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hedgeapple farm

Specializing in Icelandic lamb, breeding stock and fiber

WELCOME

Welcome to Hedgeapple Farm located in scenic Dallas County, just outside of Earlham, IA.,which is about 25 miles west of Des Moines, Iowa. We raise purebred Icelandic, Navajo-Churro and Icelandic X Suffolk sheep for their outstanding meat and wool and their ability to thrive on pasture only. Although we're not certified as organic, we strive to use organic methods to provide our customers with a quality, healthy product using intensive grazing.

We had our fourth IIcelandic shearing last March and have already sold several fleeces and others will be processed into roavings, bats and yarn.

For those interested in starting, expanding, diversifying or improving their Icelandic flock we have breeding stock available. See our link for Breeding Stock for more information.

Our second crop of purebred Icelandics and Icelandic crosses were available as processed lamb cuts beginning June, 2008. As always, we found the meat to be tender, juicy and flavorful.

In addition to our sheep we also have a flock of free range Black Australorp and Buff Orpington chickens which are currently meeting our own egg needs. We currently have another 25 chicks in our brooder that will start laying in late fal of 2008.

There are also our bees which produce a wonderful tasting honey along with beeswax.

Fall Shearing Day
We held our spring shearing day on March, 2008. Our next sheering day will be in late September, 2008. If you'd like to attend please wear your barn clothes because you may well be recruited to help us catch sheep, vaccinate, trim hooves, etc. If you're interested in attending please go to our "Links" page for contact information and let us know you'd like to come.

The Lambs are Here
Our second year of lambs lambs started arriving the last week of February, 2008, much to our surprise. We had separated the rams from the rest of the flock in September, knowing that Icelandics don't start cycling until October. However, we failed to remember that the Suffolks and Suffolk crosses start cycling as early as August. As a result, our first lambs started arriving in Fe bruary. Our last holdout, Matilda, didn't deliver until the end of June, a full month after the other ewes had finished lambing.

This year was much different than last year for a few reasons. First, we had a much higher percentage of ewe lambs vs. ram lambs. We also found ourselves with almost all of the lambs being black. It was clear that Rocky, our sire of the post-February lambings, had a very dominant black gene.

For our current breeding season we're beginning this fall we'll be using Thunder as our sire. Thunder was acquired from Tongue River Farm this summer. You can find a picture of him on our link for breeding stock.

Do You Want to be Notified of Shearing Day and Product Availability?

Email us at hedgeapplefarm@iowatelecom.net.

and let us know what you're interested in.