Farm Arcadia

After selectively breeding high percentage East Friesian dairy sheep for over a decade, we have decided to venture into the world of importing sheep to not only establish a purebred East Friesian flock, but to also sell the sheep to others who are interested and promote their wider use. We’ve tried out a variety of dairy animals and just really love the sheep. Nothing against the cows or goats, we’ve owned and like them both, but there just aren’t pure dairy lines in the US like there are with goats and cows. We hope to change that. I’ve encountered a few hiccups to promoting purebred East Friesians in the US and think I’m addressing them.

First, there is not a dedicated breed association with a registry and verifed breed percentage. I am opening my studbook and developing a database online for me to publish my flock records. This will verify lineage of specific sheep. I will allow others to join the register to also verify their animals, though I do require parentage DNA testing and hold myself to the same standards. This needs to be reputable.

Second, there is not a purebred East Friesian association in the US as there aren’t purebred East Friesians. So, I have created a registry to function as an association with membership, studbook, and breed standard.

Third, the breed standard is important in culling decisions and also showing animals and is adopted by a breed association. While I don’t show animals, I believe it helps promote awareness and respect of the breed. Without an accepted standard published by a breed association, it is difficult to measure the qualities of an animal in the showring. Since the sheep are from Friesland, I went to their origin (Germany and the Netherlands) and merged their two very similar breed standards to create one. It is already published on the website and is the expectations of the breed.

Fourth, selling East Friesians is a scattered or rather isolated local affair. Importing sheep and creating the registry is not cheap. Selling a purebred East Friesian doesn’t mean a lot to that many people, so having a wider market means we are more likely to find those interested in the breed. My hope is that as the pure lines become better established, the price will come down and more people will be able and intersted in affording purebred East Friesians. Until that day, dairy sheep owners need a focused but recognized market for their sheep. For members, I am creating a marketplace for listing registered sheep for sale or trade visible to anyone as well as a registry member directory. I will spend a little effort getting our name out there and allow our customers to piggy-back on our reputation and work by listing on the market. I hope this will help owners refresh their flock genetics and promote the breed in their areas.

Genetic diversity is another issue, a big challenge. A population needs about 500 individuals to avoid inbreeding for a while, and really needs a much larger population than that to provide adequate genetic diversity. I don’t keep 500 sheep and don’t want to. That’s way too many. I also have acquired a nitrogen tank capable of holding thousands of semen straws I will collect from every ram I own, but that’s probably still not enough. If I coordinate my efforts in maintain pure lines with others, the population can easily be larger without the burden on any one individual to provide all the diversity. That said, I do fully expect to provide the genetic diversity for many years and have established relationships to import semen from top specimens overseas to help with this. I am also comfortable with artificial insemination of my sheep (a surgical procedure). I hope the registry will help with tracking diversity, too, as it will offer members the opportunity to evaluate for inbreeding before acquiring or breeding stock and every animal will have a published COI (coefficient of inbreeding). I want this registry to be reputable and the gold standard for East Friesians in the US and readily accessible to those interested in promoting pure East Friesians.

Let me say a couple of final words. I am not milking for several years. Some will gasp or scorn me. I’m a breeder first. I’ve bringing in top genetics in the world. I don’t have to milk 40 or more sheep twice a day to know what they are. That’s a whole other business. I will write a separate post on this, but with top genetics, I don’t think it’s an issue.

And my final final word, East Friesians are not only white. Both Dutch and German studbooks and breed standards recognized black and piebald as less common but completely acceptable PURE East Friesian colors. I’ve seen European breed champions who are black or piebald. Still, I’ve read a lot of discussions, arguments, or attacks about non-white East Friesians. It’s acceptable.