Published: November 21, 2006 04:56 pm            

'I love sheep'

Marshall-area producer Lila Schmidt has a passion for Minnesota's sheep industry

Although not considered a major livestock enterprise in Minnesota, enthusiasm for the sheep industry has been slowly growing for many years. Case in point: Marshall-area producer Lila Schmidt.

“I’m passionate about the industry; I love sheep,” declared this lady with more than 25 years in the sheep business.

After 10 years at Schwan’s Foods in Marshall, she left her professional office job and today manages a Polypay flock of about 125 ewes on a 12-acre country residence about six miles west of town. Polypay is a four-way cross — Targhee, Finn, Dorset and Rambouillet breeds — developed in the 1970s by the University of Idaho.

“It’s what we call a maternal breed. Poly means ‘many,’ like many lambs, and pay is just what it says; more lambs mean more pay,” said Schmidt, who serves on the advisory council of the Pipestone Lamb and Wool Program, a project jointly funded by the National Sheep Industry Development Board and the Minnesota Department of Education.

“It is a breed that will lamb three times in two years. We had a January lamb crop. Right now I have September lambs and if I gave these ewes the opportunity, they would lamb again in April.”

Besides their ability to lamb more frequently, they also are a prolific breed — lambing percentages of 250 to 300 percent being common for Schmidt. She occasionally even weans quads from her meticulously managed ewe herd. Weaning percentages depend on many things, but a 200-percent weaning figure is also fairly common with the Polypay ewes. An old rule of thumb was that you needed twins — one lamb to pay for the cost of the ewe, the other lamb was then all profit.

Another reason for her Polypay preference is because they are a medium-size sheep, thus requiring less feed, less bunk space, even less barn space, yet still routinely produce two decent-size lambs and enough milk to nurse them. In the crowded old barn on the Schmidt farm, space is often at a premium, so size does indeed make a difference.

Schmidt gives genetics a different twist for the production phase of her sheep-rearing operation. She explained that when crossed with a terminal sire, which typically is a Hampshire or Suffolk ram, she gets a larger, more growthy lamb crop that will consume more feed. Net result is the mother ewe can go out on pasture and doesn’t need a lot of high maintenance.

Even with the increased prolificacy, Schmidt often gets up to 10 years longevity from her Polypay ewes compared with a more typical useful life of six years from most ewes.

Her jump into the sheep business is somewhat unique. Both she and her husband worked at Schwan’s. “We wanted to farm,” she said.

“Neither of us lived near our home place but we found this 12-acre farmstead. I envisioned being at home on the farm raising a family. That didn’t work out so instead we bought this acreage. It was full of weeds. A neighbor suggested we get some sheep so we bought 50 bred ewes. That was it; I fell in love with the notion of raising my children, and raising sheep to help provide for our family.”

She rents 40 acres of nearby pasture grass from two neighbors but all other feed inputs are purchased. She’s marketing about 150 lambs each year, including ram lambs for breeding. Her breeding ram lambs sell for $600. “I don’t sell a $200 ram. That’s simply not in my program,” Schmidt said.

Slaughter lambs go to Iowa Lamb, a Hawarden, Iowa, facility that specializes in sheep processing. She also retains 40 to 50 ewe lambs for replacement stock.

Her flock is enrolled in the National Sheep Improvement Program which establishes an electronic record-keeping service for tracking lambing percentages, weaning weights, weaning percentages, pounds of lamb weaning per ewe and other data which helps guide her ewe culling and replacement program.

September lambing ewes utilize the barn until their lambs are weaned. At that time the other ewes in late gestation take over the barn until their January lambing. “So with limited space you can work more total sheep through your facilities.”

“I give the Pipestone program all the credit for helping us get started and for educating me so that we now run a really good small flock ewe operation,” she said. “This program has been tremendous for sheep production here in southwest Minnesota. Both number of sheep producers and total number of sheep raised in this area are going up.”

Husband, Dale, continues his work at Schwan’s. Their family includes: Jason, 25, doing conservation work with the Arizona Youth Corps; Scott, 24, a Peace Corps worker in Belize; Bobbi, 18; and Kirby, 15.

“Though I thoroughly enjoyed my professional work, being able to raise both my family and my sheep out here in our 12-acre farm has given me a quality of life I really appreciate,” Schmidt said.

For more information on the Pipestone Lamb and Wool Program, call (507) 825-6806 or visit their website at www.pipestonesheep.com.

        

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