Schmidt:  Raising sheep offers high ‘quality of life’

SCHMIDT,from pg. 1A

 

lambs and enough milk to nurse them.
In the crowded old barn on the Schmidt farm, space is often 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. 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," said Schmidt.

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

 

 

 

  "The wool program is important to our total revenue picture.  Wool right now
isn't going to make or break us.  But at least we're getting a check again.
Some of my wool I turn into quilt bats.  We sleep on a wool mattress pad.
Anyone who has done that would never go back to a regular mattress.
Wool has life.  It always springs back.  It's cushy. 

  "People need to appreciate the real thing.  Wool is wool.  No synthetic will
ever be like wool," summed up Schmidt.

  Her flock is enrolled in the National Sheep Improvement Program  (NSIP)
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, 23, a Peace Corps worker in Belize, daughter 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," summed up Schmidt.