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Where we are located~
We are located just 25 miles west of Portland, Oregon near Hillsboro,
Oregon. Our Purebred Icelandic sheep graze our grassy hillside
pastures on the top of a mountain that stretches between Scoggins and
Patton Valley. If you are familiar with the Pacific Northwest,
we are just 8 miles south of Forest Grove in a little town named
Gaston. It is right off of hwy 47 about 18 miles north of
McMinnville, Oregon. We are in the wine country with 2 wineries
right in our little town of 620 people!
We welcome visitors and ask that you might give us a call first to make sure we
we are home. If you are coming from far away, there are many
small and inexpensive hotels near by.
Our Focus~
On our "Fiber Ranch", we have focused our attention on raising healthy and
strong, unique and natural colored, fiber-producing animals. Although Icelandic
sheep are very hearty and an easy to raise animal, we are very aggressive with our flock
health management practices and take extensive measures to ensure we have the very best
high quality animals to offer. Our Purebred Icelandic sheep are registered through the
Canadian Livestock Records Corporation in Ottawa, Canada. Their website is: www.clrc.on.ca
To achieve our goal for producing top quality animals,
we have imported frozen semen directly from Iceland out of Iceland's
best rams. Click HERE
for more information about our Semen importation project and artificial
insemination of our ewes.
Education is another focus of our farm. We are happy to share any of our flock and
fiber management practices with anyone that asks or you can come up for a visit and see
what we do. We attend many classes each year on subjects such as pasture management,
lambing, fiber processing, etc... so we can be up to date with the newest ideas and
continually improving on our own farm management practices.
Intensive Flock Management Practices~
One of the many things we do to ensure the quality and health of our animals
is we
routinely test each animal on our farm for OPP (Ovine Progressive Phenmonia) and CLA
(Caseous Lymphadenitis) so that you are guaranteed disease free animals
from our farm. We are proud to say that our flock has never tested positive
for any of these diseases. We are also enrolled in the Federal
Voluntary Scrapie Certification Program.
As a preventative measure in the spread of foot diseases, we ask all
visitors coming to our farm to go through a disinfectant footbath and/or
slip on disposable booties before entering our barns or pastures. If you would like more information about our farm practices in
foot rot prevention, or what foot rot it is, we have written an article at: http://www.hawksmountainranch.com/footrot4-99.html
Fun with Color~
One of the intriguing things about Icelandic sheep is the many colors and patterns they
come in. We have a very colorful flock including Moorit (brown), Black, Grey, White,
Spotted, Badgerfaces, and also Mouflons..
We have breeding stock for sale. We have studied the
color genetics of Icelandic sheep and have done intense selective breeding last fall to
achieve specific colors and patterns along with excellent quality fleece's and strong body
conformation. We were able to achieve some very unusual and rare color and pattern
combinations found in the United States, if not all North America. Check this page
out: www.hawksmountainranch.com/hmrr067j.html
for a photo of a moorit mouflon badgerface ewe lamb born on the farm this Spring and other
unusual color and pattern combinations.
Our Guarantee~
We guarantee our animals are healthy when they leave our farm and that all animals that
are sold as breeding stock are viable breeding animals.
Other related activities we are involved in~
Pygora fiber goats~
Along with our Icelandic sheep, we also raise Pygora goats for their
beautiful soft and colorful fiber. You can find out more about our
goats at our website: www.hmrpygoras.com
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