Raising sheep for 4-Hers and meat adds diversity to North Dakota operation

DES LACS, N.D. — Showing livestock in 4-H led Brandon and Kaitlyn Weidert to produce sheep for the organization’s youth.

The couple annually sell about 30 Suffolk-Hampshire cross lambs at the Top of Dakota sale held during the third Saturday in April. Members of 4-H clubs attend the sale to buy the lambs and other livestock — goats, rabbits and pigs — that they will show during summer showmanship competitions.

The number of lambs shown in 4-H competition in North Dakota has grown in recent years, Brandon said.

“There’s a lot of younger kids coming into 4-H right now, and it seems like the lambs are good for young kids to start a project with,” he said.

The owners of Weidert Farms near Des Lacs market the other 40 lambs they raise to customers who purchase them for meat. Besides the lambs they will sell at the April Top of Dakota sale, during late summer or early fall, the Weiderts plan to market whole or half lambs through their Facebook page.

Kaitlyn and Brandon plan to maintain their flock size at about 70 and increase the quality of their sheep through genetics.

In the summer of 2023, 30 of their ewes were artifcially inseminated with semen they purchased from a sheep farm in Iowa. The Weiderts also research the genetics of the bucks they plan to purchase.

Lambing season at Weidert Farms is from early January to late February. As of Feb. 12, they were three-quarters of the way through the 2024 season. In the barn, newborn lambs were nursing the ewes or warming under heat lamps. Outside, older lambs were scampering around the sheep pen while their mothers ate hay.

The Weiderts started their ranch three years ago with 25 sheep on about 20 acres of land near Des Lacs. They chose to raise sheep instead of cattle because the former are a more manageable size and don’t require as much feed to produce.

Both Weiderts grew up with cattle — Brandon on a dairy and stock cow farm near Adrian, in southwestern Minnesota, and Kaitlyn on a sheep and cattle ranch near Anamoose in northwestern North Dakota — so they were used to handling livestock. The couple knew that raising sheep would be more practical for them, both because they require less feed inputs and for logistical reasons.

Kaitlyn, an agriculture public policy advisor for Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., works full-time in Minot, North Dakota, and Brandon is an outside sales representative for United Quality Co-op, based in New Town, North Dakota, traveling across the northwest part of the state selling agricultural products.

The couple enjoys the oportunity to supplement their agricultural-related day jobs with hands-on work in production agriculture.

“The lambing, we find a lot of joy in, getting those first few on the ground, just kind of getting the process started, then going through the sales and watching the kids go with them throughout the summer,” Brandon said.

Besides requiring less feed and time input than cattle, the Weiderts got into sheep production because they wanted to raise livestock that their children could easily handle.

At age 4, their daughter, Nora, already bottle feeds lambs and helps her parents feed sheep. Her brother, 3-month-old Wallen, sometimes rides in his mother’s front pack when she does chores.

“My favorite part of having the sheep is probably having the opportunity to have our kids be a little bit more involved, especially from a safety aspect,” Kaitlyn said.

The Weiderts still keep a close eye on Nora when she’s with the ewes and their lambs in case one of the moms gets territorial, but, overall, there’s less concern about her being among the ewes than there would be with a cow nearly 10 times the size.

The couple enjoy seeing their young children out among the baby livestock.

“The kids being out there, especially during this lambing season is really fun,” Kaitlyn said.

The Weiderts get satisfaction from raising and selling the lambs to 4-Hers.

“It’s a challenge every year to see what quality lambs we do get and to see how kids can take them, and hopefully learn from them, and be successful with them,” Brandon said. “We’ve had a few that have been repeat customers throughout the years.”

Ann is a journalism veteran with nearly 40 years of reporting and editing experiences on a variety of topics including agriculture and business. Story ideas or questions can be sent to Ann by email at: abailey@agweek.com or phone at: 218-779-8093.