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Anchorage Farm, Saugerties NY, Registered Romney Sheep
Our mission is regenerative agriculture in the Hudson-Catskills region with purebred Romney sheep — the world’s most important dual-purpose breed.
Our vision is to cherish the whole web of life from micro to macro on this 250 year-old riverbank farm as we raise superb Romneys for the 21st century.
“Mother earth never attempts to farm without live stock; she always raises mixed crops; great pains are taken to preserve the soil and to prevent erosion; the mixed vegetable and animal wastes are converted into humus; there is no waste; the processes of growth and the processes of decay balance one another; ample provision is made to maintain large reserves of fertility; the greatest care is taken to store the rainfall …” Sir Albert Howard An Agricultural Testament p. 4
Our goals
- true dual-purpose sheep
- flock fertility above the the breed average
- uniformity of fleeces within and between animals
- improving the breed from within
- biodiversity and balance with indigenous flora and fauna
- soil health (high organic matter content, thriving underground biota, minimal to no erosion into waterways)
- human and animal health and safety
Some objectives set years ago:
- wean 1.6 lambs for every ewe exposed
- sell >500 lbs of fleece/year direct to handspinners or yarn mills
- have >10% of lambs each year that are “recessively colored”
- flock free of ovine progressive pneumonia and caseous lymphadenitis
- high ethical standards
- no serious accidents to animals or people
As the climate emergency worsens, in 2023 we are changing course. We want to better the farm’s greenhouse gas balance sheet * and, more important, to enhance the ecosystem services** its 61 acres offer to the larger community. These objectives overlap. We also want to phase out buying-in fodder grown where neonicotinoids or glyphosate are routinely used.
These resolutions don’t mean we plan to be “full organic” in five years. We’ve set no timetable, for example to get off chemical parasiticides, desirable as that would be for soil and animal health. We do hope to get there.
A key element will be that our sheep get as much as possible of their feed from our own pastures. In a nutshell: improve pastures through adaptive paddock management with more trees, and feed less grain.
We will continue to uphold all the qualities of purebred dual-purpose Romneys embodied in the American Romney Breeders’ Association breed standard and to nurture the heritage genetics of recessive color.
[*] Greenhouse gas balance sheet for a livestock farm is complex. To summarize, we make a case that even if the CO2 equivalent of methane is reckoned using GWP20, the farm may now be “carbon neutral,” because of its woodlands. To read more on our accounting methods and a discussion on methane, go to Greenhouse Gas Balance Sheet under News and Views.
Comments or questions may be sent to sqs1[at]columbia.edu.
[**] Ecosystem services are realized through
- carbon drawdown through woodlands and grassland soil
- encouraging biodiversity, with priority to native biota
- safe space for pollinators
- production of high-quality high-protein food
- production of high-quality natural fiber–wool
- preservation and improvement of healthy soil, “the gift of good land” (Wendell Berry)
The list is in no special order and not comprehensive.
For more depth and breadth, go to Ecosystem Services at Anchorage Farm
Click here to get acquainted with our new manager, Cameron Pedigo
The slide-show is a seasonal sequence through 12 months , but not all images are from the same year.
