Rum River icelandics

Latest news

December 24, 2009

Wishing everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

September 21, 2009

The Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival was a huge success!! Of 5 submitted fleeces, we placed first and second in the covered white double coated class, and first, second, and fifth in the natural colored double coated class!

We are very excited about our fleeces. This fall we will be offering the fleeces from our flock for sale as skirted fleeces for $10 per pound for adult fleeces, and $12 per pound for lamb fleeces. Please contact me directly for more information.

July 30, 2009

This is the first year we have decided to enter some of our fleeces into a competition! On the weekend of September 11th through the 13th, we will be at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival in Jefferson, WI at the Jefferson County Fair Park. I hope to see you there!

May 26, 2009

Our VAI lambs are finally here! After much anticipation, we acheived a respectable 50% conception rate. We have 3 wonderful rams and a single spotted ewe. Our cleanup wasn't as successful as we had hoped, resulting in a spotted ewe and a beautiful and dashing moorit grey ram. Check our out Lamb Gallery for some recent photos. We are very excited about the Hvellur, Prins, Dropi, and Blettur lines we are bringing into our flock with this years lambs. So far, the Hvellur Son and Prins Son lambs are looking to be wonderful additions to any flock. As they mature through the summer months, we will be keeping an eye on them to make sure they are keeping up with expectations, and will provide you with up-to-date photos and pricing based on their condition.

April 16, 2009

We are still awaiting the new arrivals. They should start hitting the ground starting the 27th of April. We are all very excited on the prospects. This is our second year using the VAI technique and expect fair performance. Check out our VAI Sires Gallery (link below) to see which rams we used. Also, take a look at the VAI Sires I have picked for next breeding season under the 2009 VAI Wish List link below. I hope to improve my flock considerably with these AI bloodlines, and making those improvements available to you.

March 9, 2009

As you can see, we are slowly revealing our new web page format. This site will be fully functional later this week. Come back soon!!

March 9, 2009

We are anxiously awaiting the arrivals of our spring lambs. This is our second year using the VAI technique and are excited to see which genetics we will have to offer. This year, we used semen from Blettur, Dropi, Prins, and Kvellur.

Welcome to Rum River Icelandics

Welcome! Here at RRI, we sell registered purebred Icelandic Sheep. 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) 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.

VAI Breeding 2009

Christmas is already upon us! That means breeding season has wrapped up, at least most of it. We ended up with a 44% take rate. Not the best, but it sounds like it was typical for this year. Many other VAI breeders were seeing around the same rate, with a few acheiving the average of about 60% - 70%.

We continued to use Prins this year as we were very happy with his offspring last season. We also used Smyrill and Dokkvi, mostly to maintain color within our flock, as well as introducing new bloodlines. We also used a couple of straws of a polled sire, Undri. 

We are excited about all of our prospects from this breeding season and look forward to next spring when the lambs are here.

Be sure to check out our 2010 VAI Wish List! We are extemely excited about Sokki's size and Grabotni's color! We are once again requested straws for Prins, as he is such an impressive animal. We are also requesting Raftur, as his size and wool characteristics are always a plus in any flock.

About Us

We are located 6 miles northwest of Milaca, Minnesota, just 3 miles off of U.S. Highway 169. Nestled in a new development area, we have about 7 acres of what was once an alfalfa field. When I moved here with my wife and children in the fall of 2002, we debated back and forth about what to do with 7 acres. It's too much to mow, not enough to farm. We thought of raising animals, but what? Were we going to raise elk, Lowline Angus, alpacas, or Whitetail Deer? Maybe open a nursery business growing shrubs, trees, and other landscape plants? Never did I imagine that we would choose sheep! Lo and behold, on that fateful spring day in 2003, I was looking through a book about various breeds of sheep and came across this very unique looking animal. It had the shape of a sheep, the horns of a sheep, but was it? The wool, long and flowing, looked more like an exotic animal from some far off place. Little did I know that it did indeed come from some far off place. That place being Iceland. From that day forward, our hearts were set on the Icelandic Sheep. Every day has been a joy in taking care of them, nurturing the lambs, watching them jump and play in the springtime sun, and watching the rams establish their dominance. There have been many heartbreaks along the way, but a