2000-2001 SHEEP MANAGEMENT ETN SERIES The University of Wisconsin-Madison Cooperative Extension and the Department of Animal Sciences

March 1st, 2001 7:30-8:50 p.m.
Sustainable Sheep Production Systems

Gene Schriefer--Sheep Producer, Dodgeville, WI

Biographical Information: Gene Schriefer is an east coast transplant to Wisconsin. After earning his B.S. and M.S. in Agriculture and Adult Education from Purdue University in Indiana, he moved north to Wisconsin. Gene spent 7+ years as a 4-H and Youth Development Extension Agent in Rusk and Columbia Counties.

He started his commercial flock with 40 Finn/Rambouillet ewes in 1989 and continued to build the flock while working full-time. He benefited greatly from having a commercial shepherd as a mentor early on. He left 4-H in 1992 and continued to work part-time while increasing the flock size. He and his wife Ruth rent 260 acres in beautiful Southwest Wisconsin and currently expect to lamb over 300 ewes in April and May. They are still increasing their flock.

A.I. has been used for over seven years to introduce outside genetics while maintaining a largely closed flock. They have been using Texel rams for the past 6 years and are in the third year of a trial of Texel/Finn cross ewes. This past fall they imported Charollais rams from Canada to evaluate their impact as a terminal sire and in a ewe crossbreeding program.

Gene believes in the viability and future of lamb production in the upper Midwest. He welcomes contact or questions from serious shepherds interested in sheep or grazing and enjoys assisting and sharing ideas with other commercial producers. He can be reached at sheepfrm@mhtc.net.

Gene Schriefer
418 Doty St., Mineral Point, WI 53565
Phone: 608-987-4337
Farm: 2409 County Y, Dodgeville, WI 53533
Farm phone: 608-935-2313
Email: sheepfrm@mhtc.net

Stan Potratz-- Premier 1 Supplies and Sheep Producer, Washington, IA

Biographical Information: Stan Potratz was born and raised on a small southeast Iowa farm along with 7 siblings - all female. He attended Iowa State University for one year and Ambassador University for four years. The last two were at Ambassador's British campus. Upon graduation in l969, he remained at the British campus to develop, along with an Australian graduate of the same campus, the University's Agriculture Department and farm. He returned to the family farm in Iowa in l977 with no money, a wife, a child, and a preference for trying to survive by operating a commercial ewe flock.

Premier Sheep Supplies was founded in 1979 as a by-product of efforts to source fence and equipment needs for his own sheep farm. Premier, as an agribusiness, now employs over 25 people. Primary customers are the sheep producers of the USA and Canada.

Ewe numbers on Premier's Iowa farm over the past 20 years have been as high as 700, as low as 25, and now stand at 300. The flock is closed to the extent that rams only are added to the flock - usually every 2nd year. Current genetic base of the flock is Border Leicester x Suffolk - which we do not consider to be ideal for our needs.

Stan Potratz
Premier
2031 300th St
Washington, IA 52353
Phone: 800-282-6631 or 319-653-7622
Fax: 319-6563-6304
Email: spotratz@premier1supplies.com

Link to Gene Schriefer's Presentation or Text Alternative- Word 2000 or PDF;
Download handout from Stan Potratz -Word 2000or PDF