I recently visited a small sheep farm in Montezuma County, Colorado that raises churro sheep, Arriola Sunshine Farm. Not only are the sheep churro, but the breeder Cindy Dvergsten is invested in genetics and making sure this endangered breed of sheep doesn’t die out. It almost did after the livestock reduction campaigns* on the Navajo reservation. In the 1970s and 80s, a professor at Utah State University, Dr. Lyle McNeal, worked to bring the breed back from the brink of extinction.
Cindy of Arriola Sunshine Farm remains concerned about the future of these sheep. There are still a very small number of registered sheep that are recognized as pure churro. Her flock is one of those adding to the number of registered animals with pure churro genetics. If you’re a spinner or just interested in saving endangered sheep breeds, the Livestock Conservancy’s Shave ‘em to Save ‘em is a great program.
I was able to go and see Cindy and Mike’s flock in nearby Lewis, CO this week at Arriola Sunshine Farm.** They run completely on solar. This year there are already water restrictions and they will likely run out of water long before the summer ends. The water is important to keep the fields they rotationally graze from drying up.
Here are their ewes and lambs.
The rams are kept in a separate enclosure and they are certainly impressive.
The sheep lambed around a month ago now. Churro sheep are good mothers and they didn’t need any help at all this year. They have a mix of singles and twins.
Here is a video (1 minute) of the flock going out to pasture and then of one of their oldest sheep, Cutie (15 years old) coming back for her special treat. Old age has its privileges!
And Mike picked up one lamb so we could pet it for a bit. Lambs are still not cuddly, but she was very patient while she was exclaimed over.
Navajo churro one month old lamb at Arriola Sunshine Farm, Colorado
Cindy has had her wool made into roving and I came home with a couple pounds of it. She has more on her website if you’re a spinner and want to try some beautiful purebred churro sheep roving in a variety of colors. I was astounded at how white the pure white is and happy at all the other browns and grays she had. She was out of black, but does have some black sheep.
*There is a lot of history of the Navajo Churro sheep breed and I won’t try to summarize here. What should be remembered is that losing the genetics of this breed of sheep was in large part due to the livestock reduction perpetrated by the United States government in the 1930s and 1940s because they believed the land was being overgrazed. There are unending heartbreaking stories about this further trauma to the Diné people perpetrated by the US government. The first livestock reduction occurred in 1863 under Kit Carson at the same time as the Long Walk. More information in this High Country News article from 1995.
**Arriola is the name of the small village where the farm is located.