The St. Croix Hair Sheep Breeders board of directors has updated our promotional materials. We have three vinyl banners ( 6 ft x 2.5 ft), brochures, and business cards. We intend to use these items to promote the breed and our organization at a variety of events such as hair sheep sales, livestock shows, farming and homesteading workshops, 4H or FFA events, and forage/grazing seminars.
Please use this form to borrow a banner and to obtain copies of the brochure and business card for use at events. We require that within the 30 days after the event, members submit photos of themselves in the booth, a brief description of the event, and return the banner in good condition to a director. SCHSB will cover the cost of shipment both ways.
Members can request up to five copies of the brochure for farm use by sending an email or calling us at 458-240-3499. We hope these promotional materials will help to spread the word about our sheep and our organization.
At Hollow Hills Ranch, this is the system we use for weaning and sales of our Hair Sheep.
Weaning & Castration Times
We typically breed for lambs to start on a New or Full moon in late December/January. Additionally, we wean on a full moon in April/May. Lambs are roughly 100-115 days at the oldest when we wean.
Castration of ram lambs, that don’t make the cut the first round, happens usually a month before weaning on a full moon. In fact, we castrate at this time so we don’t stress the lambs and moms out so much in one day.
When you castrate and wean on a full moon, the blood and milk flow is reduced during the subsequent waning moon. As a result you have less issues with mastitis or infection.
Weaning day 2024
Post Weaning (Ewes)
After weaning, the mama ewes are locked in a low grass barnyard area with low quality hay to dry up. We watch closely for signs of mastitis and bring them in once every few days to feel udders for heat or other signs of problems. Usually after a couple weeks of this, the ewes are ready to go back out to pasture.
They move from the barnyard out to the open ewe pastures. Here they get back into condition and are reunited with the yearling ewes kept from the year before. The ewes will stay out there until breeding season comes around again.
Post Weaning & Sales (Lambs)
Lambs weaned from their dams will be kept in the barn for a few days to get over their “trauma”. They are sorted into the following groups after a couple days:
keeper ewe lambs
breeding stock ewe lambs for sale
breeding stock ram lambs for sale
market wether and ewe lambs for sale.
Anything for sale, we contact people on the waiting list to get them sold as soon as possible. Left over ewe and wether lambs go out with our keeper ewe lambs in pasture. Left over ram lambs end up out with our breeding rams in their pasture.
We do a final evaluation in late summer. Any lambs not making the cut to keep around, will be sold at auction. We try to do this in late summer/early fall after breeding season has finished.
There you have our process for weaning & sales at Hollow Hills Ranch!
For More Info:
If you would like to read the rest of this article, please go to Hollow Hills Ranch!
Every year during the third week of May is the International Heritage Breeds Week. The annual event’s purpose is to raise awareness about endangered heritage breeds of livestock and poultry. We encourage St. Croix sheep breeders and enthusiasts to spread the word in their networks about our sheep and to maintain registrations on qualifying sheep online using Grassroots or by mail with paper forms.
Conservation Status of St. Croix Sheep
According to the 2024 Conservation Priority List, St. Croix sheep are in the Watch (W) category. The Watch list includes breeds with less than 2,500 annual registrations in the U.S.and an estimated global population less than 10,000. The Livestock Conservancy (TLC) bases this decision on the number of sheep registered and alive in our registry records and that of other St. Croix registries.
In 2023, our members registered 1,080 new animals. If numbers continue to grow, it is possible that our breed will graduate to the Recovering (R) category. Breeds on the Recovering list still need monitoring and remain on TLC’s Conservation Priority List (CPL). Once a breed graduates from the Priority List, it might not eligible for support or monitoring by TLC. Learn more about how TLC’s CPL is determined.
The Livestock Conservancy: A Resource for St. Croix Hair Sheep Breeders
Our members have opportunities to benefit from TLC’s efforts. TLC members receive their quarterly newsletter and annual breed directory. There are many educational posts on their site. You can download and print the Heritage Sheep for Niche Production brochure to hand out to potential customers or at special events. The TLC store offers a variety of useful books and promotional items. Perhaps most helpful to producers are the Microgrants, open for application around June-August each year.
What You Can Do
SCHSB members can participate by sharing information about Heritage Breeds Week. Talk to people about the role St. Croix sheep have in maintaining biodiversity, ensuring adequate adaptation to environmental pressures, and avoiding over-reliance on chemical dewormers. Be sure to help your customers who are buying breeding stock understand the importance of membership and registering quality offspring so that pedigrees can be tracked and genetics preserved.
Celebrate National Sheep Month with us this February! Also called National Lamb Lovers Month, this is a time to celebrate all the great things about sheep and lamb! In addition to our St. Croix Genetics: Discoveries & Possibilities webinar, we will celebrate with two activities for our members.
Discounted In-coming Transfers for SCHSIA Sheep in February
Our organization is dedicated to preserving the St. Croix breed. Above all, we must ensure genetic diversity. We strongly encourage our members to maintain registrations of their SCHSB-registered animals. However, we also want to make it easy for members to transfer in SCHSIA animals. Throughout February 2024, members can transfer in SCHSIA-registered sheep for $5.00. Just mention this promotion when you work with our registrar so that we can invoice you correctly.
National Sheep Month Photo Contest
We encourage member involvement with our organization and would love to feature photos of your flock on our website and social media. To participate, submit your winter or Valentine’s Day themed photos of your St. Croix hair sheep by February 29. The member(s) who submit winning photos will earn one year’s membership OR three free registrations. Photos must be submitted as jpeg or png files, taken in landscape format, and must feature SCHSB registered St. Croix. Upon submission, full usage rights are granted to SCHSB.
Other Ways to Celebrate
Be sure to follow The Livestock Conservancy and the American Lamb Board on Facebook. They post a variety of sheep-related information throughout the month. The Livestock Conservancy often features real sheep producers throughout the month. The American Lamb Board posts lots of delicious lamb recipes that you can use at home and share with your customers.
For some time, there has been some ambiguity regarding membership for non-USA residents. While our bylaws did not forbid it, they also did not specifically allow it. Over the past few months, a few Canadian residents have inquired about the issue.
The board of directors met on January 8th and approved to update our bylaws to specifically allow non-USA residents to join St. Croix Hair Sheep Breeders and enjoy all the benefits of membership. However, because we are a U.S.A. based organization, we determined it was best to limit leadership positions on the board to U.S. citizens. Please review the updated bylaws with changes in blue font.
It has taken a bit of time to work out the details with the Livestock Conservancy (TLC) as they manage all our registration processes now. TLC will send electronic documents to members outside the U.S.A. in lieu of paper documents due to increased postage costs. Non-USA resident members have the option to pay for postage to receive paper documents if they prefer.
This is an exciting development for our organization, and helps to position us in a manner that continues to preserve and promote the breed.
There have been several changes to our Board of Directors this year. Change can be hard, but is necessary and unavoidable in every organization. Each January, the Board of Directors elects the year’s officers. This year, Beth Hall resigned from her position as secretary and director. We will miss her, but we understand that sometimes we all need a break. Beth has been a member of the board and our secretary for several years, and we are grateful for her service.
Amy Wheeler, of Hollow Hills Ranch in Oregon, agreed to serve as an appointed director through the end of 2024. We hope she will choose to run for election to serve 2025-2029. Amy has been an active member of SCHSB since 2007. She brings a historical understanding and unique perspective since she enjoys breeding St. Croix with color. We are lucky to have her.
Officer Elections
Officer elections took place on January 8. Your 2024 officers and directors are:
President – Jason Webster
Vice President & Interim Secretary – Lori Marion
Treasurer – Crystal Criswell
Directors – Elizabeth Hernandez, Tamara Lambdin-Abney, and Amy Wheeler
Join the Board to Fill Vacancies for 2024
We invite our members to volunteer to serve as an appointed Director for 2024 to fill our two vacant seats. The board meets on the second Monday of every month at 7:00pm Eastern. Meetings generally last one to two hours and are held virtually using Google Meet. Current projects include: the genetics study, creating SCHSB merchandise, posting articles on our website, the annual meeting, advertising and promotion, and developing educational and mentoring materials for new members. If you are interested in serving, please contact us and plan to join us at our next meeting on February 12th. We would love to have you!
Next Election Cycle for 2025-2029 Board of Directors
Thinking ahead, several of our board members’ terms expire at the end of 2024. While we hope they choose to run for re-election, we welcome nominations for new candidates who will bring fresh ideas. Nominations are due by October 1, 2024, the election will take place in December, and elected directors begin serving January 2025. If you have questions or wish to nominate someone, please contact us.
Join us for this exciting St. Croix Sheep Genetics webinar with Dr. Brenda Murdoch and Dr. Phil Sponenberg to learn what we have discovered about our sheeps’ genetics and how that information might be used to help preserve and promote the breed. If you are interested in St. Croix Sheep genetics, you don’t want to miss this webinar.
When: Tuesday, February 20, 7:00pm Eastern
Where: via Zoom
Cost: FREE
Webinar Description
Examining and understanding the genetic relationship of sampled St. Croix sheep
Testing for known Mendelian inherited traits and diseases in sampled St. Croix sheep
How to define the breed historically and genetically
How the Island and Mainland populations can interact
The significance of variation such as color and horns
Challenges in conservation and selection for production
St. Croix Sheep Genetics Committee
The St. Croix Sheep Genetics webinar will serve as the Kickoff Event for our new SCHSB Genetics Committee (SGC). At the end of the presentation, we will schedule the first SGC meeting. We would like to thank those who have volunteered to serve as committee members as we explore how our organization might use these discoveries and possibilities to further our mission of preserving and promoting the breed. Our committee includes three Directors and four general members.
Directors – Lori Marion (OR), Crystal Criswell (OH), and Amy Wheeler (OR)
General Members – Tara Seltz (MN), Matt Marlowe (VA), Jovi Larson (VA), and Scottie Greene (TN).
Webinar Recording
Did you miss it? No problem! You can watch the recording.
The 2023 Annual Meeting for St. Croix Hair Sheep Breeders was held on October 28th. Twenty-two (22) members attended. All but one director participated. We are very pleased with the turnout!
Your Board of Directors has been very busy this year and we were excited to share a recap of our activities, a financial report, and current projects. Jaye Ray from The Livestock Conservancy, who is our new registrar, provided a full demonstration of how to use the Grassroots System to manage your flock. We spent the last portion of the meeting in a Question & Answer Session with Jaye and the Board of Directors.
Meeting Content
Welcome & Introductions
Annual Reports
Growth of SCHSB
Fiscal Report
Genetics Project
Rebranding Project
Registrar Change
Plans for 2024
Introduction to Grassroots Developer, Libby Henson
Demonstration of Grassroots System by Jaye Ray from The Livestock Conservancy
Question & Answer Session
2023 Annual Meeting Video
If you missed it, don’t worry! We recorded the entire Annual Meeting so that all our members can view it at their convenience. Make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel, too!
Meeting Slide Presentation
For those who only want to view the slide deck, feel free to download it here.
If you have any questions or would like to become more involved in SCHSB’s board activities, please contact us.
The SCHSB Directors have worked for over year on a Genetics Project for the breed. We partnered with Dr. Brenda Murdoch at the University of Idaho. She worked to determine if St. Croix sheep can be differentiated from other breeds using genetic testing. Dr. Murdoch further evaluated if both medium-density (60K) and low-density (Flock54) marker panels would generate equally valid results.
The Process
Fifteen (15) SCHSB members from across the country volunteered to obtain tissue samples from their sheep. They selected sheep that represent a variety of bloodlines and phenotypes (shedding, color, muscling, size, fast growth, slow growth, scurs, behavior, eye color, etc.). Several of the sheep express color to varying degrees. It was important to include this variety to ensure that the data collected adequately represents the breed as a whole.
In all, we sent 90 samples to Dr. Murdoch. Of those, 78 were analyzed and some late-arriving samples will be added soon. Dr. Murdoch’s team obtained genotype data from the 78 St. Croix sheep samples using both the 60K and Flock54 marker panels. The team compared our sheeps’ genotypes to those of three other hair breeds (Katahdin, Dorper, Barbados Blackbelly) and several wool breeds (Suffolk, Rambouillet, Targhee, Polypay, Suffolk x Texel, Targhee x Polypay, and wool sheep from the Sheep Discovery Center).
Figure 1 – 60K PCA Plot
Figure 2 – Flock54 PCA Plot
The Findings
Both the medium-density (60K – see Figure 1) and low-density (Flock54 – see Figure 2) panels produced results that clearly clustered St. Croix sheep (the black dots) in such a way that they can be differentiated from other breeds. Barbados Blackbelly sheep (the dark orange dots) clustered closest, but still exhibit clear separation from the St. Croix sheep in this sample. Dr. Murdoch is confident that both panels can be used to confirm the genetic conformity of a sheep believed to be a St. Croix. There may be some individual Barbados Blackbelly or St. Croix sheep that are so genetically similar that the Flock54 panel may not be adequate without additional statistical analysis.
Next Steps for the Genetics Project
The SCHSB Directors have formed a Genetics Committee to discuss how we will use these findings to meet our central mission; preserving the breed. The committee includes members who participated in the project and expressed an interest in serving. We will consult with experts in genetics and breed conservation.
The Genetics Committee will meet to explore options and make recommendations to the SCHSB Board of Directors. We will consult with the experts throughout the process. The Board will schedule a webinar early in 2024 to help all members fully understand the information.
We encourage members to ask questions and share your thoughts on this matter by contacting us.
Members, please join us for the 2023 Annual Meeting on October 28th at 7:00pm Eastern via Zoom.
Your Board of Directors has been very busy this year and we are excited to share a recap of our activities, a financial report, and current projects. We will be joined by Jaye Ray from The Livestock Conservancy, who is our new registrar. Jaye will provide a full demonstration of how to use the Grassroots System to manage your flock. We will spend the last portion of the meeting in a Question & Answer Session with Jaye and the Board of Directors.
Meeting Agenda
7:00pm – Welcome & Introductions
7:10pm – Annual Reports
8:00pm – Demonstration of Grassroots System
8:30pm – Question & Answer Session
Register Now for the Meeting
Please register to attend the annual meeting. Registration is free. Have your member identification number handy. If you aren’t sure what that is, please contact us. After you register, you will receive an email with the link to join the meeting online. Please log in at least 5 minutes early to make sure you have no technical difficulties.
The meeting will be recorded and shared so that if you are unable to attend, you can still access the information.
