Breeding Stock For Sale
You are in love with our Icelandic sheep? Here you will find our breeding stock for sale, steps to follow when reserving, a little question/answer section and a few information on our genetic improvement program.
Click on the links below for more information on:
Our Vision
Sheep for Sale
How to make a reservation
Questions and Answers (soon to come)
Our Vision
Since
most of our incomes comes from selling meat, weight gain on pasture and general
conformation are really important for us.
To help us in our selection we've been using the GENOVIS system for four years. (www.genovis.ca)
This program, supervised by the centre d’expertise en production ovine du Quebec (CEPOQ), allows us to determine which animals have a superior genetic potential. Along with our common sense, we choose animals which should improve our flock. The criteria evaluated are, maternal instinct of the ewe and weight gain of the lamb. We also take into consideration the conformation, the horns and the wool.
This being said, those who reserve their lambs will have the choice from between 30 to 40 animals from our genetically superior breeding stock. But, only 23 will be sold as breeding stock. The balance will fulfil our meat sales.
The Perfect Ewe
To illustrate our point of view, here is a bref portrait of what would be the perfect ewe for us.
- Excellent maternal instinct (good weight gain of the lambs & take good care of her lambs from the minute they are born)
- Calm
- Easy lambing
- Regular twinner (twins do better on a grass based farm than triplets)
- Good health and general conformation
- Nice wool (quantity & quality)
- Well adapted to grass based farming
The perfect ram would share with his lambs:
- Good temper
- Good vigor at birth
- Good weight gain on pasture in a reasonable time frame
- Good general health and fleece
- Nice overall conformation
Before you contact us...
ISBONA and
our
website
are full of information on the Icelandic Sheep
Before you contact us, take a minute to read a little.
Maybe you will find some of the answers you are looking for!
Every year, we offer a limited number of lambs that we consider superior (20% superior for rams and 60% superior for ewes) Amongst the lambs offered, those who are not chosen as breeding stock will go to "freezer camp" to fulfill our meat sales. The fact that we have faithfull clients that come back year after year is a good insurance that we will not try to sell a sheep who is not worth being a breeding animal just because we don't have any other avenue for it...
We love our sheep. This is why we thrive to improve our flock and the breed. It would not do the breed any good to sell them for what they are not.
Please read a lot on this wonderful breed and contact us if you still have any question. This way, when you will look at your first Icelandic Sheep grazing in your field, you will know that you really choose them for what they are and will be ready to start a really long term and passionate relationship with the Icelandic Sheep!
Sheep for Sale
last update: January 2009
Ewes and Yearlings
Now that we have reach the flock size that works with our needs and our land, a few ewes an yearlings will be available for sale each year.
Once the "problem" ewes have filled our freezer with delicious meat and sausages, the remaining ewes will be offered here. If those girls do not meet our standard anymore, they can still offer good productive years on another farm. We invite you to look at their description to know the reason they are leaving the farm.
A list of yearlings born in Spring 2008
for sale will soon be available. Less than 10 will
be available!!
Contact-us
and have the first choices!
Click here to see our 2009 ewes for sale list (under construction)
Rams
Every year, we use new promissing ram lambs. Some of them will be put for sale once their work here on the farm is completed.
There is a lot of advantages to buy an adult ram. First, your are certain of his ability to breed, his horns shape is more define (even though you can't be sure until their second year) and we will already have some results from his offspring on the Genovis system.
A list of adult rams for sale will soon be available
Lambs
Our 2009 lambs list is now available here!
A few places are still available. Contact-us to hold your place on our 2009 lamb list! (scroll down to see the steps to follow to make a reservation)
We cannot say exactly wich lambs we will have available for sale as breeding stock until we receive our results from Genovis (www.genovis.ca) wich usually are available in July.
This being said, those who reserve their lambs will have the choice from between 30 to 40 animals from our genetically superior breeding stock. But, only 20 will be sold as breeding stock. The balance will fulfil our meat sales.
Steps to follow when reserving
1.
To reserve one or more animals, contact us by telephone or by e-mail. We
will reserve your place on the list for five days while awaiting your deposit of
150$ per animal.
2.
If the deposit has not arrived within 5 days, you will lose your priority
on the list.
3.
A preliminary list of possible breeding stock animals should be available by
mid-July.
4.
The first client on the list will reserve the number of animals desired, the
following client will have the choice of those left available, and so on. In the
case where a client has chosen five animals for purchase but upon visual
inspection, requests seven animals from the list, the two others may be chosen
after all clients from our priority list have chosen, if the animals are still
available. A deposit will be required at this time.
5.
If upon visual inspection of the animals, you are not satisfied, your deposit
will be returned to you. If you have reserved five animals but upon inspection,
only kept two animals, the deposit amount from the three not taken will be
deducted from the total price.
6.
The final list with the results from Genovis will be available in mid-August. If
there are animals added, that were not on the preliminary list, these animals
will be offered to the clients on the list in order of priority. If a client on
the list chooses to exchange certain animals, those will also be available to
clients in order of priority. Breeding stock reserved from the preliminary list
cannot be “stolen” from clients when the second list becomes available.
7.
The purchased animals must be paid in full prior to the animals leaving
our farm.
8.
All animals sold are registered with the CLRC.
9.
All our lambs sold as breeding stock are seen by our veterinarian before they leave the farm. If there are specific health tests that you require, these will be performed by our veterinarian at the cost of the client.
Before
you contact us
Our
website and ISBONA website
are full of information on the Icelandic Sheep
Before you contact us, take a minute to read a little.
Maybe you will find some of the answers you are looking for!
Questions & Answers (FAQ)
Here are the answer to the most frequently ask question we receive:
- How many sheep per acre? (2.5 acre= 1ha) 4 brebis/acre
- What kind of shelter is needed?
- Is a 5 string electric fense is good enough?
- Wich on is better: horned or polled sheep?
- What to do with our ram?
- Can we breed ewe lambs?
Under construction
Breeding
Stock
