The oldest active breeding flock of
registered Icelandic Sheep in California
Welcome to Walker Forks Sheep Camp, home of the oldest active breeding flock of registered Icelandic Sheep in California.
Walker Forks Sheep Camp has been in the sheep breeding business for over 25 years, and since 1994 has devoted itself strictly to the Icelandic breed.
We are located in a high desert irrigated valley east of the Sierra Nevada range about one hour's drive east and south of Lake Tahoe. Our ranch is on Highway 395, the main artery between Reno and Los Angeles, and five miles south of Topaz Lake, known for its excellent fishing.
Our breeding program strives to maintain the qualities that have made the Icelandic sheep a necessary and successful breed in Iceland for over 1200 years - a hardy opportunistic animal that thrives on seasonal vegetation, has few lambing problems and produces a reliable supply of meat, milk and fiber. With the less rigorous environments of North American farms and ranches, Icelandics have become reliable twinners, with triplets not uncommon. Nearly two-thirds of my mature ewes have produced triplets.
Click here for more information on the history of Icelandic sheep.
Icelandic sheep are relatively new to North America. The first flock was imported into Ontario Canada in 1985 by Stefania Sveinbjarnardottir Dignum. Stefania is a native Icelandic married to a Canadian. When she moved to Canada she was overcome by an unbearable longing for her native sheep, which resulted in a lengthy, frustrating, expensive, but eventually successful importation of the first twelve Icelandics into North America.
Bear