Why sheep?

As grazers, sheep have played a central role in the history of land management in New England and around the world. They take us back to our roots as the Massachusetts Agricultural College and as a land grant institution. Sheep help start a conversation about how we use our land and toward what ends. 

Where will they come from?

The sheep will be joining us from Hadley Farm, UMass Amherst's educational farm for equines and livestock. Hadley Farm is home to the university's Animal Science, Pre-Vet, and Vet-Tech programs. The Farm is located roughly one mile away from the main campus.  

Will they be comfortable?

The health and safety of our wooly visitors is paramount. A safe, fertilizer- and pesticide-free site has been selected in consultation with the sheep care team and vets. We have well-established safety protocols in place that have undergone extensive reviews by the necessary boards. 

Upcoming Events

The fall sheep event will be happening on Friday, Sept 23 and Saturday, Sept 24, 2022 from 10am-3pm each day.

This event will occur on campus at the Arthur F. Kinney Center for Renaissance Studies. 

650 East Pleasant Street
Amherst, MA, 01002

There are 2 small parking lots on the east side of the property which can  be accessed from E. Pleasant St. You are also welcome to walk over along the trails that connect to the Agricultural Learning Center or through Sylvan Woods from behind Sylvan Residence Area and Cashin Hall. Please note that signs will be available to point you in the right direction. 

Sheep are coming to campus!

Join us for a suite of student or community member-led activities or simply sit back and enjoy the pastoral pleasure of watching sheep graze in the meadow!

Events:

Grounded Knowledge: Terroir
Saturday, 9/24 1:00pm
This 90-minute workshop invites participants to ask: how do we preserve terroir amid our changing climate conditions? Jointly led by the Center’s Artist in Residence, Andrea Caluori & evolutionary-ecologist, Dr. Elsa Petit (Stockbridge School of Agriculture, UMass), the workshop offers short readings, a hands-on cheese-making demonstration, and conversation about the traditions and practices that create terroir. Workshop enrollment is limited and pre-registration is required. Register here.

Mapping Terroir: Memory & Myth 
​June 18-September 30, 2022
The Kinney Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies’ reading room showcases Mapping Terroir: Memory & Myth, an artist exhibit by Andrea Caluori that explores connections across the Center’s rare book collection of early modern agricultural and husbandry manuals and contemporary cultures of farming today. The exhibit explores how myth and historical memory shape relationships between humans, animals, and plants, and thereby foster ideas of earthly terroir. Read the Inside UMass story here. Read the Daily Hampshire Gazette feature here.
​

"Sheep-ish: Short Yarns on the Long History of Sheep in Hampshire County"
Marla Miller and Emily Whitted of the UMass Public History Program, with the help of UMass History intern Joshua Reis, will unveil a new pop-up exhibit that surveys the history of sheep cultivation in Hampshire County from the seventeenth century to the present. Highlighting local museum collections, archival research, and vibrant communities of farmers and fiber artists who carry on sheep farming today, this exhibit will give visitors a taste of the rich history of sheep in this area while they watch the UMass sheep flock graze

​Grazing and Wool Gathering: Sheep in Life and Literature
Friday, 9/23 & Saturday, 9/24 10am-3pm
This rare book exhibit explores the agricultural and literary pre-history of EweMass sheep experiment. In the Renaissance in Europe, grazing and wool production were concerns for practical, agricultural writers such as John Worlidge and Walter Blith, whereas the notion of “a wolf in sheep’s clothing” appears pervasively in imaginative works ranging from the Bible to Shakespeare, which used the behavior of sheep to speak to the sly aspects of human nature. This exhibit invites visitors to explore what links and separates past from present when we think about human/animal connections.

Dyeing Wool
Learn from Gail Callahan of The Kangaroo Dyer, how wool is dyed. Gail will demonstrate using techniques from her book Hand Dyeing Yarn and Fleece by Storey Publishing.  Along with authoring her book, she created The Color Grid and The Wedding Color Grid. These tools help with selecting color in any medium.

UMass Carbon Farming Initiative
Ask students about working on the UMass Carbon Farming Initiative and the silvopasture plot run by the Agricultural Learning Center and learn how they are capturing carbon through agriculture. 

Carding and Spinning Wool
How does wool get from sheep to yarn? Join Sondra Slesinski from UMass for answers and come see demonstrations of drum-carding and spinning.
 
UMass Knitting, Crocheting, and Needlework Club
Watch the UMass Knitting, Crocheting and Needlework Club as they practice their craft! Join in as they lead a few informal knitting circles!

iNaturalist Campus Bioblitz ​
Download the app on your mobile device and join us in a collective, community science effort to identify as many non-human species that call our campus home in 30 minutes. 

Check back soon for more activities happening on 9/23 and 9/24.

"We all must be thoughtful and intentional about the way we take care of our surrounding landscape."

​-Frederick Law Olmsted

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