Say the word lamb, and most people think of a small, cuddly animal with a thick white coat.
But in Missouri, it’s hair sheep, which resemble beef cattle, that are the most popular breed. Missouri ranks number 13 in the United States for number of sheep raised.
But Dr. David Brown wants that number to be a lot higher.
Dr. Brown was hired last spring as the University of Missouri Extension’s small ruminant specialist, with responsibility for putting Missouri lamb on the map. Last week, he brought together farmers from all over the state who raise sheep, as well as farmers who are considering raising sheep, for a “Lamb for Leap Year” workshop.
“I worked hard to organize this workshop for February, which is National Lamb Lover’s month,” Dr. Brown said. “I pushed to have it on Feb. 29.”
The workshop was held in the fellowship hall of First Baptist Church in Osceola. Dr. Brown works out of the St. Clair County Missouri Extension office on the Osceola square. The workshop drew more than three dozen farmers, many of them couples, including Danielle and Derek McLerran of Osceola.
“We’re trying to get into it,” Danielle said of raising sheep. “This is a great net-working opportunity.”
Danielle had just been invited by Ted and Sue Thoreson to visit their ranch near El Dorado. Talking together, they discovered that Danielle’s grandfather, Clarence Hillsman, owned a ranch near the Thoresons, and one of their sons and her Uncle Monty went to school together.
Ted and Sue said they raise 1,000 hair sheep and goats on their ranch, and are also a horse hospice for elderly equines. They rotate the three types of livestock through 16 pastures, with goats batting clean-up.
“Come on over and we’ll show you around,” Ted told the McLerrans.
The first hour of the workshop was hands-on, so the first order of business was washing hands. Then everybody went outside to the patio area to watch Kyle Whittaker of MU Extension demonstrate how to cut a whole lamb carcass into steaks, chops and roasts. A long-time ag educator, Kyle used a meat knife, plus a handsaw and a bandsaw to cut through the bones, identifying the cuts of meat as he separated each section.
Donning aprons and cutting gloves, participants got a chance to try their hand at cutting up a second lamb. The meat was then ground up for lamb burgers for dinner, with some saved for making kebabs.
Ed and Diane Persike, of Persike Farms raised and donated one of the lambs. The Persikes used to raise wool sheep and goats in Carl Junction, they said, but now have a retirement farm in Sheldon, Mo., near Nevada, where they have 100 hair sheep and 60 goats.
The sheep are grass-fed, so their lamb meat is suitable for vegans, Ed joked.
Chef Lou Rice grilled the thick burgers and lamb kebabs with help from Daniel Oawster, owner of Salvatore’s Italian restaurant in Ozark. Based in Springfield, Chef Rice is the corporate chef for Performance Foodservice, and oversees four states, traveling to give cooking demonstrations for restauranteurs. He is also president of the Springfield/Branson chapter of the American Culinary Federation.
While dinner was being prepared, the farmers helped Linda Coffey, a livestock specialist from NCAT, a sustainable agriculture center in Fayetteville, Ark., list the pros and cons of raising sheep. Linda, who has a sheep farm, asked the farmers to list reasons to raise sheep, reasons not to raise sheep, and how to insure a prolific, productive herd.
“They’re wonderful,” Linda said, “but you have to know what you’re getting into.”
Linda said that when her family first got sheep, she felt safer than working with cattle and pigs. Sheep are also easier to transport, easier for people to buy as a whole animal, and take up less room in the freezer.
“Sheep eat things my cows won’t,” one farmer volunteered.
“You don’t have to spray for weeds,” another added.
In addition to lower feed costs, sheep require a lower initial investment than cattle and have a shorter gestation period (five months as opposed to nine). Katahdins, which were developed in the 1950s by a Maine breeder, are a cross between Suffolk and St. Croix, producing a sheep that has good meat conformation, does not need to be sheared, is resistant to parasites and has a high fertility rate, the ewes almost always producing twins.
“There’s a quicker turn-around, which is important to the producer,” Linda said.
On the negative side, sheep are smaller and more vulnerable to predators, including coyotes and packs of stray dogs.
“You need a guard dog, and a plan to protect them,” Linda said.
Parasite prevention is also key, and starts with healthy land, followed by good pasture management. Field capacity, having the right number of sheep to the acreage, is important, as is providing adequate nutrition, including minerals, and monitoring the body condition of your animals.
The key to making a profit, Linda said, is to keep costs low by keeping your herd healthy. Culling poor breeders is a necessity, one sheep farmer said. Sheep farmers also have to time the cycle of lambing season to when people want lamb to eat. Lamb, which are sheep younger than a year, brings higher prices in the first three or four months of the year, through Easter, and the last two months of the year.
“Another month and we’ll be into lambing season,” Diane Persike said. “It will be spring. Last year we did it in winter.”
The workshop also focused on overcoming the biggest drawback to making a profit raising lamb, the public’s perception of the product. People had preconceived ideas about what lamb tastes like, Dr. Brown said, and even farmers who raise sheep haven’t tried it.
Dr. Brown, who grew up on a sheep and goat farm, addressed the health benefits of eating lamb. Lamb is a good source of lean protein, he said, so is beneficial for people on Paleo, Keto and low cholesterol diets. If pork is billed as “the other white meat,” lamb could be marketed as “the better red meat.”
And American lamb is better than imported, being fresh, not frozen. American lamb does not contain hormones, Dr. Brown said, and supports a strong immune system. Imported lamb has to be frozen and shipped 10,000 miles from Australia.
The smell of lamb burgers and kebabs grilling had everybody ready to try lamb. After dinner, Dr. Brown asked for a show of hands who enjoyed it. All the hands went up, with the burgers and the kebabs receiving rave reviews.
Eating a perfectly-cooked lamb burger is similar to eating a hamburger, but without that slight fatty taste that beef has. Fat increases as the animal ages, Kyle explained, showing how little fat is on a lamb. Fat on meat makes it slower to digest, a concern for people who have difficulty eating meat at the evening meal.
Chef Rice served the burgers with lettuce, tomatoes, red onion and three types of sauce, then talked about how to cook lamb.
Like any good cut of meat, he said, it can be ruined if you cook it incorrectly — for too long or on low heat. Tender cuts should be cooked quickly on high heat, he said, while tougher cuts should be cooked longer. Meat from muscles used for walking are tougher than meat from other parts of the body.
“I’ve learned more about lamb than I ever knew before,” Chef Rice said after watching Kyle explain what cuts come from what part of the lamb.
Lamb lends itself to a long list of cuisines, Chef Rice said, including Mediterranean, Greek, Indian and Asian. Several sheep farmers said ethnic communities who traditionally eat lamb have been a good market for Missouri lamb. Rice said he’s always asked why mint jelly is traditionally served with lamb, and said the reasons are both historical and scientific.
In England in medieval times, he said, sheep were mainly raised for wool, the major export, so the queen ruled that lamb must be eaten with a bitter green to discourage people from depleting the flocks.
“They chose mint,” he said.
Lamb also has a fatty acid that is similar to mint ketones, so the two complement each other, he said. Chef Rice, who said he doesn’t like mint jelly, served the burgers with chimichurri, a South American green sauce made with chopped parsley, oregano and garlic, plus curry sauce and flavored mayonnaise.
Diane Persike noted that mint jelly is hard to find anymore.
“I like lamb with Smucker’s cherry jam,”she said. “It’s also good with rosemary. I want to try a leg of lamb on the rotisserie, and boneless ribs in the oven.”
Chef Rice encouraged participants to contact local restaurants and request they serve lamb. Educating the American diner about cuts other than leg of lamb or rack of lamb is crucial to developing the American market, he said, as is introducing lamb into the diet of the younger generation.
Jennifer Lutes, a MU Extension agricultural specialist, gave the 2024 market outlook for lamb meat. Prices aren’t as high as they were several years ago, she said, when herd numbers in Australia were down due to environmental issues, but are not hurting. Lamb producers in Missouri need to watch price and herd level data from Australia and New Zealand, Lutes said, as they are the biggest exporters of lamb.
“Missouri prices are also reflected in the San Angelo, Texas, lamb market,” she said.
The number of farms with small herds of sheep decreased in Missouri, according to the 2022 farm census, she said, but farms with between 100 to 300 head are on the rise. St. Clair County ranks in the top ten counties in Missouri for sheep production, with more sheep farms mainly found farther south in the state.
Peggy Painter, from Verona, Mo., southwest of Springfield, said she raises East Friesian dairy sheep as well as Katahdins. Sheep’s milk has more solids than cow’s milk, so produces more cheese per gallon.
Lesa King, owner of Southwest Livestock Sales in Lockwood, Mo., came from her farm in Crane. Ray Evans farms in the northeast corner of Vernon County, which has a large number of sheep farms. Also attending were Cory and Chessa Cline of Osceola, who announced they were buying lamb for their freezer.
The owner of Coyote Creek Ranch, south of Stover, Mo., said he direct-markets his grass-fed lamb under a private label on the coyotecreekranch.org website.
One farmer’s facetious question brought laughter from the other farmers: How many sheep will I need to get a new truck? Another person’s answer to what you need to raise sheep, along with fencing: a good psychiatrist.
Raising sheep may not pay for a new truck, but multi-species grazing is more productive than single species, and adding a sheep for every head of cattle can increase income by 25%. But it depends on variables, Linda said, including the cost of hay and the weather. With good management, however, sheep can produce more pounds of meat per square foot of land than cattle.
At the end of the workshop, the McLerrans were asked if they still were planning on raising sheep.
Danielle answered yes. Derrek agreed, but indicated he had taken Linda’s caveat seriously about knowing what you are getting into.
“I’ve got a lot of things to learn about first,” he said.
Dr. Brown is a valuable resource about all things sheep and goats, having completed a doctoral degree in South Africa and post-doctoral research in the United States. He posts monthly webinars on the University of Missouri Extension/St. Clair County’s Facebook, featuring guest experts from around the country. The last one was on how to choose a good guard dog.
Sponsors of the MU Extension Lamb for Leap Year workshop included the American Lamb Board, the Missouri Sheep Merchandising Council and NCAT, National Center for Appropriate Technology. Ed Persike Farms and Bob Salmon Farms were also sponsors, along with the Osceola FFA, Osceola Chamber of Commerce and American Culinary Federation’s Springfield/ Branson Chefs Association.
