Rum River Icelandics & Royal Whites®

This Years Highlights

November 19, 2011

Breeding season is in full force! We have put in one of our VAI offspring to work for us this year. He has a beautiful white coat of some of the softest wool we have felt on a ram! He is a very good looking 2 year old with a gentle temperment, nice hornset that stays away from the face, and has what my wife thinks is a very intelligent look about him. His sire is Prins from Iceland, and we are very excited to maintain those Prins genetics throughout our flock.

June 9, 2011

Our Flock Reduction Sales has been a huge success! We will be maintaining a small flock of Icelandic ewes with a couple of rams in reserve, focusing primarily on VAI breeding to get a more diverse genetic base in our flock. We will also be focusing on establishing our flock of Royal Whites® in order to provide breeding stock and locker lambs to fit the needs and desires of our customers.

March 31, 2011

Lambing has started! The first signs of spring are here with the robins singing and the lambs bouncing.

September 13, 2010

We survived another trip to the Wisconsin Sheep and Fiber Festival! This year, we were able to hear the judge comment on our fleeces. And what a suprise! All 5 of fleeces had everything from good to great comments! In placing, we got 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place with our other fleece getting the unplaced 5th in the Natural Colored - Double Coated division. Congratulations go out to our two oldest children! They each submitted one fleece into the Junior Show and they placed 2nd and 3rd! Being re-judged in the adult show, they placed 3rd and 4th, respectively.

Welcome to Rum River Icelandics

Winter has arrived!  This time of year is always very busy.  The holidays are right around the corner and the weather is right on track as we get our 8th breeding season in full swing.  This year, circumstances didn't allow us to get our VAI program underway.  Instead, we are using one of our F1 VAI offspring to do the work.  His name is Duke and his sire is Prins, a beautiful ram in Iceland.  This is a rebuilding year for us as we had a flock reduction sale earlier in the year to thin the flock a bit so we had room to expand our Royal White collection.  We now have 12 Royal White ewes and 6 Icelandic ewes.

Next spring, we will be offering a limited number of our ewe lambs for sale, based on their conformation and how they match up to the breed standards.

 

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: We are introducing the Royal White® sheep to Minnesota! The Royal White® is a pure hair breed sheep with a stunningly pristine white coat. They require no shearing and no docking, are docile and non-flighty, and are excellent year round prolific breeders. We purchased our first Royals in October 2010 and expect to grow our flock this year to be able to supply both breeding stock and sizeable locker lambs for 2012.

Our website for the Royal White breed can be found at www.birnbaumfarm.com

Check out the promotional video here.

Introducing "The Studio @ Rum River Icelandics"

This year, we are introducing The Studio @ Rum River Icelandics, an art studio dedicated to the Paper Cut Artwork of my wife, Amy.  She is a very talented and creative artist crafting original designs and inspirational ideas into beautiful works of art.  Many of our Icelandics are the centerpieces of her work.

These paper cuts are made from archival quality materials and each piece is hand-cut from a single piece of paper attached with acid-free glue to a rigid art board.  Check out her Etsy website for artwork available for purchase, or contact her at TheStudio@RumRiverIcelandics.com for additional information.

Welcome! Here at RRI, we sell registered purebred Icelandic Sheep and Certified  Registered Royal White®. Our primary goal is to provide you with the freshest and finest bloodlines to improve your flock, or to start you off with the best. We began VAI (Vaginal Artificial Insemination) on the Icelandics in 2007 and will continue to use this method as our first choice for breeding. What this means is that we can tailor our breeding preferences year by year, ewe by ewe, introducing and maintaining bloodlines within the flock.

Please take a look at the VAI Sires used for the 2009 VAI Sires Gallery , and then take a look at our 2010 VAI Wish List.