Est A Laine Merinos ~ OPP and Sheep Health ~ The Wool Room
Maremma Livestock Guardian Dogs ~ Border Collies ~ Links ~ Break out of Frames
 | Land of the Free Home of the Brave |
Welcome to Groveland Farm, we hope you enjoy your cyber-visit! Our farm motto is: Milk, Meat & Fiber through Forage. The sheep are a
3-pay animal, contributing all these products. Llamas help with fiber. The forage is our pasture-based system of farming. All three dogs are excellent working dogs and extremely trustworthy with
the stock. Ramon divides his time between the llamas and the sheep.
We bought our abandoned, run-down, 320 acre farm in 1987 and spent our very first year here
making repairs and improvements. It still remains a "work in progress" --
we find there's never a
lack of things to do! While Rusty grew up on a small family farm in
northern Ohio till he was 12
(when they sold and moved to town), I was a "city girl" who must, in a
previous life, have been a
peasant milk maid. Or maybe it's in the genes from the Old Country! An
ancestor was a
bookkeeper in a wool mill. When we bought this farm, we were looking for
about 40 acres for
deer hunting (Rusty being interested in this), and a get-away from the
Twin
Cities of
Minneapolis/St Paul where we lived and worked. This farm was more acres
than we wanted and farther away than we liked, but the price was right so
we
made the plunge.
The farming bug lurked in these fields, and lo and behold, here we are, 10
years later. As we
begin our second decade on this family farm, we look back on our
accomplishments and map out
our future plans. We're full of enthusiasm for the next ten years! Plans
include a barn and more fencing. (Always more fencing!)
Our ewe flock has evolved over the years, as we expanded our numbers. In
the last couple
years we have reduced our numbers - resulting, we believe, in a group of
sheep that will be a
new foundation for excellence in the production of milk, meat, and wool.
We have retained the most productive girls from our Polypay base, with the
addition of East
Friesland milk sheep and Est A Laine Merino crosses for lamb and fine
wool.
We're really
excited about this breeding season, and eagerly await the lamb crop to be
born beginning in
April.
We have owned llamas since 1988. In the last couple years we have really expanded the herd, to the point that we are finally able to offer some of these fine-fibered, lovely creatures for sale. We also raise Maremma Livestock Guardian Dogs to protect our animals from predators. We use Border Collies for herding and have friends with pups available from our lines.
We have been very active in the sheep industry. I was Secretary/Treasurer of the OPP Concerned Sheep Breeders Society for 7 years. The Society decided to take advantage of the Groveland Farm web site to publish a fact sheet on Ovine Progressive Pneumonia and some other helpful materials. I am a director of the Maremma Sheepdog Club of America, the breed association for the livestock guardian dogs that we raise. Rusty was a board member of the Wisconsin Sheep Dairy Cooperative, serving as a Vice President. His focus was Quality Control.
After many long discussions we have reluctantly come to the conclusion that we need to dispense with milking our sheep. I (Mare) got extremely sick in the summer of 1997 and have never completely recovered. Recently tests revealed that my prospects for a full return to previous activity levels are dim. I have resigned from all directorships except for the Maremma sheepdog club. I've scaled back other involvements, and am only working part time at an off-farm job. Rusty also is employed off the farm part-time, and in order to make milking work, I would need to be able to do at least 4 milkings on my own. Physically I do not have the stamina to do this. This lambing season has shown me how fragile my physical abilities are. SO, we decided to completely dismantle the milking set up and we sold it. In May of 2000, we became part owners in a new site established to give you an inexpensive way to market your animals, goods or services. The Net has been very successful for us and now your farm or service can enjoy that same exposure. All Animals is the place to find animal information, breeders, fiber, feed, tack and accessories, services and gifts. It's open to breeders of all animals that are legal to own - alpacas, birds, camels, cats, cattle, chickens, deer, dogs, donkeys, ducks, goats, horses, llamas, rabbits, sheep - well you get the idea. Visit All Animals for details and to enjoy the Articles.
We're so glad that your interest in something we're doing has led you to
our pages. One of the greatest things about this is that we've enjoyed communicating with people from all over the world who have
contacted us since our web pages went up. Thanks for visiting and we hope you'll bookmark us and come back often because we'll be adding more interesting facts and photos in our pages!
Our Llamas ~ Our Dams ~ Female Llamas for Sale ~ Stud Prospects and Geldings for Sale
Est A Laine Merinos ~ OPP and Sheep Health ~ The Wool Room Maremma Livestock Guardian Dogs ~ Border Collies ~ Links
1998 Award Winner Chelle's Webweaving and Graphics © 1995-2007 |
