Rostraver Farm is located in Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania in the rolling hills of Rostraver Township, south of Pittsburgh, PA.   We are a hobby farm -  we do this for fun!  We raise Registered Tunis and Registered Olde English Babydoll Southdown Sheep.  Our three children have all been involved in 4-H over the years and have helped show our family sheep at our local county fairs.  We are members of the Pennsylvania Sheep & Wool Growers Association, Fayette County Agricultural Improvement Association, PA Women's Agricultural Network, American Sheep Industry, National Tunis Sheep Registry Inc., and Robert Mock's Olde English Babydoll Sheep Registry.  

Tunis Lamb

Tunis Sheep are beautiful redheads, originating in Tunisia on the North African coast.  They are a medium-sized, docile breed, wonderful mothers, with long pendulous ears.   The Tunis lambs are born with beautiful red fleeces, which gradually turn creamy-white as they grow.  The face and legs retain that beautiful red color.  The sheep are shorn in late spring and their beautiful medium-weight fleeces are wonderful for spinning and needle-felting projects.   Our Tunis are registered with the National Tunis Sheep Registry, Inc.

Babydoll Southdown Lambs - Yin and Yang    

Babydoll Southdown Sheep originated in the South Downs of Sussex, England.  With the trend for bigger sheep, the American Southdown breed gradually became a much bigger sheep, as compared with these much smaller English originals.  Around 1990, Mr. Robert Mock began a search for small pockets of these original sheep in the South Downs.  A foundation flock was begun and these "miniature" sheep began their own Olde English Babydoll Southdown Sheep Registry.  In 2003, The North American Babydoll Sheep Association and Registry was also begun.  Our sheep are Mock Registered.  There's not a day go by that these little smiling sheep don't put a smile on our face! 

Home of the 2008 PA Lamb & Wool Queen - Agriculture is Pennsylvania's #1 industry and we are very proud of our daughter Rebecca's accomplishments in Agriculture.   She was crowned the 2008 Pennsylvania Lamb & Wool Queen in November 2007 and recently completed her reign.  She is sponsored by the Pennsylvania Sheep & Wool Growers Association and was crowned at the USDA Samuel E. Hayes, Jr. Livestock Evaluation Center near The Penn State University in central Pennsylvania.  Previously, she was also crowned the 2007 PA Lamb & Wool Princess, the 2006 Fayette County Fair Queen and competed in the 2007 PA State Fair Queen Contest in Hershey, PA.   

Becca's Buddies Clayworks began while Becca was promoting and educating others about her love of sheep and agriculture.  While visiting over 80 fairs, festivals and sheep events, Becca and Marianne began making clay sheep pins which were presented as gifts to other Fair Queens we met in our travels.  Becca's goal was for everyone in Pennsylvania to adopt their own sheep sheep... even if it's only made of clay!  These pins were a hit with sheep people everywhere they went and soon people were asking to buy extras.  The profit was used to help buy crayons and educational materials to help teach children about sheep and wool in their lives.  The pins have been used as gifts for Leadline Competitions at the Pennsylvania Farm Show, Sheep Field Day Events, Spinning Retreats, Jackpot Shows, and little presents for special sheep people.  


April's Touch is our very talented niece's hand-painted farm scene artwork.  April and her husband Paul are the parents of 3 young children and live in the mountains nearby.  April brings the scenery around her to life through her unique style of art.  You can see some of her sheep art at our shows.  She paints rural farm scenes on milk cans, two-man saws, maple sugar tap buckets, slate, framed maple leaves, and also does custom work for your farm. 


Rostraver Woolies is pure fiber fun!  While traveling to so many events, we learned a whole new appreciation of the fleece our animals bear.  We now own a spinning wheel and are  learning to spin wool.  We wash our own fleeces and use drum carders to make batts of fluffy wool.  We learned the technique of needle-felting and sell beautiful needle-felted sheep, made from our fleeces.  A special thanks to our farm friends who have shared some of their animals' fiber with us, so we can make different "breeds" of woolies!  We also carry gorgeous sheepskin rugs, alpaca woven blankets, needle-felting supplies, and fiber. 

Rostraver Farm

Marianne, David, Rebecca, Paul & Casey
Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania

Contact us for more information:

Marianne@RostraverFarm.com