Our Mission
Our mission is to promote and encourage keeping sheep in Connecticut. The CSBA was formed in 1893, and we have been supporting Connecticut shepherds since that time by educating sheep farmers about issues relevant to raising lamb and wool, and facilitating marketing opportunities.
Call for Volunteers for our annual Sheep, Wool & Fiber Festival
April 28th at the Tolland Agricultural Center
The CSBA Needs Your Help
We are actively planning for our Spring Festival and Organizing Volunteers
Multiple jobs are available and include:
1) Kitchen: food prep; serving; counter help (includes some Friday evening set up)
2) Fleece Sale: cashier; setting up; sales (includes some Friday evening set up)
3) Pavilion Station: CSBA logo items sales; membership table; blanket booth
4) End of Festival Clean up: self-explanatory but necessary as everyone is tired!
5) Sheep and/or Fiber demonstration: volunteer to do a half to one-hour demo of your special skill
6) Other: not yet specified
We usually ask people what their skill set is or what they are willing to help with and time of day that works best so we can assign you a "shift" and specific job.
The kitchen is one of our hardest to fill areas and so we greatly appreciate folks who are willing to go the extra mile and work in the kitchen. Once the schedule of volunteers is organized, I will send each one of you specific instructions; a volunteer badge and directions and such.
Please respond with your preferences and full contact information including snail mail address to Cathy at either dragonslairfarm@yahoo.com or (860) 639-9196
Suggestions for topics, presenters and demonstrations for the Sheep, Wool & Fiber Festival are still welcome. You can email Rick Trojanoski or call him at (860) 759-9334.
Calling all Artists!
Looking for a T Shirt Design for our 2012 Sheep and Wool Festival
Contest Open To All
All submissions must be received by March 1st
Winning Designer is Awarded $150.00
Rules and entry information can be downloaded here:2012 T Shirt Contest Rules
Send all entries and full contact information to Cathy at dragonslairfarm@yahoo.com for more information call (860) 639-9196
The Randall M. Knight Memorial Scholarship
The CSBA is now offering a scholarship in memory of Mr. Randall Monroe Knight. Randy was a very special person and had a great influence on the sheep industry in New England. In addition to his lifetime of membership and many years of service on the Board of Directors of our Association, he also served with many other New England organizations. Once he received his BS degree in Agriculture at UCONN he never left, and went on to become the farm manager there. Always one to do the right thing, his generosity would lead to a satisfying lifetime of work mentoring UCONN students, Boy Scouts, 4-H and FFA members and untold others who benefited from his seemingly bottomless fountain of information. Randy not only loved the outdoors and farm work which included lambing out ewes, shearing, and making hay, but he had a private side, unseen by many of us that included a love of camping, long walks in the moonlight of the sheep pastures, writing poetry and listening to jazz. It is only fitting that we, as an Association, honor his lifetime with a scholarship for students with similar ethics and enthusiasm for sheep and the industry.
The scholarships of $500.00 will be awarded to one or two qualified students who have demonstrated an interest in, and dedicated commitment to, promoting sheep and the industry.
The qualifying individual must:
1) Be a Connecticut resident in college or high school
2) Be enrolled in, or accepted to, a college level agricultural program
3) Be involved in some aspect of sheep or wool production
Scholarships will be awarded annually based on a competitive application process. Applications for the 2012 academic year are due by October 1, 2012 and and will be available here on the website in the near future.
