Raising Sheep with the Lister Family
Laura Lister grew up in Emery County, Utah, and had nothing to do with sheep until she met her husband in 2006. He grew up herding and shearing sheep with his family and Laura grew up with strictly horses. Laura chose to study animal science in college with an emphasis in equine science due to her background. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in Animal Science from Southern Utah University.
When the Lister’s moved to Sanpete County Laura worked as a paraprofessional for a while until she started having children. When her boys were both old enough to be in school, she went back to work as a paraprofessional. Within a month she was offered a job as a 3rd Grade teacher. At the time there was a program called Alternate Pathways to Licensure available for teachers to become licensed if they had a bachelor’s degree in any subject. It was baptism by fire those first few years and she taught and took some classes herself to become a fully licensed teacher. She loves her job and is teaching 2nd grade this year.
Laura’s husband ran a 10-man shearing crew for quite a few years and in 2010 the Lister’s decided they wanted to start raising their own sheep. They started small with just 15 ewes, but it has boomed into their own little herd of 200 head now. They run mostly white-faced breeds, but also have some black-faced club lambs for their boys to show in 4-H.
Laura was kind enough to share some thoughts with us about what it entails raising sheep in the current marketplace.
Q: How has marketing your sheep changed over the past 5-10 years?
A: Most of our lambs are sold and shipped right off the ewe, but the last few years we have started finishing some out for our local farmer’s market meat shop.
Q: What factors influence the profitability of the lambs you sell?
A: We try to get the lambs that we sell to the farmer’s market heavier faster. Those lambs are going straight to the butcher whereas our fall weaned lambs we try for even weights so we are selling a consistent group.
Q: What are some obstacles that you see coming in the near future for sheep ranchers or for those that want to get into the sheep business?
A: One of the hardest is, don’t quit the first time you have a bad year. There will be times you will just want to walk away. It’s hard and costs fluctuate. One year you might sell your lambs for $2.00 per pound and the next year you might only get $1.75 per pound. The first couple of years getting into it will be hard. If you can financially make it work keep going. We need people in agriculture!
Q: Where do you run your sheep?
A: We run everything on private land. Just the fields around our place. We are lucky we have the pastures we do.
Q: How do you handle and feed your sheep around lambing?
A: We have creep feeders for the lambs, so the ewes don’t eat all their food. There is chopped hay in the creep feeder. Chopping the hay helps them eat all the hay and not just the leaves. We feed the ewes a little supplemental whole corn or flaked corn while they are nursing their lambs. Creep feeding the lambs helps them get to eating the corn faster. We also have salt licks, minerals, and lick tubs available for them.
Q: How do you involve your entire family?
A: Everything we do is just the 4 of us. Our two boys can lamb and do everything else that is involved in raising sheep. It has opened a lot of doors for them. hey know how to work hard, they raise their own 4-H lambs, and my oldest recently applied for a program through the Targhee Sheep Association to get 5 ewes to start his own flock with. If he is selected there are requirements he will have to fulfill and report back to them about how things are going after he gets started.
Thanks, Laura, for all the great thoughts about families involved in agriculture and raising sheep! We appreciate your time and wish the Lister family the best of luck in their family operation!
Written by: Mariah Gull, M.S.