Harvest Hill Acres, located in the beautiful SOGN valley of south central Minnesota, is home to a purebred flock of CVM Romedale sheep. This breed of sheep are one of the rarest breeds of sheep in the United States. The Romeldale breed was developed in California during the early 1900s as a cross between New Zealand Marsh Romney and Rambouillet. They are a dual purpose breed providing a mild flavored meat and a fine fiber. Romeldale were originally bred for the more commercially accepted white fleece. During the 1970s, color patterned lambs were born. This patterned part of the breed was further developed through thoughtful breeding. This breeding for fleece with colors and patterns created the California Variegated Mutant or CVM portion of the breed.

The CVM Romeldale comes in many beautiful rich colors. All of our yarn is the natural color of each individual sheep. We also have some yarn and rovings with acquired “wild fiber” such as camel, bison, qiviut, hence the name “Wild Barn Yarn”.

The fleece of this breed generally darkens and softens as the animal ages. The fiber is soft enough for next to skin wear with micron counts ranging from 20-25. Our sheep are coated to help keep their fleeces as clean as possible. With a variety of colors and soft fleece that is easy to spin, knit or weave these sheep are a fiber artist’s dream.

Our flock started in spring of 2015 with two wethers from friends that needed a home. It was love at first sight then, and we continued to search for a breeding group and as luck would have it, someone changed their mind on a starter flock and we acquired them right away in September of 2015. We now manage our own breeding program with consideration for breed standards, quality fleece, good conformation, and a variety of color patterns. Because of our commitment to wildlife conservation, we looked at minor breeds for our home farm, we consider this an honor to steward this critically endangered breed of sheep.

Our methods for raising our animals include access to pasture, hay, and free choice minerals and some grain during pregnancy and lacation. We deworm as needed and make those decisions based upon FAMACHA testing. Vaccinations are administered, on an approved schedule and use of other medications, when it is necessary for pain management or infections.

We have a flock of 30-40 sheep which includes several breeding rams. Our lambing season takes place each April-May.