Fjordgaarden

Interview with Janni from Fjordgaarden

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How many sheep do you have?

We have 36 sheep and 4 rams.

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What kind of sheep do you have?

We have Gotlandsk Pelsfår of white to almost black wool - but most of them are grey. 

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Since when do you have sheep?

Since 2003.

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Why do you have sheep?

We took over the farm with the sheep, but exchanged some of the the animals, so that we would have sheep from really good breed of Gotlandsk Pelsfår in Denmark. The last 5 years our lambs have been inspected and rated, so we could choose the best lambs for breeding ourselves, but also to sell them to others for breeding.  We keep track of the ancestry of our animal, they are ecological and have M3 status.

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What does it mean that the sheep are ecological and have M3 status?

There is a lot...I try to mention some of it: first of all all food and the fields (and the plants) on our farm are ecological. If a sheep will get sick or need to take medicine, then it would get double the time of recovery time as conventional sheep. Additionally, there is a check up on the sheep, food, medicine and selling of sheep and meat once a year. We have to maintain a logbook about almost everything about the animals: age, ancestry, where did we buy them and what medicine they get.

Further, I cannot just buy a non-ecological animal for the farm. The only exception is to buy a non-ecological ram to breed, if we cannot find a fitting ram, which is ecological. In regards to the food, we need to provide documentation how much food we produce ourselves, and if we buy food from others it needs to be ecological.

M3 status means that our sheep are approved as Maedi-Visna / CAE fri. MV and CAE are two kind of deathly diseases caused by a virus (lenti-virus). These kind of diseases develop slowly and are difficult to detect. Even if a sheep looks healthy, it can be contagious. Both diseases can be transferred by sheep and goats.

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How much land can your sheep access?

We have 20 HA of land to use for agriculture, around 1 HA is wetland which cannot be used for sheep. Cows grass on the wetlands. Another part of the land is sand beach. 

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Do you have a stable for the sheep?

Yes. 

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How often do you shear the sheep per year?

We shear them 2 times a year, around 1st of February (winter wool) and around 1st of September (summer wool).

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How much wool do you get per sheep?

It is around 2 kg pr. sheep.

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What have you usually done with the wool?

We have used it for products to be sold in our farm shop (garnhytte), such as knits or crochet, felt (in partnership with Birgitte Krag Hansen) and we have sold the winter wool to Gleerups for felted shoes. Additionally, we got yarn spun to sell in our farm shop, but a part of the wool is sold to spinneries.