It all started when we purchased our acreage – weeds and all.  Taking someone’s

advice “sheep will eat anything” we purchased 50-bred ewes.  They cleaned up the

place and we were hooked.  We both were employed at Schwan’s, that's where we

met.  Based on our value of family - Lila quit her job to be ‘Mom” and farmer.

Sheep seemed like a reasonable animal to work with.  Through some research we

learned that Reed Hulet developed the Polypay based on a dream of a more prolific,

better milking and mothering breed of sheep.  Sounds good – Polypay it is!  Enrolling

in the Pipestone Lamb and Wool Management Program provides us with a wealth of

knowledge and support in managing our flock.  Acquired office and computer skills

were applied to the sheep.  With weaning weights and ewe history we knew where our

flock was at and what to look for from other flocks to improve our performance.

At an American Polypay Sheep Association Annual Membership meeting someone

mentioned NSIP and an opportunity to enroll our flock, which seemed like the next step

to tracking our production and in 1992 we enrolled in NSIP.  We discovered that NSIP

really validated our farm records and pretty much told us what we knew.  However, the

advantage of NSIP data over barn records is the large database that tracks not only the

dam and sire but also includes all the performance information from any and all sheep

linked to them by blood.  We make decisions based on NSIP along with barn data that

point out ewes that will breed in the first heat, carry condition and lamb out of season.