Brad Boner, ASI President
By the time most of you read this, we will be in the throws of the ram sale season here in the Mountain West. September and early October find ram sales in Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota and Utah.
I am excited to see more and more rams with estimated breeding values generated by the National Sheep Improvement Program being offered at these ram sales. In my opinion, this is an important step in improving our genetics here in the United States. I hear California and Idaho state sales, as well as the NSIP Center of the Nation Sale in Spencer, lowa, all experienced strong prices for rams this summer.
The ASI Executive Board had its summer budget meeting in Deadwood, S.D., in late July. The priority for this summer meeting is for the Executive Board to discuss, amend if necessary, and approve the Fiscal Year 2025 Wool Trust Budget that was presented to us by the Wool Council. I would like to thank all the members of the Wool Council, Co-Chair Kate Harlan and the ASI staff for the work they put into this budget.
In addition, the Fiscal Year 2025 Fund II budget proposed to the Executive Board by ASI staff was discussed and approved. Those two budgets for 2025 have been emailed to the full ASI Board of Directors for approval. It was also approved to keep the annual ASI dues for our state members, which are the same as they have been for some time now at 3.5 cents per stock sheep and $8 per member.
On July 8-10, three Executive Board members attended the Solar Farm Summit in Chicago. I would like to thank the American Lamb Board for allowing ASI to share booth space at the Summit. According to a report from those who attended, a robust discussion surrounding agrivoltaics ensued. It was decided that I should name a working group to see what opportunities exist for ASI with the agrivoltaics industry. Members of the working group are Joe Pozzi, Lynn Fahrmeier, Ryan Indart, Larry Hopkins and myself. We will work to have a recommendation on how ASI should best proceed by convention time in January.
I am excited to report that Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has appointed ASI’s Erica Sanko to serve as a member of the Agriculture Trade Advisory Committee for meat and meat products. She will serve on the livestock committee that is one of seven such advisory committees to U. S. Trade Representative Ambassador Kathrine Tia. This is a slot that ASI has funded at industry expense since the early 1990s, beginning with Jim Butler, the former director of the National Wool Growers Association. This will benefit the American sheep industry by having a seat at the table, so we are better able to inform the government of our issues surrounding international trade.
I remind all that a referendum will be held in early November in Denver to determine the fate of the second largest lamb processing plant in America. The time to join the effort is this month with your financial support. Learn more at StoptheBanProtectJobs.com.
Until next time, keep it on the sunny side.
From January through July, the weekly national lamb cutout value – net carcass FOB – ranged from a low of $463 per cwt. to a high of $480 per cwt. with an average of about $470 per cwt. since the start of the year. This average is about $25 per cwt. higher than during the same period last year.
Strength in the lamb cutout value comes from stronger prices in the shoulder, leg and loin, which have been tracking above year-ago levels since the start of the year. In the last few weeks, prices for the rack have started to trend above year-ago levels. Strength in individual primal values is price-supportive for lamb prices.
Slaughter lamb prices – national negotiated live – have been following typical seasonal patterns for the last several weeks with prices ranging from $194 to $208 per cwt. Given the strength in the lamb cutout value, it would be expected that the slaughter lamb prices should follow a similar pattern to last year. During the second quarter of 2023, slaughter lamb prices were in the mid-$190 per cwt. range.
Feeder lamb prices – three-market average, Colorado, South Dakota and Texas – seasonally dip during the third quarter but are expected to rebound in the fourth quarter. Recent prices have been around $215 to $240 per cwt. and tracking above year-ago levels. Prices during the third and fourth quarters are expected to be above year-ago levels.
SUPPLIES TRACKING ABOVE YEAR AGO
Year-to-date through mid-July, cumulative weekly sheep and lamb slaughter was just more than 1.1 million head. This was 5 percent – or about 55,000 head – above the same period last year. Through the same period, weekly lamb and yearling slaughter was just under 1 million head for an increase of nearly 4 percent from the previous year.
Mature sheep slaughter was 12 percent above the same period to just more than 71,000 head through mid-July. Year-to-date, mature sheep slaughter accounts for about 6.3 percent of total weekly sheep and lamb slaughter. This is compared to
5.9 percent during the same period in 2023.
While weekly sheep and lamb slaughter have been tracking at a higher pace through mid-July, weekly dressed weights are below where they were a year ago. Year-to-date, weekly dressed weights are – on average – just above 62.4 pounds, which is almost 3 percent – or 1.7 pounds – below last year. Despite the lower dressed weights, lamb and mutton production through mid-July was nearly 3 percent higher than the same period in 2023.
MID-YEAR TRADE UPDATE
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service recently released June trade data, including an update on lamb imports. Year-to-date through the first six months of 2024, lamb imports were 153.6 million pounds for an increase of
38 percent from the same period in 2023. Through the first six months of the year, lamb imports from Australia were 110.1 million pounds, 39 percent higher than a year ago. Lamb imports from New Zealand totaled 41.3 million pounds from January through June, up 38 percent from the same period last year.
Through the first six months of the year, 72 percent of total lamb imports have come from Australia, 27 percent from New Zealand, and the remaining 1 percent have come largely from Chile.
Mutton imports are down 2 percent through the first six months of the year to 29 million pounds compared to the same period in 2023. The decline in mutton imports is due partly to a 12-percent decrease in year-to-date imports from Australia, which were 22.8 million pounds. Mutton imports from New Zealand were up 77 percent through the first six months to 6 million pounds. From January through June, Australia accounted for 79 percent of total mutton imports, New Zealand accounted for 21 percent and Ireland captured a fractional amount (0.4 percent).
WOOL MARKET
As the Australian wool market approached its annual three-week, mid-year recess, reports showed that buyers were more willing to secure supplies ahead of the break. In July, the weekly number of bales offered ranged from 27,519 to 34,241 with a weekly average of 31,217 for the month, which was about 1 percent above the weekly average for June (30,880).
During July, weekly prices for the 17 to 22-micron wools were generally lower by about 1 percent to 5 percent when compared to June. Prices in July for 25 to 29-micron wools were mixed but generally showed a weaker tone with prices posting average declines from June of about 1 percent to 3 percent.
Average weekly prices for Merino Cardings were down about 4 percent in July compared to June. The weaker tone in prices is partly due to the exchange rate. In July, the average weekly exchange rate between the Australian dollar and U.S. dollar remained unchanged at $0.67 for every Australian dollar.
Hannah Teddleton became the second straight West Virginia University graduate to receive the Sheep Heritage Foundation Scholarship when she was selected by a review committee.
The $3,000 scholarship is administered by ASI, and an extremely competitive field of more than 20 applicants made for a difficult selection process this year.
Teddleton follows in the footsteps of former WVU lab partner Kelsey Bentley, who won the scholarship a year ago and was recently appointed as an assistant professor for sustainable small ruminant production at Kansas State University.
“She was one of the first people I called when I found out,” said Teddleton, who started her journey in higher education studying sheep nutrition and immunity at Chico State University in her home state of California. “We worked pretty closely together in West Virginia.”
Teddleton has moved on, as well. After completing her master’s degree at WVU, she’s now pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Tennessee – a school that isn’t exactly known for sheep research.
“Tennessee offers me the chance to really build a sheep program at the university and to bring a focus on the sheep industry to the school,” said Teddleton, who will work under the guidance of Elizabeth Shepherd, Ph.D., as she pursues her doctoral degree.
Teddleton’s research – both past and present – is focused on sheep immune systems while specifically looking at the differences between the parasite-resistant St. Croix and parasite-susceptible Suffolk breeds.
“Gastrointestinal nematode Haemonchus contortus is a silent yet deadly killer of ruminants, causing significant economic loss. Anthelmintic overuse has led to resistance against all known drug classes. With no new chemotherapeutics, alternative methods of controlling H contortus are essential,” Teddleton wrote in her application for the scholarship. “Sheep generally respond to H contortus infection with a T helper type-2 (Th2) immune response, and the timing of that response is critical to worm expulsion. Parasite-resistant St. Croix sheep produce an early Th2 response in the abomasum during the first seven days of infection preventing larval establishment, while parasite-susceptible Suffolk sheep have delayed responses, contributing to increased worm burdens and subsequent losses.
“My research aims to understand early immune signaling, which is influenced by non-immune cells in the abomasum, and thus elucidate mechanisms of parasite resistance. Specialized epithelial tuft cells have been proposed to ‘sense’ parasites, which may account for differences between responses in resistant and susceptible animals. However, this cell type has not been fully characterized in an ovine model, nor have these pathways been defined in parasite-resistant sheep. By investigating resistance mechanisms involved in early immunological recognition, we will be able to identify genetic markers and pathways leading to overall improved animal health. While a ‘marker’ in what drives immunity is largely unknown, identification of the epithelial microenvironment of parasite resistant sheep may allow us to develop tools for better management through genetics, and advance treatments for susceptible animals by modulating the immune system.”
Teddleton expects to complete her Ph.D. in the spring of 2027.
“Hannah is a natural in the lab and working with sheep. Within the first few months of her arrival, she was awarded a grant from the National Center for Veterinary Parasitology that supported her work in identifying breed differences in neutrophil migration to parasitic antigen,” wrote WVU’s Scott Bowdridge, Ph.D., in a letter of recommendation for Teddleton. “To conduct this work, Hannah had to build and validate an assay from scratch. Not only did she do that, but was able to identify specific components of cells that are being blocked by the parasite in Suffolk sheep. This information is a piece that was lacking and may contribute to the development of potential novel therapeutics to better manage parasitism in sheep.
“Hannah has presented her work at three scientific meetings and was awarded a travel grant to attend and present data at the American Association of Veterinary Parasitologists meeting. Hannah also has hopes of returning to academia after a postdoctoral fellowship and I’m hopeful we can keep her discovering immune responses in sheep. In summary, I feel that Hannah is a great candidate for this award and fully support her application.”
In order to be declared free of scrapie, the United States must have seven years without a single case. As of July 31, the country is more than halfway through this required period – a goal the industry set more than 80 years ago.
The last case of scrapie found in the United States was in 2021, which means the country could be declared free of scrapie in 2028. This will be a major accomplishment for the American sheep industry, which has fought to get to this point along with state and federal animal health officials.
Scrapie was first identified in the United States in 1947 in Michigan in a sheep imported from Canada. At that time, the entire affected flock and all associated flocks were depopulated. No additional positives were found and for five years no additional cases were identified. Then in 1952 in California, two associated flocks were found with 21 scrapie positive sheep. The industry was shocked to learn the disease had been quietly spreading throughout the country.
At the urgence of the California Wool Growers Association, the California Department of Agriculture, the National Wool Growers Association and the U.S. Livestock Sanitary Association (now the U.S. Animal Health Association), the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a state of emergency, and Title 9, part 78, Scrapie in Sheep, was created. Quarantine regulations and restrictions on the interstate transportation of sheep because of scrapie were issued, but despite the emergency order, progress in controlling the disease was not made, and scrapie became part of the permanent USDA animal disease control program.
The control actions at the time consisted of lab confirmation of clinical scrapie, the quarantine and slaughter of all animals in an infected flock, tracing, and the slaughter of all exposed animals and progeny. Although in place for nearly 30 years, this program did not control the disease as hoped.
By the 1980s, the industry had become frustrated with the lack of progress and wanted to move away from total depopulation of flocks. It also wanted more research into scrapie. Subsequently, changes were made to the program to allow an infected flock to be monitored (quarantined) for three and a half years without total depopulation. If no other cases were found, the quarantine would be lifted but new cases meant the quarantine started over.
Research began in earnest to look at whether the disease was transmissible or genetic. It turned out to be a transmissible disease with a genetic component as some breeds were found to be genetically more susceptible than others. Still unknown, however, was the cause of the disease and its natural modes of transmission.
It was known that once an animal was infected, clinical signs did not present until much later in the animal’s life. There was not a reliable live animal or pre-clinical diagnostic test, and post-mortem diagnostic testing was unreliable. Control efforts were hindered by the limited ability to trace an animal back to an infected flock. An inability to identify the source flock meant the disease continued to spread despite the restrictive control program. Producers weary of the fight became reluctant to report clinical suspects, which aided the spread of disease.
The industry wanted change. Using industry input, USDA made changes to the program, adding the requirement that sheep from scrapie infected and scrapie source flocks be individually identified. Producers were granted a one-time payment for infected and source flocks. Also added was a voluntary scrapie flock certification program that gave producers whose flocks did not have scrapie the ability to sell sheep to producers who wanted to ensure they were not bringing scrapie into their flocks.
The sheep industry came to a crossroads in 1998 – continue the program as is or try to eradicate the disease for good. The industry decided that an all-out effort to eradicate scrapie must be made. So, ASI and its producer members – along with state animal health officials – entered into a negotiated rulemaking process with USDA to refine the scrapie regulations with the goal of accelerating the eradication of scrapie from the United States. It was a tense and difficult process, culminating in a new final rule in 2001 that required – among other things – the individual identification of sheep upon change of ownership.
USDA also initiated the Scrapie Ovine Slaughter Surveillance Study so that progress could be tracked. The first study was conducted in 2002-2003 and showed that nearly 1 in 379 sheep sampled at slaughter tested positive for scrapie. When the nation’s last scrapie case was found that ratio was one positive sheep in 50,000 tested, reflecting the value of the 2001 program changes.
The acceleration toward eradication that the sheep industry wanted has worked and has brought the United States to within three and a half years of being declared scrapie-free. This success reflects the dedication of American sheep producers to improving the health of the national flock.
A key – and often overlooked – contributing factor to this significant reduction in scrapie positive sheep is the dedicated effort of sheep producers – namely seedstock producers – who worked diligently to improve scrapie resistance in susceptible breeds. By 2022, more than
70 percent of sheep genotyped were found to be resistant to scrapie.
Today, the American sheep industry is coming to another crossroad – continue this fight or end the effort now. A reflection back to 1952, when the disease was thought to be eradicated because no cases were seen and then scrapie was discovered to be raging throughout the country five years later, might give direction. It is because of this long period between infection and clinical signs that the waiting period is seven years. Three more years without a scrapie case would verify the success of the program.
ASI’s Young and Emerging Entrepreneurs group has received a grant in the amount of $89,580 from the National Sheep Industry Improvement Center to develop a beginning producer education program.
The program will incorporate online education, producer workshops and an online forum, according to Cody Chambliss and Kelly Froehlich, Ph.D., of the Young and Emerging Entrepreneurs Steering Committee.
“Cody and I started a conversation at the (ASI Annual) Convention about developing a program,” said Froehlich, who implemented a similar concept in her previous role with South Dakota State University. “We’re already developing the online curriculum, which will be open to everyone.”
“It will be very basic and mostly for beginners in the sheep industry. We don’t want it to be overwhelming,” Chambliss added. “We’re seeing a huge uptake in the number of people interested in sheep, and we want to do what we can to help them. We’ve both seen people who get into this industry, and they don’t know how to invest their resources.”
The online education module will closely follow the teachings of ASI’s Sheep Production Handbook, but in a simpler form that offers new producers a less daunting introduction to the American sheep industry.
In-person workshops will focus on the six-state region of Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin. A fall lambing school in South Dakota is already in the works.
The group plans to implement the online education module and forum through ASI’s SheepUSA.org website.
Chambliss hopes to have made enough progress on the educational course and other plans to share a sneak peak of the program at the 2025 ASI Annual Convention in Scottsdale, Ariz.
The group has already purchased a dystocia simulator that will be used at in-person clinics to educate participants on the proper ways and techniques to pull lambs to reduce mortality during parturition.
“The big message from what we’re doing is that we have a passion for helping and educating people who would like to get into the sheep industry,” said Chambliss. “And we’re thankful to the National Sheep Industry Improvement Center for believing in us enough to provide this grant.”
It’s a story as old as 4-H. Kids interested in showing animals find their way to cute sheep. Parents set aside a spot for two or three, only to end up with an entire flock. A hobby turns into a job, and everyone lives happily ever after. Larry Hopkins and his family have lived that fairytale.
Elected earlier this year to represent Region III – Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin – on the ASI Executive Board, Larry grew up on a dairy farm before discovering a love of politics in the 1970s. The sheep came along when daughters Emma and Anna wanted to show animals in 4-H in the late 1990s, and they never left the family’s Little Eagle Creek Valley Farm.
Along the way, Larry’s agricultural background and his study of political science in college made him the perfect candidate to fill leadership roles in the industry. He’s since served in a variety of positions with the Indiana Sheep Association – where Emma is now executive director – the North American Shetland Sheepbreeders Association and ASI.
“One of my mentors in the sheep industry is Bob Benson – who has been heavily involved with the state sheep association and ASI through the years – and he was always talking about ASI,” said Larry, who was appointed co-chair of ASI’s Legislative Action Council. “That’s probably one of the best ways I can serve the association. I don’t come from an extensive sheep background like a lot of the other members of the Executive Board. But I’ve got this one skillset that I believe can be valuable in this role.”
While his professional career included stints as a town manager, running political campaigns and working in the state attorney general’s office, Larry isn’t focused solely on legislative concerns for the industry.
“I want to see the industry deal with the challenges of imports, so we can increase our share of the domestic lamb market,” he said. “I’m very interested in solar grazing here in the Midwest. I think solar is going to be a disruptive force that will benefit our industry. When I was still president of the Indiana Sheep Association, I was approached by two developers of solar projects who were not knowledgeable about sheep. So, I started learning about it. We put on a forum in Indiana last year to educate our producers, and it was well attended.”
As a breeder of fine-wool Shetlands, wool prices are also top of mind for the Indiana producer. However, he’s less affected by worldwide demand as most of his flock’s wool sells on his farm’s online Etsy story (Punk Hazard Wool).
“Shetlands have a wide variety of fleeces, and some are double coated,” he said. “The fineness ranges with some in the low 20s (microns) and ranging all the way up to the mid-30s. We’ve really tried to emphasize wool quality with our flock and offer fleeces in the low 20s with a variety of colors that cater to the handspinning market.”
A year or so into retirement, Larry and his wife, Angie, run the sheep operation with Emma, while Anna has relocated to Florida.
“We’re breeding 30 to 35 ewes a year and getting 50 to 60 lambs,” Larry said. “Originally, we sold the fleeces at the shows. Since my daughters got started in this, we’ve shown sheep in 17 states. At one point, our operation grew rapidly, but sheep was something we could do on the side for a lot of years. Somewhere along the way, we were selling enough sheep and fleeces that it made sense to expand.”
After more than two decades of raising sheep, the family counts those they’ve met in the industry among their closest friends.
“Emma first met Samantha – who is now executive director of the Michigan Sheep Producers Association – when they were both just kids showing sheep. And now they’re running their state sheep associations.”
On the ASI Executive Board, Hopkins follows in the footsteps of Anne Crider of Illinois, who served two terms on the board and was co-chair of the ASI Wool Council. Finding sheep producers who have the time and are willing to serve in such a demanding leadership position can be difficult, but Larry is ready to meet that challenge head on.
“I didn’t have any reservations about serving on the Executive Board,” Larry said. “There are always some unknowns when you sign up for something like this. It’s interesting to see how things play out, but the people I’m working with are all great and sincere about wanting to improve the sheep industry.”
The ASI Executive Board met on July 30 in Deadwood, S.D., for its annual summer meeting. The focus of the meeting each year is to set a budget for the coming fiscal year that will then need approval from the full board of directors. ASI’s new fiscal year begins on Oct. 1.
Executive Board members traveled to South Dakota the day before meeting all day to set the budget and discuss a variety of industry topics ranging from requests for Guard Dog funding to the upcoming Farm Bill to targeted grazing and plans for the 2026 ASI Annual Convention in Reno, Nev.
During the meeting, the Executive Board set both the Wool Trust and Fund II budgets for the upcoming fiscal year while also approving dues rates at the current level: 3.5 cents per stock sheep and $8 per member for state associations. Associate member and minimum dues rates for state dues were set at $400 and individual memberships were set at 3.5 cents per stock sheep or $50, whichever is greater.
The board approved a $15,000 contribution from the Guard Dog Fund to the Western Legal Resources Center for ongoing legal cases surrounding grazing of public lands.
At the request of ASI President Brad Boner of Wyoming, the board approved the appointment of a working group on agrivoltaics/solar grazing to identify partner and coalition opportunities for the American sheep industry.
In addition to the meeting, the Executive Board held a well-attended reception that evening with members of Center of the Nation Wool and the South Dakota Sheep Growers Association. The gathering concluded with a tour the day after the meeting as the Executive Board visited the Geis Ranch and Innes Ranch in eastern Wyoming.
While many of the lamb processing plants in the United States slaughter lambs using the halal process, sheep producers might not be familiar with just what that means or how it is performed. Kathryn Piper of Five Pillars Butchery in Maine led an ASI-sponsored webinar last month to provide some education on the topic.
The Ins and Outs of Halal Slaughter covered a variety of Muslim teachings on the slaughter of animals – whether it be for consumption or religious sacrifice. Halal itself simply means permissible. It includes sets of prescribed rules based in Islamic ethics which Muslims must follow. Most notable among them are dietary guidelines pertaining to food consumption and the way in which an animal is slaughtered – like the term Kosher in Judaism. Halal can also pertain to business practices, which include business transparency and ethical investments.
Halal slaughter involves showing respect and kindness to the animal and recognizing the life being taken while also being grateful to the creator.
Piper looked to dispel some preconceived notions that both Muslims and non-Muslims alike might have about halal requirements.
“Many of you may have experienced pushback about tagging, and so I want to clear some of that up tonight,” she said. “Or hopefully, I can give you some additional information that you can move forward with. There’s a lot of confusion and misunderstanding about tagging animals for the halal market.”
A lot of the misunderstanding comes from this verse in the Quran: “I will certainly mislead them and delude them with empty hopes. Also, I will order them and they will slit the ears of cattle and alter Allah’s creation. And whoever takes Satan as a guardian instead of Allah has certainly suffered a tremendous loss,” – 4:119.
Piper described it as a conversation between Satan and Allah, with a reference to pre-Islamic traditions. Pagans at the time used to cut the ears of their cattle in dedication to the gods they worshipped.
“And so, there might be some Muslims who don’t understand the background and the history of that verse,” Piper said. “So, they take it to the extent that any type of marking on the animal is not permissible.” Piper added that isn’t the case, offering a religious ruling published in the Khaleej Times as evidence of such.
“Piercing or marking the ears of cattle for statistical purposes does not render an animal unfit for sacrifice, provided cut is no more than half the size of the ear. In fact, a Hadith (Prophetic tradition) confirmed the permissibility of marking the cattle for identification purposes. The Prophet (peace be upon him) himself used to brand his cattle to identify them for purpose of Zakat.”
She went on to add that there is a difference between those animals intended for holiday sacrifices and those slaughtered for everyday consumption.
“If you’re trying to sell animals for the holiday market, most Muslims would not buy an animal that had their tail docked or were castrated or had their horns cauterized when they were born. But tagging is permissible,” she said.
In addition, stunning methods are not preferred in halal slaughter.
“Although some countries have made no stun slaughter illegal, forcing the halal meat industry to perform stunning methods prior to slaughter, no stun slaughter is still the preferred method and is allowed under religious exemption in the United States,” Piper said.
Halal slaughter facilities also play a crucial role in the United States’ efforts to become certified scrapie free.
“Our regulatory scrapie slaughter surveillance – which is so essential for surveillance for USDA to get the samples we need to show that we don’t have scrapie anymore in the U.S. – relies heavily on halal plants because they are big consumers of adult animals,” said Linda Detwiler of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. “We need adult sheep and goats for the slaughter surveillance program.”
The webinar was made possible through cooperative agreement funding from USDA/APHIS, and is now archived at SheepUSA.org/growourflock-resources-educationalwebinars.
That page offers archived versions of 45 webinars that provide a library of educational presentations on a variety of topics ranging from animal health to research projects to marketing American lamb.
Travis Ellis is learning how to be a leader in the American sheep industry. But instead of studying such skills in a classroom, he’s partaking in a crash course of on-the-job training as president of the St. Croix Hair Sheep International Association and as a member of the board of the Missouri Sheep Producers.
With just five years of experience as a seedstock producer, the 36-year-old Missouri native has been a recipient – some might say victim – of the industry’s need for a new generation to step into leadership roles. He’s also served on boards at the county level with Farm Bureau and the University of Missouri Extension, and he’s president of the local FFA Booster Club – where he got his first experience with sheep as a high school student.
“I wish I would have done more public speaking with FFA back then,” said Travis. “I kick myself for that. But you never know where you’re going to end up when you’re in high school. Being a leader has taught me a lot. I can have an opinion and be vocal about it, but I don’t have to overshadow other peoples’ opinions. I don’t have to look down on anyone just because we don’t agree on an issue.
“That’s one of the things I like about the St. Croix Hair Sheep International Association. There’s a lot of variety in the way we all raise our sheep, but there’s no judgement. And now I have friends all over the country that I can call when I have a question.”
Travis had a few sheep in high school, but he was running cows on his place with wife, Melissa, just north of Maysville, Mo., before his son, Tyce, was born in January 2018.
“We sold the few cows we had before he was born because we wanted livestock around for him, but we wanted something he could get involved with as soon as possible,” Travis said. “At that point, the three or four cows we had were more a pain in the butt than anything. Originally, we looked at Suffolks, because I had wool sheep in high school. Then I learned about hair sheep and found the St. Croix. Their maternal instincts and parasite resistance really drew me to them. In 2019, we got started with a handful, and now we’re up to about 130 head, all registered.”
With an off-farm job at a local power cooperative, Travis hoped the sheep would one day become his full-time job. Instead, the additional income from selling breeding stock and lamb meat has allowed Melissa to stay home with their son.
“We bought a few more head to make that happen,” he said. “It was supposed to be a hobby at first, just something we could get Tyce involved with. He really loves lambs. I don’t really have the footprint (30 acres of his own and an additional 100 or so acres through family that live in the area) to get big enough to replace my income. And its tough to find more land around here because everyone is converting pasture to row crops.”
APPEAL OF ST. CROIX
Living in a fairly humid climate an hour northeast of Kansas City, Travis is thankful for his flock’s parasite resistance and good feet. For instance, he’s dewormed just two ewes in the past five years. They grow a little slower than Dorpers and Katahdins, but that’s less of a priority as most of his sheep are sold for breeding stock. He doesn’t have to pack on the pounds as quickly as the average commercial producer.
“My waitlists are full and I sell all the ewes that I want to sell every year,” he said. “They’re just such easy sheep. They are browsers. We have a lot of timber around here that I can run them through. It doesn’t seem to matter what I put in front of them, they’ll eat it. I’ve posted videos on Facebook of what it looks like after they’ve gone through the timber and people will contact me and ask me to bring them to their places. So far, I’ve just done that with some neighbors to help them out.”
Travis’ parents own nearly 100 acres of timber that provides a buffet of hickory nuts, oaks and walnuts in the fall each year. And it makes for excellent feed for the St. Croix.
It’s a good thing they are excellent mothers, as the ewes in his flock produce twins and triplets with regularity. He even had his first quadruplets this year.
“These ewes can handle triplets,” Travis said. “They produce a lot of milk. We had 140 babies in 2023 and only had five bottle babies. We don’t mind them because it gives us something to do. Some people will say the bottle babies don’t make good moms, but I haven’t experienced that with this breed. As long as they gain weight and catch up to the rest of the lambs, I’ll keep them around.”
Every seasoned sheep producer knows the road to profitability is paved with strategic decisions. One of the most impactful choices you can make is optimizing your ewes’ nutrition. Doubling down on nutrition doesn’t just support ewe health, it can help drive more lambs per breeding season, lower costs per lamb and create a more robust bottom line. Here are some ways you can use nutrition to help reach ewes’ genetic potential for multiples and help them support those lambs throughout gestation and lactation.
ENHANCE THE POSSIBILITY
Breed selection, sire selection and dam selection play pivotal roles in a ewe’s ability to conceive multiples. However, even with the best genetics, birthing multiples isn’t a guarantee. Supporting ewes with enhanced nutrition in the lead-up to breeding season will help them reach their genetic potential for conceiving multiples.
The aim is to get ewes into a positive energy balance, encouraging the ovulation of more eggs, and thereby increasing the likelihood of multiple births. Begin supplementing ewes’ diets 45 to 60 days before the breeding season and continue this enhanced feeding for two to four weeks into the breeding season.
Increase energy intake by providing high-quality grains or commercial feed supplements in addition to high-quality pasture grass or supplemental forage.
Maintain ewes at a body condition score of 3 to 3.5 on a five-point scale as they approach the breeding season. This optimizes the effects of flushing, potentially increasing ovulation rates and resulting in more twins during lambing season. Be cautious when flushing ewes with a body condition score above 3, as those with a score of 4 or higher will not benefit.
Ewes that are provided a balanced diet throughout the year will be better prepared for breeding season and will make flushing more cost-efficient as they don’t have to play catchup. Support ewes year-round with:
• Essential nutrients: Provide a balanced diet rich in fats, proteins and key trace minerals such as selenium, zinc and copper.
• Vitamins: Ensure ewes receive adequate vitamins – particularly vitamin E – which play crucial roles in reproductive health. A weather-resistant vitamin and mineral supplement is an excellent choice to provide additional energy, minerals and vitamins crucial for reproduction.
ADJUSTING NUTRITIONAL STRATEGY
After breeding, it’s important to keep up with ewes’ nutritional needs to support the health of multiple lambs.
Using ultrasound to identify ewes with multiples and separating them for extra nutritional care can help make the most of your resources without overfeeding ewes with singles.
• Early and mid-gestation: In the first 15 weeks of pregnancy, the ewes’ nutrient requirements only increase slightly. Yet, this stage of gestation still is critical to the pregnancy due to the placental development and attachment that occurs between days 30 and 90.
Ewes in good condition at conception can lose a little weight during mid-gestation, but excessive weight loss can impair placental development, reducing fetal growth and lamb survival. Balanced nutrition early on is crucial, as late pregnancy nutrition cannot make up for poor placental development earlier.
• Late gestation: During the final six weeks of gestation, the ewe’s energy and protein requirements increase dramatically. Roughly 70 percent of the fetal growth occurs during this time.
Inadequate nutrition during this period can lead to lighter lambs at birth, uneven birth weights in twins and triplets, poor wool follicle development and low energy reserves in newborn lambs.
CUSTOMIZING DIETS
Increasing the ewe’s feed allowance after lambing is essential to meet her escalating nutritional needs. Ewes nursing multiple lambs produce 20 to 40 percent more milk than those with a single lamb, requiring more nutrients. To ensure ewes produce enough milk to support optimal growth rates for the lambs, separate ewes with multiples from those with single lambs and provide them with customized diets tailored to their increased nutritional demands. In most cases, supplemental feed will need to be utilized to meet nutritional demands.
As milk production declines after eight to 10 weeks, adjust the diet to match the reduced requirements. Remember to always provide access to high-quality forage; clean, fresh water; and a comprehensive sheep mineral and vitamin mix.
NUTRITION DRIVES PRODUCTION
For commercial producers, improving lamb crop yields can help reduce costs and increase the number of lambs for sale. Ewes’ nutritional needs should be top priority throughout the breeding season till after weaning.
Visit PurinaMills.com/sheep-feed to explore nutrition solutions that can help maximize your flock’s potential and support your journey toward healthier ewes and higher productivity. Michael Schlegel, Ph.D., is a small ruminant technical specialist with Purina Animal Nutrition. Contact him at [email protected].
LES BOIAN, 1948-2024
Lester Owen Boian of Springdale, Wash., passed away on July 5, 2024. He was 76 years old. He was born on May 31, 1948, to Robert “Owen” and Doris Boian.
Les was a steady, positive contributor to the Washington State Sheep Producers, in both short- and long-term planning. While shearing other people’s sheep, he was a great ambassador for WSSP, actively promoting membership in the organization.
He also served on several ASI councils and committees during his time in the industry.
He held the position of president for nearly 15 years of the Spokane (Wash.) Area Sheep Producers. In addition to producing their newsletter, he was instrumental in the group’s educational field day, where producers attend workshops and learn about current topics in sheep production.
As a young man, Les attended the University of Idaho. During this time, he became a herdsman at the Caldwell Sheep Experiment Station, where the head herdsman taught him to shear. He went on to shear sheep for more than 50 years, from Idaho to Spokane and the Seattle area.
He sometimes worked with a crew of two or three, shearing bands of 2,000 to 3,000 sheep. When things were going well, he was known to shear more than 100 sheep per day.
For many years, he farmed in Idaho with his dad and brother, where they had more than 1,000 sheep, as well as cattle. Later, he went to work for the Idaho Department of Agriculture as a milk plant specialist for 17 years.
For the last 20-plus years, he has been a milk specialist and then branch director for the Food and Drug Administration, responsible for Washington and 10 other states.
He was loved and cherished by many people including: his parents, Robert “Owen” Boian and Doris Boian; his wife Margie Lierman; his children, Marne Feucht (Jeremy) and Kelly Boian (Laurelle); and his grandchildren, Kyle, Arielle, Tyler, Asher, Ryan and Kaitlyn.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made in Les’ memory to the University of Idaho Department of Agricultural and Extension Education.
CHARLES PARKER, 1935-2024
Charles F. Parker, 89, of Columbus, Ohio, died suddenly of heart complications at Riverside Hospital on July 19, 2024.
He was born Feb. 25, 1935, at Winterset, Ohio. He married Carol Ackerman on Sept. 3, 1955. They are the parents of three sons, Jeffrey (deceased), Stephen (Beth) of Galena, Ohio, and Darryl (Gena) of Rochester, Minn. He was a loving grandfather to four grandchildren, three great grandchildren, nieces and nephews. His sister, Carol Bateman, of Pleasant Hill, Calif., and brother-in-law, David Ackerman (Susan) of Maineville, Ohio, complete the family circle.
He played basketball and baseball in high school and had fond memories of playing on the Ohio State University freshman baseball team. He was an enthusiastic fisherman and avid Ohio State football fan.
Charles was proud of the family farm and of being a farm boy. He graduated high school in 1953 and enrolled at OSU, where he lived his first year in the scholarship dormitory then located in Ohio stadium.
He earned a degree majoring in population genetics, followed by graduate degrees at both Ohio State University and Texas A&M University.
He began his career as an animal science instructor at Ohio State. Other positions included director of the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station in Dubois, Idaho, and chairman of animal science at OSU.
He worked for ASI in the 1990s as director of producer services and director of production, education and research. He was also the recipient of ASI’s Camptender Award at the 2013 ASI Annual Convention in San Antonio.
He was an early proponent of the work of Michael Piel in the development of the Katahdin breed of sheep. In fact, an organizational meeting of what would become Katahdin Hair Sheep International was held at USSES at his invitation.
Charles was invited to speak to numerous agriculture groups, both nationally and internationally. He considered his trip to Mongolia as his most unique professional experience.
He enjoyed humor, especially with his grandchildren. He was a kind and friendly family man.