November 29, 2001

Long History of Innovation for 2001 Master Sheep Producer

This year’s North Dakota Master Sheep Producer has built a life-long respect for sheep.

"If you treat them well, they’ll do all right for you,"says Stuart Gessner. He should know. There have been sheep on his farm near Penn for nearly 60 years. "My father bought this farm in 1943 and brought sheep with him," Gessner says. "I more or less grew up with them."

However, that tradition of sheep raising does not translate to tradition-bound management practices. "Although Stuart has been in the sheep business for quite awhile, he’s very innovative," notes Roger Haugen, North Dakota State University extension sheep specialist and member of the Master Sheep Producer award committee. "He’s done an excellent job of designing things on his farm that work to save labor."

Gessner will receive the Master Sheep Producer's Award from the North Dakota Lamb and Wool Association at the group's annual sheep convention in Mandan Dec. 1.

Gessner currently raises between 225 and 250 ewes and their lambs in renovated turkey barns. "We raised turkeys until 1989, but there just wasn’t money in them any more," he says. "So we got rid of the turkeys and increased our the size of our sheep flock." Allergies to turkey feathers also played a role in the switch.

The buildings work well for sheep, Gessner says. The ventilation and heating systems keep the sheep comfortable and healthy. Feed bins are used for sheep rations and conveyor systems are used to save steps at chore time.

Most of Gessner’s sheep are Dorsets. He says customers prefer the breed’s thicker loins and bigger legs. He raises his own replacement ewes and a self-designed computerized record-keeping system provides background for managing the flock and making breeding selections.

Gessner is also a member of the Dakota Lamb Growers Cooperative. "Once that gets up and running, we’ll have even more information on the performance of our sheep. It’ll be nice to be able to punch that up and see who’s who and how they’re doing."

Haugen noted that the selection committee was impressed with Gessner’s attention to detail in his record keeping and other aspects of his sheep enterprise. "Stuart derives most of his farm income from sheep. You don’t get to the level where he’s at without paying some attention to detail."

Gessner produces about 8,000 small square bales of alfalfa hay on the farm each year along with some oats for feed. He purchases corn and soybean meal to mix rations for the sheep depending on their stage of production. "Customers want lambs that have been fed on corn," he explains.

This year he also used a ration high in corn with his ewes at breeding time. He had read about some research suggesting that the corn helped the sheep "flush" more eggs. His lambing percentage was 198 percent this year. "I couldn’t hardly believe that such an easy thing could have such good results," he says. "I plan to try it again this year and that will be the test."

Gessner’s ewes are on pasture or drylot from May to December and confined during lambing. All of the 350 to 400 lambs produced each year are fed to market weight in confinement in the turkey buildings. The size of the buildings allows him to sort the lambs into several pens for easier management.

For a time, Gessner was one of only 17 producers in the country that milked sheep. He shipped the milk from more than 100 sheep to a cheese processor in Hinckley, Minn. At 75 cents to $1 per pound, the milk brought in an additional $100 per ewe. When Gessner’s wife, Linda, took an off-farm job, labor to get the milking done became an issue. Also, other producers began using dairy breeds of sheep. "We hoped for 2 pounds of milk a day, while some of the milking breeds can produce 6 to 8 pounds," he says. "It was like we were milking Angus cows instead of Holsteins."

Although he hasn’t milked sheep for several years, "We did learn a lot about sheep during that process," Gessner says. He still uses mastitis tests on his sheep during lambing to keep the sheep healthy and to maintain milk production for lambs.

"I think as I’ve grown older, I like sheep even more," Gessner says. "They can be irritating, but I don’t have such a quick temper any more. I think you tend to mellow out as you get older. It doesn’t help to get mad at sheep."

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Source: Stuart Gessner, (701)393-4416,
Roger Haugen, (701) 231-7645, rohaugen@ndsuext.nodak.edu
Editor: Tom Jirik, (701) 231-9629, tjirik@ndsuext.nodak.edu