Gail is our Volunteer Spotlight for the month of February. Here she shares some insights into her sheep operation!
Tell us about your current sheep operation: what kinds of sheep do you have, how many, and what do you do with them?
We currently have about 65 ewes – 30ish Babydoll and 30ish Frame style Dorsets, plus young stock and rams, so in total 90-100 head. We mainly focus on selling breeding stock to others across the country. We have an online auction in late April where we sell Babydoll lambs that mainly go to families that like to show Babydolls. We attend several show and sale events like the Ohio Showcase Sale in May and the Midwest Stud Ram Show and Sale in Sedalia in June, and the North Star Bred Ewe sale in October and offer breeding stock from our farm.
What got you into sheep? How many did you start with and how long ago did you start?
It all started in the late ‘70’s with my older brother who was a freshman in high school and looking for an FFA project that wasn’t tied to our family dairy farm. My brother purchased 10 Corriedale ewes with twin lambs at their side, and the sheep project was born. We branched out to raise Dorsets, Rambouillets and Columbias in addition to the Corriedales. I eventually showed sheep at 19 fairs across the Midwest and the income helped me pay for college.
Fast forward to when our kids were starting 4-H, thinking around 2003, we were looking for a project that the kids could learn bookkeeping and management skills at a smaller level to help them be better decision makers as adults – and possibly farmers – and the bonus was that they also had a project to take to the fair. We already had dairy and hogs and since I had a strong sheep background, we chose to get a few sheep for the kids to manage. We started with 3 ewe lambs – it seems like it was so long ago! I always say that the sheep are an out of control 4-H project!
What are the busy times of year for you + your sheep?
The second and third week of February is generally the busiest with ewes lambing like crazy. We generally lamb in January-February-March which is the peak busiest season; I’m constantly looking at my lamb cam to see what is going on in the barn. We also fall lamb around 10 ewes in September, which is easier with less sheep and much milder weather.
Mid to late April is also a crazy time as we have our online sale the end of April. That means we need to take pictures of all the lambs, head, front end, side, ¾ side, and rear shots to share post on the sale site. We then decide which lambs we plan to put on the sale, do write ups about their attributes and family history, load it all into the sale site and do a lot of advertising on social media.
We also show at several state fairs in the Midwest and go to a few sales in the summer and fall. It takes a lot of time to get the sheep ready for these events, it takes the whole family to get sheep washed and read for the show. Our kids all have their role in the project, our youngest son Riley is a fabulous fitter and can get the sheep looking their best, daughter Abby helps with registration papers and social media, while our oldest son Mitch is our chore guy when we are on the road, hubby Jim is a constant during all the crazy – all are invaluable to making the operation work!
What are some of your favorite things or best memories involving sheep?
Lambing is my favorite time of the sheep season; it never gets old watching a baby work to stand and nurse for the first time.
Watching our kids grow as individuals, gain confidence in making decisions, and experience managing their own business.
NAILE 2020 and 2024 area definite highlights. 2020 our son won 2 classes in the Junior Dorset show, one with a home bred ewe and the other was a purchased ewe that went on to be Champion Ewe. In 2024 the Babydolls had a tremendous show; Champion Ewe in both the Junior and the Open Show, Reserve Ewe in the Junior Show, and Champion and Reserve Ram in both the Junior and Open Show came from our farm and carried a Donkers tag in their ear. We came home with one banner – the Reserve Open Show Ram, the rest had been purchased from our farm. To top it off, the Reserve Ewe in the Open Show was out of a ram we had sold, it doesn’t get much better than that.
What are some of the challenges or hard parts of owning sheep?
Time, winter is when my husband, Mr. Farmer, has more free time – but it is my peak time. Decision making of which lambs stay and which get sold. By far the hardest is losing one, we do everything in our power to keep them healthy or to nurse them back to health when there has been a setback – and I pray, I pray a lot when things aren’t going the right direction.
What do you envision for the future of your operation?
Well, I’m going to be a Grandma this spring – very exciting! Time will tell if we have any changes in our program with our new addition.
We are working on plans for a new barn and garage. We have a small lambing barn and it is all pitched out by hand, which is very labor intense. We would like to be able to move small groups of ewes and lambs out into a space that is equally as good as what we have with less physical labor required.
We would like to grow our customer base for Donkers Dorsets and Big Woods Babydolls on the breeding side and potentially start marketing halves of lamb on the meat side.
