Scott County, Virginia is a large, mostly rural county, located in extreme southwest Virginia only a few miles from the borders of Tennessee, West Virginia, and Kentucky. It is in the heart of the Appalachian mountain range, with most farmland consisting of rolling hills or steep ridge land with many limestone outcroppings. Much of the land is not suitable for grain production, and as a result, most farming is centered on grazing livestock which made the area very suitable to sheep production. Sheep were a popular enterprise until the early 1990's when depressed market prices, parasites, and predators left less than 100 head of sheep in the county. Most agriculture consisted of tobacco and cattle production. In the late 1990's and early 2000's, tobacco was slowly beginning to phase out and farmers found cattle prices fluctuating and hard to predict.
As tobacco production declined, some enterprising farmers recognized that "Hair Sheep", bred for their meat rather than wool, might fill the gap left by tobacco. This enterprise was particularly attractive to the smaller farms in our county, and could also be applied to larger farms. In 1997, the first Katahdin hair sheep (15) were brought to Scott County from near Lexington Kentucky. The sheep thrived and caught on with other farmers. Soon demand outstripped supply.
In early 2000, 25 farmers met in a barn with United States Representative Rick Boucher (D-VA-9th District) to discuss the possibilities of beginning a Cooperative effort to raise and market hair sheep in Scott County. Through the efforts of these charter members and the work of Congressman Boucher, the Scott County Hair Sheep Association was begun.
The Scott County Hair Sheep Association has grown from the original 25 members to around 250 farms in 5 states with between 12,000 and 15,000 producing age ewes. The Association has a partnership with Food City, a 100 store supermarket chain with stores in 3 states, as a market outlet for our lamb product. Last year we surpassed $1,000,000 in Scott County Hair Sheep Association lamb being sold to Food City. The Association is proud of our partnership with Steve Smith and the Food City chain and are excited about the future of lamb product in Southwest Virginia...
