Ewe & Me

My mom is responsible for getting me into this sheepy mess. She tried to encourage me to discover my interests as I was growing up. She’s say things like, “Maybe you’d like to be a veterinarian?” I loved animals, had practically memorized the Animal Planet, and was much better with four-legged friends than the two-legged kind. But being a vet means being around sick and dying animals. No thanks!

“Maybe you’d like to take art lessons again? And do portraits like your grandma?”

No - that means dealing with people. And not all customers are satisified ones. I mean, my grandmother is the best portrait artist alive today, but even she can’t please all of the people all of the time. But working with people is more than facing crabby complainers. It means actually talking to them. Having to advertise for business. Yuck. Just not my style.

“Maybe you’d like to study interior decorating?” She wasn’t really too far off with that one. I do like to watch the home shows, but I’m more interested in fixing up my own place, not in developing a business and working with customers again.

But one day she suggested raising sheep and spinning their wool. Something about that just struck a chord and I couldn’t ignore it. The more I thought about it, the more it was something I thought I could do. The only thing holding me back was the money. My mom loves to dream up things, but my parents don’t have the resources to do most of them. I mean, I always had a roof over my head, clothes to wear, and they even gave me art lessons, but I always wanted a horse when I was a little girl, and I wanted to learn to play the harp, and neither of those things worked out. So when Mom told me about the FSA Youth Loans, I finally allowed myself to dream.

FSA- Farm Services Agency - is a government office designed to help farmers through C.C.C.D.- commodities, conservation, credit, and disaster. The FSA helps develop economic stability for farmers by helping them to adjust production to meet demand. They may back farm loans when the banks won’t, and they help distribute disaster relief. Another little known branch of the FSA though, is to encourage young people to consider a future in farming. They do this mainly through their FSA Youth Loans program.

This program allocates funds to help children between the ages of 10 and 20 develop an agribusiness, generally on their parents’ land. It is a small loan, a maximum of $5,000, so it doesn’t cover buying land. It may buy livestock, though, or fencing, or equipment, but not generally something consumable like feed.

To qualify, the youth must participate in a farm-related organization such as 4H or FFA. The project must be modest in size, and capable of creating an income so the youth can pay back the loan (which is generally at a very low interest rate). The project must be educational, and provide the youth with practical business and agricultural skills. For more information about this program, check out Rural Youth Loans.

One other girl in my 4H club had already applied for and received an FSA loan. She bought a single stud llama. She and her mom already raised, bred, showed, and sold llamas, but this new male would improve their breeding program significantly. They had lovely llamas, and marketed their lovely soft fiber. (Only sheep fiber is called “wool”. The fiber from other animals is just called fiber or hair.)

I had to write a business plan, but my loan officer was very supportive. He helped me as much as he could. He seemed genuinely proud of my efforts, and asked if he could talk about my program to others. I said okay. As long as I didn’t have to do the talking, I didn’t have a problem.

My business plan was to buy five sheep (one ram, four ewes) and two llamas, some fencing, some equipment, and some medicines. I would breed the sheep, and hope for around six lambs, as twinning is not uncommon in the breed I chose. As luck would have it, I had exactly six lambs. Two sets of twins, and two singles. I started with two white ewes, a black ewe, and a moorit ewe, and a black ram. I had a moorit lamb, some white lambs, a black lamb, and a black and white spotted lamb that looked like a mini holstein cow! They were so precious!

In my plan, I would shear their fleece twice a year, hoping to get at least $10 / pound for it. They produce about 7 pounds of fleece annually (not the lambs) so that wasn’t going to make me rich but it would help. I didn’t plan to sell any lambs the first year, but keep them to grow my flock. The second year I hoped to sell some of them, and the third year to sell all of them. At $400 a sheep, that could really add up quick!

But it is hard to find a market for a rare-breed sheep. And the common breeds sell for so much less, that first-time buyers hesitate to spend that much. I would have to do a lot more advertising to create a market if I wanted to be successful. This is something I’m still working on. But it was in the business plan, anyway.

Then once a year my loan officer visits the farm, talks with me about how things are going, and what do I want to do differently. He’s encouraged me to get more training, which I need to do. Anyone who takes a loan from the FSA agrees to get some education. They can’t really force you to do that, but if you don’t, you may be turned down for future loans. However, attending a pasture walk, subscribing to trade magazines, going to organic conventions - these all count towards your educational requirements. It doesn’t mean you have to take full-time classes at a university. I have done all three - the pasture walk, the magazines, and the MOSES (Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service) convention.

I had a neighbor girl also apply for an FSA loan to buy sheep, and then my little sister got an FSA loan to buy some calves to get started in a grass-fed beef project. Our loan officer kind of laughed about it, like we were all neighbors, and all in this little Youth Loans Club of our own!

Well, it was educational. Not always fun, as sheep do get sick and sometimes they die. You have to go out and feed them and water them even when it’s nasty outside. If you can’t find a shearer, then you have to shear them yourself, by hand with scissors because no one is going to spend $500 for shears you only use twice a year on a handful of sheep. And I learned that you shouldn’t let your flock grow faster than your pasture. We had some overcrowding, which contributed to a parasite problem.

But most of all, I learned that I really love sheep. That the worst day I ever had with sheep was still better than a single day at a factory job. I have some new ideas now to make my sheep business profitable - if it works out, I’ll be sharing that with you as well. Until then, I can only try to describe the unimaginable pleasure of standing out in your pasture on a sunny afternoon watching your ewes graze. Or laughing at the silly antics of the rambunctious lambs. Or seeing a newborn lamb struggle to spindly legs just minutes after birth as it tries to nurse for the first time. Raising sheep is truly an incredible experience.