Coopworth History
and Breed Information
Fleece, Roving, Locks
Yarn for sale
Locker Hooking Supplies for Sale
Sheep Care and
Management Articles
Located in the Potomac Highlands of eastern West Virginia, we have a small, select flock of registered natural colored and white Coopworth sheep, and Coopworth/Bluefaced Leicester crosses.
We specialize in hardy, easy-care sheep with beautiful, prizewinning handspinning fleeces.
Clean, well skirted Fleeces, Roving, Washed, Un-dyed and Dyed Locks for Santa Beards and felting, Millspun Yarn, Locker Hooking Supplies and healthy Breeding Stock for sale.
We have been raising sheep for over 25 years. After trying several breeds, we discovered Coopworths. We found the Coopworths to be calm, excellent mothers, earlier maturing, more fertile and hardier than some of the other breeds we had raised.
We have selected sheep for soft, lustrous fleece, fertility, excellent mothering traits, structural soundness, good lamb growth on pasture, and resistance to disease and parasites. We have utilized New Zealand AI genetics in our flock, along with the best domestic Coopworths available.
Because we are serious about the Coopworth emphasis on production, we are enrolled in the National Sheep Improvement Program (NSIP), and use production records to help discern the sheep with the traits that we feel are important in our flock; fleece weight and quality, easy care ewes with strong maternal instincts, structural soundness, and lamb weight gains on pasture. We strive to make each generation of Deer Run Coopworths better than the last. We have the records, and will gladly show them to you, and assist you in recording the profitable traits in your flock!
We guarantee the health and fertility of our sheep. We are enrolled in the Voluntary Scrapie Free Flock Certification Program and our flock has tested negative for OPP, and are foot rot free.
At left, Martha with ribbons for first and second place Coopworth fleece at the 2003 Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.
If you are interested in easy-care, efficient, productive sheep, please consider Deer Run Coopworths!
Click here for a Map of Deer Run, WV US
Coopworth sheep are a medium sized, dual purpose, longwool breed, with an alert but quiet disposition, developed at Lincoln College in Canterbury, New Zealand , during the 1950s and 1960s by crossing Border Leicester rams and Romney ewes. The best of the resulting progeny were interbred over many years. The purpose was to create a highly prolific and easily managed sheep that would excel in the production of both meat and wool for commercial use.
Coopworths continue to be selected for productivity and easy care characteristics. Difficult births are of low incidence and ewes have very strong mothering instincts, seldom leaving their lambs after birth. Multiple births are most common and the Coopworth ewe will provide an abundance of milk. Their lambs grow well with the addition of grass, making this breed ideal for low-input, pasture-based systems. Rams are virile and settle the ewes quickly.
While it's true that The Coopworth is more than a breed; it's a philosophy, we feel strongly that there is more to improving a breed than allowing breeders to register only a fixed percentage of a lamb crop. Sometimes, nearly all of the lambs born are worthy of contributing to the breed, other times, none are. Because we believe that the breeder is intelligent enough to make that decision, we are members of The American Coopworth Registry. We invite you to join us, and see what a positive, helpful group it is!
See our Coopworth History and Breed Information Page for more information on the breed, and an article on Coopworth Color Genetics by Dr. D. P. Sponenberg.
This is a photo of a "blue" Coopworth ewe. Read more about color genetics in sheep on our Coopworth History and Breed Information page, navigation bar on left.
Because raising healthy, productive sheep requires a knowledge of feeding and management, along with intelligent selection, we have compiled our Sheep Care and Management Articles Page, with articles on feeding, lambing, record keeping, and guardian Llamas, and our Sheeplinks Page-links to many informative sites on the internet.
Our love of the Fiberarts was one of the reasons we selected the Coopworth Breed. Our Fiberarts Articles Page and Fiberlinks Page contain information on Spinning, Dyeing, Felting, Knitting, and Locker Hooking. We also sell supplies for Locker Hooking.
At right, a Locker Hooked "cat rug" made by Martha.
If you are a West Virginia Sheep or Goat raiser, we invite you to join The West Virginia Shepherds Federation. The WVSF promotes, preserves, and speaks for the sheep, goat and fiber industries in the state of West Virginia.
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