Valais at Eagle Creek

06/10/2026

Very cool!

In a surprising twist for regenerative medicine, the secret to healing broken bones might be found in your sweater. 🐑🦴
Scientists at King’s College London have successfully developed a bone-healing material made entirely from sheep wool. The breakthrough centers on keratin, the structural protein in wool, hair, and nails, which was used to create a scaffold that tricks the body into rebuilding bone tissue.
In recent animal and laboratory trials, this wool-derived material didn't just support bone growth; it produced tissue that more closely resembled healthy, natural bone than any current synthetic or collagen-based alternative. Because wool is naturally renewable and often discarded as waste by the farming industry, this provides a cheap, sustainable, and high-performance source for future medical implants and surgeries.
The most mind-blowing part? The body gradually absorbs the wool scaffold as the real bone takes its place, leaving no foreign hardware behind. This discovery marks a massive leap for orthopedic surgery, offering a future where complex fractures can be "knit" back together using the same biological building blocks as a sheep's coat.
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News Source:
Science Daily – "Scientists turn sheep wool into a bone-healing material in a major medical breakthrough" (May 22, 2026)
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06/10/2026

It has been a crazy, stressful, joyous and heartbreaking last couple months for our farm. Our purebred girl Lotus was confirmed pregnant after AI to Heartland Aragorn in December! Yay! Ultrasound revealed a single ( ok) and subsequent ultrasounds revealed she was carrying a ram lamb. She went into labor 3 days after her due date and after a long labor with no progress I went in to find 2 large rear hooves way down in there. There was no room to turn him around so we had to pull breech. Nino was a huge boy and it took a lot of working to get him out. Once he was here it became clear something wasn't right so we rushed him to OSU Marysville. After ultrasounding they diagnosed him with pulmonary effusion as well as pericardial effusion and sent us to OSU main campus for hospitalization. Unfortunately our perfectly marked boy passed on the way there. It was heartbreaking but he was so loved for the small amount of time we had him.

After the dumpster fire that was the 2025 breeding season we have finally had a blessing! Our girls Kallie, Brianna, and Monelle are expecting purebred babies from Monelle sired by Heartland Crackerjack and our f4 girl Millie is carrying f5(s?) Sired by Heartland Giovanni! So far we know Kallie has twins and Monelle is possibly carrying 1 to 2. Brianna is a thick girl and while we havent seen anything for sure on the Ultrasound yet blood tests show strong positives for pregnancy 😊 We also added 2 lovely baby doll ewes, Olive and Noodle to our herd from Valais Vineyard and Exotics!

When it comes to this life dont let the hard days win, do right by yourself and your stock and love them as much as you can for as long as you can

05/14/2026

EDUCATION:

Breeding up: What is it?
To breed up is to take a ewe of one breed and breed it to a 100% ram of another breed. Each resulting offspring is continuously bred to a 100% ram of the same breed as the first ram, to eventually get as close to 100% of the original rams breed.
In this case, It is to increase the % of Valais breed gentics and decrease the % of the foundation ewe breed genetics.

Again, genetics are weird and we will never 100% understand them. A f1 is most likely not a true 50/50 gentic offspring. Same goes for eachfollowing generation. It is possible to be a 60/40.

Obviously with breeding up, we want to try to also bring in the hardier breeds characteristics as well. We want the true Valais look; leg wool, correct markings and wool quality, but with more parasite restance and correct hoof and leg structure of our other breeds used. Some people want a more milk proficient Valais as well. But with genetics we may or may not get that and itll be years (not just 1 or 2) of work to get a more parasite resistant, proficient milker or just hardier sheep for the USA conditions.

We have personally had a parasite resistant babydoll that has also produced QR codon lambs and a resistant Wensleydale who has produced RR lambs. The Wensleydale also milks like a cow and has top tier fleece! We hope those resulting lambs produce for their new owners as we have hoped!

05/14/2026

EDUCATION: What do these lap puppies cost?
Your soul, your love, your dedication, they cost everything….and return it all in fluffy, bouncy love and affection!
Pricing is determined by conformation, pedigrees, markings and wool quality.

I see a lot of people sticker shocked or very unaware of the cost of Valais. Bringing in and maintaining the Swiss standards on this Swiss breed is a lot of work and is costly. We can only import semen, and most recently, embryos. Most LAI results are about 67% and embryos are 50% or less. There’s a lot of risk with this way of breeding as well.

To put it as kindly as possible… please stop expecting the hard working breeders importing semen and embryos to rehome their stock for pennies. If you do find cheap stock, know that it is likely cheap for a reason. Commercially bred stock will not have the pedigrees and quality in conformation, wool, etc that a small breeding program will. A small program that assesses their current stock to see what needs improved upon with each generation. These breeders take the time to find semen from a quality ram that will ‘hopefully’ pass on the traits needed improved upon.

With this information, I put together a VERY loose, approximate price range list for ewes and wethers of the Valais breed. Some will be higher and some will be lower. If they’re quite a bit lower, I would be questioning things.

05/03/2026

As part of ASI’s Wool Reimagined contest, we’re highlighting finalist ideas that expand potential uses for American wool, particularly lower-value fiber with limited markets.

Finalist spotlight: Wool for Trapping (Grayson Maxwell).

This idea creates a direct-to-customer outlet for whole, unwashed fleeces, selling lower-quality wool straight from the farm (storefront and online) to wildlife trappers. The model is simple: no washing, sell the whole fleece, improve returns to the producer for wool that often brings little value through traditional channels.

There’s also a second benefit producers understand immediately: supporting trapping on livestock operations can help address predator pressure, a practical win for flock protection while creating a market for wool that might otherwise be discarded.

We received many strong entries and will be featuring Wool Reimagined finalists throughout the year

03/08/2026

Well saw 2 things I really would rather not have seen on the gender ultrasound scan of our girl Lotus yesterday 😒 😂she is bred to Aragorn via AI. This is a cross view of the backside

02/21/2026

🐑🇺🇸 2026 USA National Valais Blacknose Show – Book Your Hotel NOW! 🇺🇸🐑

The countdown is on for the USA National Valais Blacknose Sheep Show – Grading, Show & Sale — and we cannot wait to welcome breeders, exhibitors, sponsors, and Valais enthusiasts from across the country!

🗓 Plan to arrive Wednesday, September 30, 2026
🗓 Depart Sunday, October 4, 2026

📍 Des Moines, Iowa

We have secured a special room block rate of $159.00 per night for exhibitors and attendees — but rooms will fill quickly as this event continues to grow each year.

👉 Book your group rate here:

🏨 Hyatt Place Altoona
https://www.hyatt.com/events/en-US/group-booking/DSMZA/G-BNS6

🏨 Fairfield by Marriott Inn & Suites Des Moines Altoona
https://app.marriott.com/reslink?id=1771010990646&key=GRP&app=resvlink

⏰ Last day to book at the group rate: August 30, 2026

Whether you’re bringing sheep to grade and show, entering the fleece show, attending educational workshops, sponsoring, consigning to the sale, or simply networking with fellow breeders — secure your room early and stay with the Valais family.

We expect another outstanding turnout in 2026. Don’t wait until the last minute — reserve your room today and join us for one of the premier Valais events in North America.

We look forward to seeing everyone in Des Moines!

02/01/2026

Well we made it thru the negative temps! Something we did last year that has really made a difference is putting a hot water spigot in our garage. We take hot water out to our livestock when the temps are below freezing. This helps encourage them to drink and warms them from the inside out. We used to unhook the water line of our washing machine and run a hose out the windows to the water tank which was a pain! Now we just throw the hose in the tank and fill it up!

We also wanted to announce that after a dumpster fire of a breeding season we are FINALLY expecting babies! CCF Lotus was AI'd by our local vet Dr Grant with semen from Heartland Aragorn and it looks like she is expecting 2 to 3! 🙌 Lotus has amazing horns and we are excited to see what the pairing is going to bring! The last picture is a really nice view of a early cotyledon!

08/31/2025

Carrots! This is something we have tried to grow on the farm for the last few seasons and have not had good luck. This year we tried something a little different and while there's still room for improvement I'd say it was a success! This is 1 of 4 bowls full 😊

08/17/2025

Meet the Valais Blacknose sheep — the ‘cutest sheep in the world’ with faces like teddy bears and wool like clouds 🐑☁️💛