We began raising sheep in 1992 when our children became involved in 4-H. It didn't take long for us to become hooked. Our children have all since grown and moved away but our flock has continued to grow from the initial four ewes to about 100 ewes. Our sheep have also greatly increased in quality due to an aggressive breeding program focusing on developing the best quality carcass with the largest loineye. We were proud to be awarded the 2004 Wisconsin Sheep Breeder's Cooperative Master Shepherd in the commercial division in recognition of our work on improving carcass quality.
The quality improvement in our flock is based on the ewe lambs which are always available at scanning time. We started scanning in 1999 with an average loineye of 2.77 in2 @ 135 lbs. In 2005 the average loineye was 3.50 in2 @ 135 lbs. We continue to see many over 4.00 in2 @ 135 lbs. We do believe that 4.00 in2 average is obtainable.