Spooner



Animal Sciences > Facilities > Spooner

Spooner Experiment Station

The University of Wisconsin Spooner Experiment Station consists of 400 acres of sandy soil and is located on the eastern city limits of Spooner in northwestern Wisconsin approximately 260 miles north of Madison. The station was established in 1909 with a donation of 80 acres of land to the University of Wisconsin College of Agriculture by the city of Spooner. Normal precipitation is 28 inches with 19.5 inches of the total falling during the growing season. The last spring freeze averages May 24, and the first fall frost averages September 20.

University of Wisconsin-Madison departments with active research programs at the station include Agronomy, Soil Science, Horticulture, Entomology and Animal Sciences. The research of the Department of Animal Sciences deals entirely with sheep. A flock of approximately 300 ewes, including ewe lamb replacements, currently is maintained on the station. Sheep research and management are carried out by Yves Berger (Assistant Station Superintendent, Associate Researcher) and Richard Schlapper (Experimental Herd Assistant 2). Recent past research has centered on a comparison of sheep performance and cost of production with different once per year lambing systems (lambing in either winter, early spring or late spring), evaluation of laborsaving management practices, e.g. pasture lambing, self-feeding from a trench silo, pasture feeding of big round hay bales during winter, etc., to help reduce costs of sheep production and early weaning of lambs directly to all pasture diets. Station staff also were involved in a project at the Hayward Research Station conducted from 1986 through 1990 to demonstrate the economic feasibility of a family operated beef/sheep farm in northern Wisconsin.

Scientists at Madison with sheep research projects at Spooner are Dave Thomas and Jess Reed.
Current research projects include:
1) Comparison of Finnsheep and Romanov crossbred ewes when lambing in February and March;
2) Comparison of Finnsheep and Romanov crossbred ewes on an accelerated lambing program; and
3) Effect of various levels of tannin in forages on lamb digestion and performance. The University of Wisconsin's contributing project to the NC-11 regional project "Increasing Prolificacy in Sheep and its Impact on Nutritional Needs" is conducted at the Spooner Experiment Station.

Future sheep research planned at the Spooner Experiment Station includes a comparison of Texel and Hampshire rams as sires of market lambs and studies on various aspects of commercial dairy production from ewes. Studies on dairy sheep reproduction would include management and nutrition for increased milk production.

Animal Sciences | UW Home