In the fall of 2005 a group of six British Soay Sheep (two rams and four ewes) traveled 2300 miles across the US to join the oldest RBST registered flock in the Northeast. They literally went from one coast to the other; a bit ironic since their parents had made the same trip in the opposite direction just five years earlier when they were imported from Canada. The journey from Oregon to Maryland opened yet another chapter in the effort to get registered RBST Soay broadly disbursed around the country. Each animal was chosen for the genetics and the phenotypic characteristics that it carried. The main objective of the British Soay conservation project in which we are participating is to keep future generations of this historic relic as genetically diverse as possible and pheontypically representative of the wild flocks as they exist on St. Kilda.
Our six sheep traveled with animals from other farms in a trailer specifically designed to carry small livestock, primarily sheep and goats. Ron Keener’s transportation business takes him on long trips (six to eight weeks) around the country 3 or 4 times a year. Each one is carefully planned with door-to-door pickup and deliveries, the welfare of the animals always being uppermost in Ron’s mind. As part of his service, daily progress can be followed on a Yahoo Groups list he set up solely for this purpose. People can follow his travels in real time and have some idea when he will arrive at their farm. This also gives clients a constantly updated status report of the condition of their livestock on the trailer. Over the years Ron has transported llamas, dogs, miniature cattle even guinea pigs in addition to his normal fare of goats and sheep. The care he provides was evident when our sheep arrived in excellent condition despite twenty-one days on the road. During the fall of 2008 six more lambs made the same journey from Oregon to Old Line Soays bringing new genetics to our flock from the west coast including those recently introduced from the UK through artificial insemination.
They have now all settled in nicely at the farm in Maryland and lambs in the spring will begin the next chapter in the east coast’s efforts to help preserve British Soay in the United States.