***This page has been updated for the spring 2024 lambing season***
We breed and raise East Friesian cross milk sheep with the breeding goals of keeping good dairy production and calm behavior while increasing the hardiness for our climate. Our East Friesians are mostly 60-80% EF, with other dairy breeds (Lacaune, Polypay, and/or Awassi) crossed in to increase hardiness. We like to keep things natural and leave lambs with their mothers as long as possible – milk sharing with them as they grow. We select for, and encourage, good lambing and mothering qualities. We also select for good udder and body conformation and good production. Since we keep a smaller flock, our sheep are handled daily and are all very friendly and calm.
Rams:
Orville
Orville is a colored, East Friesian/Lacaune ram. He comes from very productive, high-quality lines out of Kansas. He has been very fertile, settling every single ewe he has been with. His lamb crops have all been strong and healthy with very nice conformation. In his 3 seasons with us he has bred 10 ewes and sired 22 lambs – 12 ewe lambs and 10 ram lambs.
Caspian
Caspian is our newest dairy breeding ram and comes from high production lines. He is a white, East Friesian/Lacaune ram. He has good conformation and the nicest fleece of the dairy rams. He has proven fertile, settling the ewes he was with this breeding season. His first crop of lambs have excellent conformation and are looking to be promising dairy sheep. He bred 2 ewes this year and sired 4 lambs – 3 ewe lambs and 1 ram lamb.
Ewes:
Daisy
Daisy is an East Friesian/Lacaune dairy ewe born in 2019 as a triplet to a top-producing dairy ewe. She is a very outgoing and friendly sheep and will come right to us for attention any time she can. She regularly produces over a quart a day while still milk sharing with twins 12-hours a day. She is a very good mother. She has lambed 4 times, producing a single, then twins, triplets, and twins again for a total of 8 lambs – 6 females and 2 males. She has excellent udder conformation, teat placement and orifice size. Her udder is holding up over time and she prefers hand-milking.
She is white, with a very dense fleece that has nice crimp. Her fleece is too rough for yarn that is going to be used for items touching the skin, so we like to use her fleece for rug-making.
Bluebell
“Blue” is an East Friesian/Cotswold dairy ewe born in 2019 as a twin to a top-producing ewe. She is a very friendly ewe, who likes being pet. On her best days, Blue can give over a half-gallon of milk (once her lambs are weaned), holding her spot as our highest producer. She is good at both hand and machine milking. She has lambed 4 times and had a single, triplets, twins, and triplets again for a total of 9 lambs – 3 males and 6 females.
She is white with grey markings on her head and legs. Her fleece has more curl than crimp with a nice luster and surprising softness. She has the nicest fleece of the dairy ewes.
Blue has a very productive udder with good teat placement and orifice size. She is easy to hand milk or machine milk. Her udder attachment is her one weakness, and due to that she is being retired at 5 years of age. We have been crossing her to Orville all these years, who has lines with excellent udder attachment. We are keeping two of her ewe lambs from this year in hopes of keeping her excellent milk qualities with improved udder attachment.
Nora
Nora is a white ewe born here at Willow Creek Farm in the spring of 2020. Her mother is our dairy ewe, Daisy, and her father was our wool ram, Fergus. She is 50% milk sheep breeds and 50% fiber sheep breeds.
She is our first attempt at crossing high-quality wool breed over high-quality dairy breed in hopes of still getting good milk production while improving the fleece qualities. Her fleece in 2021 proved that we did improve the quality and softness compared to her mother’s fleece, though not as much as we hoped.
She did keep the excellent dairy qualities. She averages almost a quart and a half a day while milk sharing with her twin lambs 12 hours per day. She has excellent udder attachment and great conformation. She can be hand milked or machine milked. She has given us twins, triplets, and twins again and is an excellent mother. She has mothered 7 lambs, 3 females and 4 males.
Nora has also become the friendliest of the milk ewes, and is the first to greet us for affection whenever we go to the barn.
Blossom
Blossom is the newest addition to the milk sheep breeding flock. She is a 75% Awassi 25% East Friesian ewe from Veldhuizen Dairy Farm in Texas. She was born in December of 2022, so this will be her first breeding and lambing season. We are looking forward to seeing what this adorable girl can do. She was bred by Orville for 2024 lambing.
Willow Creek Farm 