Dairy Sheep Symposium - the Department of Animal Sciences ...

A VISIT TO EWEPHORIA FARM
Carolyn Craft
EwePhoria Farm
Fall Creek, Wisconsin
A Little History
For the first 40 years of my life, I was a city girl. Although I did see a bit of farm life
through visits to my Grandma’s, I only dreamed of farm life rather than experienced it. After a
last minute decision to join a friend on a visit to a sheep dairy, I came away deciding to buy some
sheep and start my own dairy. Living in the upstairs of an old house isn’t exactly conducive to
sheep raising, so I started looking for a farm and moved 40 days later in 1994. A week after I
moved in, I spent two days with Mary and Rusty Jarvis during lambing time to get a first-hand
look at sheep and getting my first of many lessons on sheep raising. Soon after, I put up fences
and welcomed my first sheep. As I look back now, it is probably a blessing that it happened in a
whirlwind – it kept the panic from setting in.
My Operation
EwePhoria Farm is a 35-acre farm located in Eau Claire County. Since my acreage is small
and my knowledge of tractors is even smaller, I set up my pastures for rotational grazing and
purchase all of my hay. My foundation flock was a group of 15 Polypay sheep that I purchased
from Jarvis’ sheep dairying operation. I chose these sheep since they had been selecting for
milking qualities for a number of years and their sheep were the highest producing flock in
operation at the time. Also, as a newcomer to sheep, I needed the healthiest sheep I could find
since I didn’t have the expertise to handle sickly sheep. The flock I purchased was healthy and
also OPP negative, to me a necessary aspect in a dairy sheep operation.
In 1995, I began to introduce East Friesian genetics into my flock. I brought in three new
rams over the next three years, including a 78% black ram and a purebred white ram imported
from Canada. I also imported a purebred Est A Laine Merino ram, which is used as a terminal
sire, a great wool source, and as ram for my children’s 4-H lambs. The flock is closed, with the
only entries being the rams from OPP tested flocks. My flock has grown from 15 to 50, although
only 30 are milked each season. Milking began on the farm in 1997 and the farm is licensed as a
Grade A dairy.
The Dairy Operation
With a full-time + job off the farm, I designed my operation to be small enough to enable me
to do both. I built a milk room and milking parlor within an existing pole barn. My parlor is a
ramp-type system and has 6 goat-style head gates. The parlor is very small with a ramp that tips
up on one end, offering convenient access to the front of the head gates. The small parlor saves
steps and can be doubled in size, if milking is ever expanded. The windows on both sides of the
parlor offer an easy way to check on what is happening in the barn and great scenery for both the
sheep and me. I use Surge-type buckets for milking. Milking is more labor intensive in a small
system, with the process of milking and clean-up taking about 1 1/2 hours. With such a small
milking group, I’m not quick to kick off uncooperative ewes. So, between the favorites (who get