The Right Sheep for the 21st Century By Abram Bowerman

SPICKARD, Missouri

When I first got into sheep as a boy I had wool sheep like everyone else.

They had plenty of problems to  go along with them. It didn’t take me long to decide if I was to stay in the sheep business I would have  to change my mind about what a  sheep looked like. As well, how many  inputs she was allowed to receive, both time and material. 

That decision led to hair sheep, but once again they weren’t completely satisfactory. They tended to  milk themselves down and lambs would go backwards at weaning age whether weaned naturally or forcibly.  

In time I came across the late Gearld Fry’s work in linear measurements. We decided to adapt them  to sheep. I was shocked to find that  even in very good condition these sheep couldn’t make the heart-girth/ topline ratio. That is until I began to measure some overlooked ewes that were a little smaller and a lot  shorter. They and their offspring made the measurements easily and consistently, kept right on growing  at weaning age, rams could breed at  seven months without losing condition, ewes didn’t milk down, etc.  

Why didn’t I notice all that sooner? It’s really simple. We Americans like things big - too big. Besides, I  already thought my average ewes  were small enough and that those  ewes were simply runts of questionable background. 

Turns out when I brought a scale into play that they were actually weaning a higher percent of their body weight than the bigger ewes.  

As an aside, I expect a ewe to wean upwards of 100% of her body weight. That doesn’t mean bigger weaning weights, it means smaller,  more efficient ewes. It means early  maturing lambs capable of finishing  at a light weight. Note when I mention finished I don’t mean mature. These lambs will go on growing  if allowed to but naturally carry  enough fat at 60 lbs to meet market  demand for slaughter. 

About this time I picked up a definite trend in the lamb market - 60-65  lb lambs would fetch as much or  more than an 80-100 lb lamb - but  they must be thick, bunchy, and have a good finished appearance. 

These lambs from my gourmet ewes (as I began to call them) would top the market every time. The same  lambs if kept for reproduction were everything you could wish for in a low input, grass-based business.There simply is no trade off. These  sheep are what we need in the 21st  century to fill ethnic markets and to  do so in the cheapest, most practical  way - grassfed.  

In the meantime I enjoyed easy  sales of my larger frame sheep to  conventional producers. They will listen to everything I say about low input production and meeting market demand of lambs well finished at light weight. They agree with me and then they still choose the bigger, late maturing sheep. 

Folks, you don’t need a 150-170lb ewe to do the job. You simply end up throwing away a lot of grass. The 120 pounds is plenty big enough.  She should be thick, deep, short legged and yet refined, and have  lots of gut capacity. All that equals  maternal to the core. 

Breed is not important - consistency of type is. No need of a terminal sire to stop the market. Ironically  unlike the cattle industry, it all comes in the same package. 

I’ve also found the bigger ewes to be much harder keepers. I realize they’re still a lot smaller than the  wooled breeds of yesteryear, but if  you can take that first step to hair sheep, go a little further and produce  what the market actually wants. It’s more profitable on both ends. ■ 

Abram Bowerman raises sheep  in Spickard, Missouri. He can be  contacted at 543 NE 90th Street,  Spickard, MO 64679.