Happy 2018 to all our friends out there!
We received lots of questions over the holidays about our flock of Valais Blacknose Sheep and what the latest update is. We've got some exciting news to share!
Our farm has been following the progress of a proposed rule through the USDA which would allow for the importation of our sheep from the UK to the US. This proposed rule went out for public comments back in July of 2016 and closed in September 2016. The proposed rule was supposed to be finalized in July 2017 but with the changes in administration, everything came to a grinding halt.
The good news is that we're starting to see momentum building. The proposed rule was included in the Fall Regulatory Agenda and published in December. The current expectation is that this will be approved next month, in February 2018.
We're working our way through the regulations to determine all of the steps we'll need to take to import our sheep to our farm. Still likely a long road ahead but we're so excited about the progress.
In the meantime, we're continuing to breed our sheep in the UK and are expecting more lambs in the spring. We couldn't be more excited about bringing these beautiful sheep to the US!