About Our Farm
Greywether Farm is a small Icelandic Sheep farm in north central Vermont, tended to by Meg Witherbee.
In the summer of 2017, my family and I moved to an old homestead in the foothills of Elmore Mountain and enthusiastically picked up where the previous land dwellers had left off. We raise registered horned Icelandic sheep for meat, fleece, and breedstock. In addition to our wooly friends, our homestead is rounded out by chickens, ducks, geese, and fruit n veggie gardens.
Celebrating the ancient magic of the Icelandic breed, we strive to create a practice that honors the land, our animals, and our community.
Land Management
In 2021, we started reaching out to neighbors who had unused pasture land, and by the fall, we had our system in place to begin remote grazing our flock. This year, we will spend the summer rotating our flock through 4 different pastures in our town. This has not only allowed us to expand our breeding flock, but also brought about 20 acres of former pasture back into production! We practice sustainable pasture management through rotationally grazing our sheep, moving them every 3 days. In this, we nurture an increase in pasture biodiversity, control overgrazing, break the life cycle of parasites and reduce our use of chemical dewormers, and mitigate manure buildup and runoff into rivers.
Natural Husbandry
Our flock is built to thrive on a foundation of natural husbandry and a grass-fed diet. We utilize strong genetics, rotational grazing and herbal supplementation as our primary (and often only) means of parasite and disease control. Natural parasite resistance, respiratory health, and vigor play a vital role when deciding which sheep to incorporate into our breeding program, or offer for sale. We believe in strict culling of disease and parasite prone sheep. In this, we continue to work towards reducing our use of pharmaceuticals and strengthening the genetics in our flock.
Genetics
Our breeding program can be boiled down to a simple tenet: select for sheep that produce a usable lamb by fall on a 100% grass fed diet. A useable lamb is one that has reached either market weight or is big enough to be bred- in our book, this is a (minimum) 80 pound lamb. In order to reach this goal, all of the characteristics we breed for need to fall in place: ewes need to plenty of milk to support early lamb growth, lambs need to have strong immunity and parasite resistance so that a summer sickness doesn’t set them back, and they need to come from well conformed parents with a strong lineage of excellent carcass quality.
Biosecurity
We practice strict biosecurity measures in a continued effort to keep both our flock and others safe. In 2024, we will conduct our second flock-wide biosecurity panel, testing for OPP, Johnnes, and CL. We have been enrolled in the USDA scrapie program since 2020, and our sheep are footrot free.
On-Farm Education
Our favorite thing in the whole world is talking shop about sheep! We learn new things from our flock and the Icelandic shepherd community almost every day, and are enthusiastic about sharing what we’ve discovered, as well as hearing all about other flocks and management practices. Whether you’re a new shepherd, a seasoned vet, a fiber artist, or just want to learn about what its like to manage a small farm- we are always excited to host a visit. Please don’t hesitate to reach out!
Starting in the summer of 2024, we’ll be hosting a series of free summer workshops. Visit our On Farm Workshops page for more info!