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

MANAGEMENT OF A DAIRY SHEEP OPERATION
Tom and Laurel Kieffer
Dream Valley Farm, LLC
Strum, Wisconsin
Ten years ago, we left a very comfortable lifestyle in Eastern Wisconsin to follow a dream.
We were quite sure we wanted to raise sheep and pursue a lifestyle and some form of farming
that was environmentally and economically sustainable. Mostly we wanted to be self-employed,
provide opportunities for our children to grow up as true contributors to a family business and
have at least one parent at home throughout our children’s growing up. In addition, we considered
the possibilities of raising a variety of wholesome, perhaps organic, food products to sell to
a regionally-based group of consumers. Ag tourism and school-aged educational experiences
also were considered. We decided to settle in West-Central Wisconsin because the geography
and climate were aesthetically pleasing to us, good for pasture-based sheep farming, and because
land prices at the time were low enough to make its profitability a possibility.
We started out with registered Rambouillets, determined to raise a flock producing high quality
wool and decent lambs. And, we did receive recognition from Midwest Wool Growers Cooperative
for a top quality wool crop. That was great until the wool subsidy was discontinued and the wool
market, for all practical purposes, died. In the meantime, talk was beginning to surface at sheep
events about sheep dairying. We wanted to continue with sheep and knew that depending strictly
on wool and market lambs wasn’t going to be financially viable. We also knew that we did not
want to get involved in the show ring breeding stock business and were not ready for the rigors of
direct lamb marketing. Laurel had grown up on a cow dairy farm with not only memories of the
rewards of dairy farming, but also a reasonable handle on the work demands.
While our decision to sheep dairy was certainly based on many intrinsic values, the reality is
that we truly tried to approach the venture as a business. Tom, with a MBA, and Laurel’s passion
for strategic planning laid the foundation for developing an initial farm 5-year plan and subsequent
official business plan. These plans went into detail on investment versus returns, attempted to
predict profit margins and long-term profitability. The business plan has been revised every 4-5
years, and we take a 2-day farm planning retreat at least every other year.
In reality, our journey has had plenty of obstacles, delays, and frustrations. Profits have been
smaller and slower in coming than we had anticipated. However, there was and continues to be,
an excitement in being part of starting a new agricultural industry that has the potential to provide
a means for the renewal of the small family farm.
We began milking on August 16, 1997. That rainy evening, we started with 172 ewes that
had never been in a parlor before: Rambouillets, Columbias, Dorsets, and some East Fresian
crossbreds on loan from Canada. With a crew of 10 people, we began milking at 4:00 p.m. and
finished at midnight. Throughout the first two weeks, it took two people about 8 hours to milk
the sheep. That first year we regularly questioned our own sanity and our motives. This year, we
milked 190 ewes, all East Fresian crossbreds, and it takes about 1 to 1.5 hours, including set up
and clean-up per milking.