Roclans Farm

Finally posting a photograph of our Reserve Champion AOB ewe from the 2015 PA Farm Show; (better late than never!)!! Homebred Roclans 1308 (Romana) is one of my favorite Border Leicesters, good breed type, and great fleece!! Thanks to Ms. Debra Drake for your assistance!! We also won Grand Champion (Cormo) and Reserve Grand Champion (Border Leicester) Non-Auction Fleece at Farm Show!

Well, well, well!! Our newest additions to the Roclans flock! I do believe he has the required 35% color to register him with NCWGA, but I have no intentions of measuring all of those spots to make sure! This little guy is by our new ram Wil-Hi 1317 (Charlie) and out of first time mom, Roclans 1301 (Macrina). I certainly hope he has a good fleece, as I've been wanting a spotted finewool for a long time. His sister is a solid black, which is ok, too. Mom and little ones are all doing fine!

We had a wonderful time (as always!) at Rhinebeck this past weekend. This year was over the top with Roclans 1414 (Cadfan) winning Natural Colored Supreme Champion Ram, and Roclans 1401 (Benedict) winning Reserve Champion Natural Colored Finewool Ram, and Best Fleece for the NC Finewool group! These two homebred spring ram lambs have been a lot of fun to show this fall! We also had a fabulous Fleece Show and Sale this year at Rhinebeck, winning Best Fleece in Show with Corm...o (Felicity's) fleece. Big thanks to Amy Miller, Lee Langstaff, and Keith and Kathy Stumbo for helping us to show our sheep, and a special big thanks to Geof Ruppert, DVM, who is our good neighbor, mentor and supporter, and to Ms. Emily Hickman, who is our awesome shearer. We couldn't do it without you!! Thanks also, to Ms. Sue Stewart, who took photos of the boys for us! See more

Another wonderful MD Sheep and Wool Festival! A big thanks to all of the great folks who work so hard to make this the best festival ever!! Also thanks to all of our customers, who helped us to have our best year at the booth!! Our sheep thank you, too!!

Our poor old trailer was reaching the end of the line, and the sheep were complaining, so we finally decided to purchase a new trailer. We decided upon EBY, and had one built to our requirements. I think the sheep will approve!! It is 20' inside long X 7'6" wide X 7'2" tall, with two sliding partitions. It is tall enough for the horses, too! (Well, maybe not quite tall enough for Shannon Manning's Clydesdales!! :-) We will be eating beans and wienies for a long time, but I think it is worth it!!

Who wants to sleep in the straw when there's a warm "pillow-top" to sleep on!!

Lambing has begun at Roclans Farm. Beatrice (Roclans 0807), who is usually either the first or nearly the first, won the honors again today with two cute ram lambs! These guys are 1/4 Cormo and 3/4 Rambouillet. Cannot wait to see the fleeces develop!!

Finally some photographs from the PA Farm Show! Left is our yearling ram, Roclans 1248 (Hubert), who was Supreme Champion Wool Breeds Ram, and right is our yearling ewe, Roclans 1253 (Helga), who was Champion Ewe in the AOB Wool class. Both Hubert and Helga go back a couple of generations to one of our foundation ewes, Starkey G131 Hither. Thank you, Ms. Nancy Starkey for your excellent Border Leicester breeding program. I wish you still had some!!

Had a great week at the PA Farm Show! Roclans 0821 (Dativa's) fleece was judged Grand Champion Auction Fleece, and sold to a friend who will make very good use of it. Roclans 1248 (Hubert) was Champion Ram in the AOB (any other breed) wool class and went on to be Supreme Champion Wool Breeds Ram! Photographs to follow.

Another wonderful weekend at the Fiber Festival of New England, at the Big E Mallory Complex! I love this show!!! Great location, great folks running the festival, (and waaay too much good food at the Storrowton Tavern)!! Looking forward to next year!

We had a wonderful weekend at the Dutchess County Sheep and Wool Festival (aka Rhinebeck)! Our natural colored finewool fleeces won first and second place in their division, with 700 fleeces entered! We always have such a wonderful time at Rhinebeck, and are already looking forward to next year! Our Border Leicesters didn't do too badly in the White Wool Long division against some wonderful competition, and we got to spend some good times with our delightful sheep friends.

Photographs taken at Ms. Gail Callahan's 36 Color Wheel class at 2013 Rhinebeck weekend. What a great class!!

Great weekend at Kings County Fiber Festival, Brooklyn, NY and Liberty State Park, NJ