Shadow Oaks Ranch
Shadow Oaks Ranch
Market Lambs Breeding Program About Shadow Oaks Success Stories
15 years ago my nieces and nephews started showing lambs in 4-H. As a good uncle, I wanted to help, but did not know anything about sheep. I was the woodworking and photography project leader at the time. We still had our dairy farm then and my dad did not like sheep (still does not very much).
Showing seemed to be in my blood, but farming was stronger. So for the next three years, I did what I could. We did finally move to a house with a small pasture. At the start, I bought two suffolk ewes from lady down the road. Looking back now, those ewes were not half bad producers. My nephew started his breeding project about the same time he was showing hampshires, so we started crossing the suffolks and hamps.
I was bit by the sheep bug hard and for the next several years would go buy sheep everywhere that was advertised in the paper. I looked at every breed from inbred Cheviots to a Navajo Churro cross (I bought that one). I bought alot of bad sheep and it showed for a few years. I still was not sure what I was looking for and learned a lot of hard lessons.
We moved again, to four acres of pasture, I bought more sheep (all bad ones). When I got tired of placing last at the county fairs, I started to listen and ask questions. Then I did it again...took my brother's advice and bought Texels. Let's face it, they are a meat machine, but still we were last in the fairs. The Gold Rush Sale came to town and I went over and looked at some sheep from Beaver Creek Club Lambs out of Oklahoma. One of the lines they were showing was McCune. I told my mom that I would get out of the sheep or get serious about developing the flock. Well, I am still here. I bought some great producing lambs. I was amazed at how much just a good ram can influence the flock. Of course, I had to learn this on my own, the hard way.
Now we are putting some good sheep on the ground and most importantly, in the shows. We have several Grand Champions and class winners. Since I got serious, every year is a new year and a chance to be in the winners circle again. I do have a picture of me about six years old holding a lamb. I can remember my Grandmother telling me that my great-great grandpa was a commercial man with thousands of sheep. Maybe raising sheep is in my blood stronger than I realize.
