About Us (Please scroll down)
Hello, my name is Lone Star Annie. I am a Barbados Blackbelly sheep that was born at Lone Star Farm. Now I live in Minnesota on Nate Teig's farm. My sister Lone Star Agnes moved to Wisconsin to live with June Wilharm and her family. We are hair sheep, not wool sheep, but we adjust to all kinds of climates.
Let Us Tell You Something About Us
My husband, Mike, and I moved to the country and started living the
good life in 1996. It didn't take but a few months for my love of mowing
to turn into quite a chore after caring for our whole five acre mini-farm through a Texas summer. Yaupon was my biggest bane. It is a noxious shrub that, if left to what nature intended, can barely be uprooted short
of using a bulldozer, preferably one that throws fire. We started looking
for some livestock to raise that would help keep the mowing to a
minimum, and please, Lord, let them eat yaupon. Voila, we found ourselves at a gentleman's farm in Grimes County, Texas, buying what
are now known as American Blackbelly Sheep. Back then, the horned and hornless were not separated by the Barbados Blackbelly Sheep
Association International, the registry for both breeds of sheep. We
raised American Blackbelly Sheep from 1996 until 2002 when we
learned that the polled (hornless) Barbados Blackbelly was endangered, and the registry needed people to take some of these sheep to raise before they were lost to extinction. We have been helping to preserve
the breed ever since. We were pleased to find out that they do eat
yaupon.
We had our ups and downs trying to locate good breeding stock that
was truly polled because there had been so much cross-breeding
between the American and Barbados breeds. We finally purchased
some stock and began doing our best to raise the polled breed. To our dismay, the purest ones we could buy were still producing scurs, some
more like horn buds. It took a lot of selective breeding and culling to
finally be able to produce rams that didn't have horn buds or scurs.
We were told it couldn't be done (breeding polled animals from horned stock) but we eventually did it in the phenotype. However, we had not accomplished that in the genotype, meaning the genetics were not
pure for hornless. So we sold what we had and purchased more polled breeding stock, only to find that they also produced horn buds. We
have since learned that the horn buds are an acceptable practice that some breeders call scurs. Horn buds are knobs firmly attached to the head where a horn would normally grow on a horned variety of sheep.
Until its recent revision, the BBSAI Barbados Breed Standard once
stated "the rams are polled or may have small loose scurs". Even the BBSAI has changed their "Poll" standard now to say that a scur can be attached to the head and can be as long as 1 1/2 inches. We at Lone Star Farm have worked to eradicate scurs far too long to slack off now because the breed standard has changed to make allowances for them. We believe if a ram has a clean head, meaning he is smooth-headed without scurs, there is no doubt about his polledness. This is our own personal opinion and we will continue to cull our stock to insure that, as breeders of the "Ideal" of the standard, we will offer nothing for sale but completely polled rams that are GUARANTEED scur free. See our
"Ram Policy" for details.
Something we have enjoyed since we have been raising sheep is
watching sheep behavior. Jesus often refers to us as sheep in the
Bible. We wanted to find out firsthand just what He meant. We not only found out what He meant, we found out that He truly loves His
sheep and is a very caring shepherd. We've grown in our own
relationships with Christ through learning to care for our sheep. It has given us many rewards in our lives. So our sheep started out as a
hobby that we hoped might grow into a business, but instead grew into
a passion. I hope you can find as much enjoyment in your lives as we have while being good shepherds of this fascinating breed of sheep.
Lone Star Farm | Barbados Blackbelly Sheep
My husband, Mike, and I moved to the country and started living the
good life in 1996. It didn't take but a few months for my love of mowing
to turn into quite a chore after caring for our whole five acre mini-farm through a Texas summer. Yaupon was my biggest bane. It is a noxious shrub that, if left to what nature intended, can barely be uprooted short
of using a bulldozer, preferably one that throws fire. We started looking
for some livestock to raise that would help keep the mowing to a
minimum, and please, Lord, let them eat yaupon. Voila, we found ourselves at a gentleman's farm in Grimes County, Texas, buying what
are now known as American Blackbelly Sheep. Back then, the horned and hornless were not separated by the Barbados Blackbelly Sheep
Association International, the registry for both breeds of sheep. We
raised American Blackbelly Sheep from 1996 until 2002 when we
learned that the polled (hornless) Barbados Blackbelly was endangered, and the registry needed people to take some of these sheep to raise before they were lost to extinction. We have been helping to preserve
the breed ever since. We were pleased to find out that they do eat
yaupon.
We had our ups and downs trying to locate good breeding stock that
was truly polled because there had been so much cross-breeding
between the American and Barbados breeds. We finally purchased
some stock and began doing our best to raise the polled breed. To our dismay, the purest ones we could buy were still producing scurs, some
more like horn buds. It took a lot of selective breeding and culling to
finally be able to produce rams that didn't have horn buds or scurs.
We were told it couldn't be done (breeding polled animals from horned stock) but we eventually did it in the phenotype. However, we had not accomplished that in the genotype, meaning the genetics were not
pure for hornless. So we sold what we had and purchased more polled breeding stock, only to find that they also produced horn buds. We
have since learned that the horn buds are an acceptable practice that some breeders call scurs. Horn buds are knobs firmly attached to the head where a horn would normally grow on a horned variety of sheep.
Until its recent revision, the BBSAI Barbados Breed Standard once
stated "the rams are polled or may have small loose scurs". Even the BBSAI has changed their "Poll" standard now to say that a scur can be attached to the head and can be as long as 1 1/2 inches. We at Lone Star Farm have worked to eradicate scurs far too long to slack off now because the breed standard has changed to make allowances for them. We believe if a ram has a clean head, meaning he is smooth-headed without scurs, there is no doubt about his polledness. This is our own personal opinion and we will continue to cull our stock to insure that, as breeders of the "Ideal" of the standard, we will offer nothing for sale but completely polled rams that are GUARANTEED scur free. See our
"Ram Policy" for details.
Something we have enjoyed since we have been raising sheep is
watching sheep behavior. Jesus often refers to us as sheep in the
Bible. We wanted to find out firsthand just what He meant. We not only found out what He meant, we found out that He truly loves His
sheep and is a very caring shepherd. We've grown in our own
relationships with Christ through learning to care for our sheep. It has given us many rewards in our lives. So our sheep started out as a
hobby that we hoped might grow into a business, but instead grew into
a passion. I hope you can find as much enjoyment in your lives as we have while being good shepherds of this fascinating breed of sheep.
Lone Star Farm | Barbados Blackbelly Sheep