100 % Finnish archipelago
Our sheep take care of the archipelago surrounding Houtskär, similar to how animals have done decades before us.
Our farm is located in the outer archipelago, in Houtskär. More specifically, our farm is in the village of Björkö, right beside the Archipelago ring road. We have about 90-250 sheep varying in age. In the winter, the sheep are mostly inside the barn. Once spring comes around, the barn empties and the sheep get to pasture around the beautiful archipelago of Houtskär, all the way until fall.
Natural pastures in the islands
In spring, our sheep spread out to different parts of the islands in Houtskär to revive the diverse vegetation. The use of natural pastures equalizes the emissions sheep emit and thus sheep in natural pastures are eco-friendly sheep.
Until the 1970s sheep, horses and cows made sure that pastures would not overgrow. After this, animal husbandry has decreased which has led to many islands and pastures eutrophication. Eutrophication favors only strong plants and weaker ones die off.
We have gotten to see how the landscape changes in only a few years after the sheep started grazing in the natural pastures. Before, it was difficult to walk in the areas and the visibility was minimal. Now the landscape has been cleared up to a height of one meter. The sheep have grazed the island's meadows to look like "english parks" and the thick reeds from the shoreline have almost completely disappeared. Hard to believe - isn't it!
Seljankämmekkä / Adam och Eva
A few points regarding sheep:
A sheep can be scratched from behind the ears, back, sides and cheeks - do not tap the sheep on its head. Tapping on the head activates pushing, which is not desired behavior from anyone. Sheep like treats, however their health doesn't. (Sounds familiar…) In the pastures, the sheep picks its treats. Apples and bread in bigger proportions can be fateful for the animal. If all bypassers give treats, the amount of treats build up to be quite a lot. Especially if the treats are always given to the bravest sheep. It is also important to note that no food should be thrown into the pastures (or anything else).
Sheep
Our sheep are the Finnish native breed, Finnsheep. The Finnsheep are best for grazing sheep in natural pastures, therefore it was the best pick for us.
The Finnsheep is classified as a middle-sized sheep and an ewes average weight is about 65 kg and a rams about 95 kg. Finnsheep wool is comparable to merino wool in its characteristics, therefore the wool is different compared to regular wool. On average, one sheep gets around 2 kg of wool per year. However, wool that can be used to make yarn is only possible to get in fall after pasturing. This is only about 0,5 kg per sheep. The fecundity of Finnsheep is also excellent. An ewe on average gives birth to 2-3 lambs, but also 6 lambs are possible. The sheep are sheared twice a year and simultaneously the hoofs are taken care of. Nature usually takes care of the hoofs during the pasturing season, so us farmers are left with an easier job. Shearing has a beneficial role in the wellbeing of sheep. Shearing boosts metabolism and this way it is beneficial for the health of the sheep. Shearing can look like animal cruelty from outsiders, but this is definitely not the case. Animals, as well as children, do not always know what is best for them, therefore they can resist care that is meant to be good for them. Although sheep are considered to be a carefree pet, they do need quite a lot of care. Sheep need to have enough good quality water, salt, minerals, food and natural pastures need to be checked regularly so that all sheep are well. This is only a small example of the tasks that sheep farmers need to do.
A pregnant ewe (a sheep lady waiting for lambs) can get a miscarriage from a big shock, for example a dog inside the pasture. Please keep your dogs in leashes in areas with sheep, thank you! Behind the sheep is always a sheep farmer who has possibly worked for years, also for the lambs (breeding sheep is a lengthy process), so please behave accordingly.
Work around the year…
In the winter the sheep are in the barn. The first ewes give birth in March (not in 2024). In between birthing, the lambs need to be weighed. Once the sheep are not in the pastures, the pastures need to be taken care of. Trees are cut, sticks are cleared away et cetera. On top of that, the next pasture season needs to be planned out - where the sheep go et cetera. All the official accounting must be checked at this point. In spring, all the fences for the pastures are built. Simultaneously, ewes and their lamb need to be taken care of. The lambs in the Nursery-group, more often called the "baby bottle lambs", must be fed. Later in spring or in early summer the rams are taken away from the girls. This is because the Finnsheep can be sexually mature at an early age 3,5 months old and we want to prevent any accidents from happening. Our attention usually goes to the pregnant ewes, births, the little lambs' wellbeing as well as all the feedings. During this time us farmers may be a bit absent-minded.
During summer, the pastures and sheep are taken care of. Our home pastures are in the radius of 3 km of our farm and are mostly electric fences. The underneath of the electric fence needs to be cleared up so that the hay and grass don't absorb all the electric current. All the pastures have been divided into multiple sections and the sheep are moved from one section to another every 1-5 days. This depends on the amount of food and size of the section. In addition, the sheep grazing in the islands need to be checked on. On top of this, or full-time, hay is made, the condition of the barn and machine room are checked, the dung is removed from the barn and things relating to shepherd's are taken care of. Furthermore, we have hen and broiler chickens grazing on pastures. In the summer we also have lambing, and we get to adore the little lambs. The ewes give birth in the barn, but slightly after that they get to return to the pasture along with their little ones. In the summer we hopefully have at least one summer worker helping with all of this.
In fall all the sheep are gathered from the islands and are separated to different groups according to for example breeding. For the health of the sheep it is important to make sure that the ram is not in the same family as the ewe. This is checked from the production monitoring database and makes the separation into groups a bit difficult. In addition, there's a lot of disassembling of the pastures and building new ones. In everything we do, we must take notes which must include all the necessary up to date information. We have to be up to date with all laws and regulations and their interpretations. This is quite a challenge on top of all the manual labor, but we cannot say that our work would be boring and repetitive.
Yle came to our farm in spring and published a video about it in a show called Närbild. Here is a clip of our part: