Anyone want a story about sheep semen?

Still searching for a home for my ~very niche~ pitch

Hello! I’m a day later than I intended to be with this freelance digest, but who’s counting? Are you? Sunday was a very long travel day so I needed Monday to recover and settle into a new place for the week. I’m working on a bunch of little assignments that don’t pay very much but are helping me close my income gap for August. Maybe one of these months I won’t have to say “yes” so much.

For most of this year, I’ve been trying to find a home for an agriculture story about a farmer in Eugene. She’s leading an initiative to import a particular Scandinavian breed of sheep and diversify Oregon’s gene pool. A more robust population means the sheep are healthier and thus offer better wool and meat.

I admit. This is a very niche story idea. The reach isn’t particularly wide, and the impact is relatively low. Plus, when I Google “cool agricultural magazines” I don’t get many results. The ones that do come up I’ve already pitched. They’ve either ghosted (7) or rejected me (3). Reasons for rejection range from “not quite right for us at this time” to “a little too niche for us” to no reason at all.

Mostly, pitching this story is an excuse for me to report more in the field (literally). I’ve taken a liking to writing about sheep. Last year, I went to Denmark to write about the 30-year-old wool slipper company Glerups. My reporting included a visit to a sheep farm run by a couple that introduced me to the Oregon farmer. Then later in the summer, I went up to Astoria to profile a sheep shearer.

I know this is a good story, and I’m frustrated that I haven’t found a home for it yet. But I’m not giving up. Am I discouraged? Certainly. Just not enough to give the idea back to the universe. I have time, and I’m working on different angles, but here’s one version of the pitch that I’ve already circulated (don’t steal it lol):