People interested in helping SVF Foundation preserve rare breeds often decide to donate animals. These generous breeders are the cornerstone of success for SVF and their animals often become the genetic breed representatives within our germplasm collection.

MAY 2009: David Moore, Olla, LA Donates 2 Pineywoods Heifers to SVF

Pineywoods cattle are an endangered landrace breed native to the Gulf Coast and south eastern regions of the United States. They have adapted to thrive in this hot, humid climate and survive by foraging their beautiful forest terrain. These cattle are known to be hardy, intelligent and very good mothers; they are also prized for their alleged internal parasite resistance. Although SVF has completed extensive semen collection encompasing  Pineywoods cattle we have yet to begin embryo collection.

David Moore of Olla, Louisiana first began aiding SVF's preservation of Pineywoods cattle in 2008 when he donated a Conway strain bull for semen collection.

This past year he once again contacted SVF and offered 2 stunning Pineywoods heifers, one Broadus and one Conway, for embro collection. After passing extensive health testing and making the long trip north to our facility in Newport, RI these young girls are finally on-site and will be placed in our embryo collection program in 2010.

We all thank David for his generosity and hope to continue a lasting partnership to conserve this critically endangered breed.

MAY 2008: Beardsley Zoo Donates Cotswold ram

"Holmes" is a beautiful white Cotswold ram that just joined SVF Foundation's flock. He was generously donated by the folks at Beardsley Zoo in Bridgeport, CT. Although "Holmes" is loosing his eyesight he is still very healthy and active. Next fall he will begin our semen collection program, but for now is enjoying the summer pastures.

APRIL 2008: White Barn Farm Donates 2 CVM ewes to SVF

Last year SVF began reseraching the Romeldale/CVM breed, classified as critically endangered by ALBC. Several breeders around the country worked to help us build a flock of gentically diverse ewes and rams, which will be collected next season.

This spring Kim Preston of White Barn Farm, MI generously donated two beautiful CVM ewes and SVF purchaed two of her rams. White Barn has some wonderful sheep and SVF is very pleased to include them in our collection. The girls and boys are all settled in to their new home and will be joining the rest of the flock soon.

NOVEMBER 2007: Bill and Helen Mende Donate 15 Tunis ewes to SVF

With the help of two dedicated breeders SVF is happy to begin work with a new breed of endangered sheep. These Tunis ewes were donated by Bill and Helen Mende, PA. They have maintained "old world" Tunis on their farm for decades and have generously donated 15 young ewes for embryo collection. SVF is currently in the process of seeking out old style rams to complement these girls. Thanks Bill and Helen!

AUGUST 2007: Sharon Vecchiolla Donates CVM ram to SVF flock

SVF has recently begun work on the California Variegated Mutant (CVM) breed of sheep. A flock of 27 purebred CVM sheep was assembled this summer from 6 dedicated breeders ranging throughout the country. Sharon Vecchiolla generously donated her 3 year old ram "Scooter", who is happily settled in with his new flockmates and awaiting germplasm collection to begin fall 2008. Thank you Sharon!!

JUNE 2006: Much Needed Ewes Donated by Greg Strauss

Once a breed's embryo collection is complete SVF performs an embryo transfer as a part of "quality control". Three breeds have been completed so far, two of which have also had embryo transfers – the Tennessee Fainting goat which resulted in "Chip" (link to Chips story) and Gulf Coast sheep which gave us "Howie" (link to Howie's' article under news).

Our next step is the Cotswold embryo transfer, planned for fall 2006. In order to replicate a probable future situation SVF prefers to transfer the rare breed embryo into a surrogate of a different breed. (For example Chip's surrogate dam was a Nubian doe). Since the Cotswold sheep is such a large breed SVF needed a large surrogate dam to receive the frozen embryo and prevent birthing difficulties. Thankfully a local breeder, Greg Strauss of Middletown, RI kindly offered to donate several of his crossbred ewes for this purpose. His sheep arrived at SVF in June and are enjoying the summer weather.

APRIL 2006: Santa Cruz Flock Donated by Marion Stanley

In 2005 SVF was contacted by Pat and Rich Hopkins, CA, who wanted to donate their flock of critically endangered Santa Cruz sheep (link to Breed Fact Sheet). (read their story) Once the sheep arrived and were settled in, SVF decided to research the current Santa Cruz population and procure additional sheep to round out the genetics represented by the Hopkins flock. As it turned out, there were very few breeders left working with the Santa Cruz sheep. Luckily, one breeder had maintained a purebred flock and was willing to donate the sheep to SVF Foundation in hopes of saving the breed from complete extinction.

Marion Stanley - King City, CA, is a prior board member of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, and a very responsible breeder. He first visited Santa Cruz island in 1988 and helped to remove a small group of Santa Cruz sheep from the island. Since then he has kept a small flock on his farm, along with other rare breeds of livestock, including San Clemente goats.

Marion worked with a local veterinarian to health test his flock, and when all was said and done a total of 10 ewes, 2 rams and 3 San Clemente does were chosen to make the transfer to SVF Foundation.

Thanks to Marion the SVF Santa Cruz germplasm collection will represent a wide range of genetic diversity within the breed, and preserve them in a frozen state. This is especially important with a breed so critically endangered.

JANUARY 2006: Cotswold Rams Donated by Christine Crossman

Though SVF Foundation has finished the embryo collection for the Cotswold breed we are still rounding out the semen collection. Christine Crossman of Granville, NY contacted SVF Foundation and generously offered to donate two of her Cotswold rams for a year so that we may collect semen. "Butch" and "Stormy" arrived at SVF in January and have joined the farm quite nicely - awaiting the upcoming fall collection season. Both rams are large bodied, with lustrous white locks and mild dispositions – they are also terrific breed representatives. Once semen collection is complete they will be returned to Christine with much appreciation for her help.

APRIL 2005: Santa Cruz Flock Donated by Pat and Rich Hopkins

Pat and Rick Hopkins of Anza, CA are a great example of how individual breeders help SVF achieve its mission. The Santa Cruz sheep were being eradicated from their sole native habitat, Santa Cruz Island off the coast of CA. Pat and Rich stepped in to help preserve the breed and took a flock onto their farm. When they decided to downsize, they contacted SVF and donated not only a flock of twenty eight sheep, but also a large collection of breed information gathered over the years. This information has been added to the SVF database and will be invaluable to the future of the Santa Cruz germplasm.

APRIL 2005: Cotswold Rams Donated by Tony and Ann Kaminski

SVF Foundation has worked with Tony and Ann Kaminski on several occasions while working with the Cotswold sheep. They are both experts on this critically endangered breed and active members of the Cotswold Breeders Association (currently Tony is the registrar and Ann is the treasurer). In addition to general breed information and history (which has been an invaluable addition to our database) the Kaminski's have donated several sheep from their flock to SVF Foundation. In 2004 they sent seven ewes for embryo collection, and in April 2005 also donated two rams for semen collection. One of the rams is colored, and is the only colored Cotswold ram to date that SVF has procured semen from.