own breeding to maximize our genetic diversity.  We sometimes have available breed stock lambs, rams, and older ewes for the buyer who is just starting out or who is looking for new genetics to incorporate into their flock.  See For sale—Purebreds page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fleece is a big part of raising Shetland sheep. We are striving for a large percentage of the flock to be the “kindly”  single and/or intermediate Shetland type with a crimpy, fine to very fine, soft handling fleece that has a good staple length for ease of spinning.   This produces a wonderfully soft yarn that is suitable for knitting and weaving soft shawls, sweaters, and other garments.  This type of fleece is the ultimate hallmark of a quality Shetland fleece.   In times past, Shetland wool was noted for its exceptionally fine hosiery, the renowned Shetland ring shawl and the true Shetland sweater.  As a spinner, weaver, and knitter myself, the fleeces are carefully selected for the silkiest hand possible as well as a lustrous fleece.  This ensures a fleece that is a pleasure to spin and a yarn that is wonderfully soft to work with.  To that end, the genetic science behind what makes an exceptional fleece is heavily considered in order to breed the next generation of lambs better.   See Fleece & Fiber page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grass-fed Freezer Lambs are the other important focus on our farm.  In addition to breeding for quality fleece and a great conformation on our breed stock, we believe the Shetland to be a dual purpose sheep (as they are used in the Shetland Isles) and use the non-conforming lambs for the much raved Shetland grass-fed gourmet lamb.  Grass-fed lamb is high in Omega-3 fatty acids and Shetlands are touted as having high levels because of their primitive characteristics.   

We utilize a percentage of our older Shetland ewes in the grass-fed production of cross-bred market wether lambs for the private buyer and the ethnic market.  These lambs grow faster than the purebred Shetlands, therefore giving a larger meat carcass. The cross-bred ewe lambs can be used in a commercial sheep operation as they are growthy, hardy, and will produce a wonderful terminal cross market lamb that gains well on pasture alone. 

The North Country Cheviot cross is our focus as this cross is routinely done in the Shetland Isles with great success.  The NCC/Shetland cross ewes are used extensively in the UK in the commercial three tier market lamb system as the crossbred ewes are milky, hardy, and raise fast growing terminal market lambs in pasture based production.  If you are looking for healthy, grass-fed lamb for your freezer or commercial ewes to start your own market lamb business, please contact us.  See Freezer lambs/Commercial ewes/Older ewes/Pets page.

 

 

 

 

Six month old North Country Cheviot/Shetland cross wether—90+lbs on grass alone!