Shaggy Bear Farms

Breeds of Animals on the Farm

Llamas looking at lambs.

This page (currently under construction) is your gateway to the breeds of animals that are raised at Shaggy Bear Farm (with a few exceptions). If you really want a comprehensive resource on almost all breeds of fiber producing animals, we recommend Deborah Robson and Carol Ekarius' book, "The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook." (We used the breed groupings listed in the book to separate break up the breed listings and you will find some descriptions of the fiber [when this page is complete] given here to be abbreviated versions of what you find in that book. Contact us if you have questions beyond this.). If you find us at shows, we usually have a copy on hand along with laminated pages about specific breeds from other resources.

Since the book is not available online for free, we will do the next best thing in linking to breed specific pages from Oklahoma State University and/or the Livestock Conservancy.

Please note that some of the breeds have a conservancy status after the name which is linked to the relevant Livestock Conservancy page that gives you information on the breed; if you have a "Shave 'Em to Save 'Em" passport, These are the breeds that we have that will give you a stamp for the passport. There are also a few "conservancy breeds" that are noted, but not on the livestock conservancy website. Those are based off of "The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook" noted above and may be in danger, but they don't have a history in the United States to warrant being on the Livestock Conservancy list.

English Longwool Sheep Breeds

1) Blue Face Leicester
2) Border Leicester
3) Cotswold - Threatened
4) English Leicester - Threatened
5) Lincoln - Threatened
6) Romney - Conservation Breed
7) Teeswater - Conservation Breed
8) Wensleydale

Norther European Short-Tailed Sheep Breeds
1) Finn
2) Gotland
3) Icelandic
4) Shetland - Recovering
5) Soay - Conservation Breed

Sheep From Various Groups - For the breeds where we only have 1-3 breeds per group, we organized the breeds under this page.
1) Black Welsh Mountain - Threatened
2) Cheviot
3) Debouillet (Merino Group)
4) Horned Dorset (Dorset Group) - Threatened
5) Merino
6) Pulled Dorset (Dorset Group)
7) Rambouillet (Merino Group)
8) Santa Cruz Island (Feral Group) - Critical
9) Shropshire (Down Group) - Watch

Other Sheep - For all the breeds we raise that don’t fit into the standard groupings.
1) California Red - Conservation Breed
2) Clun Forest - Threatened
3) Columbia
4) Coopworth
5) Cormo
6) Corriedale
7) East Friesian
8) Jacob - Threatened
9) Katahdin
10) Montadale
11) Navajo Churro - Threatened
12) Perendale
13) Polypay
14) Romeldale - Threatened
15) Targhee
16) Texel
17) Tunis - Watch

Non-Sheep Breeds
1) Angora Goats
2) Pygora Goats
3) Alpacas
4) Llamas
5) Rabbits (French Angora)
6) Burros
7) Tussah Silkworms