The Montana and Wyoming Woolgrowers held their respective state ram sales this week, showcasing some of the best sheep genetics available in the west.
Montana Ram and Ewe Sale
In Miles City, the Montana Ram and Ewe Sales were held at the Eastern Montana Fairgrounds. The offering included over 400 commercial ewes, and 257 rams from consignors across Montana. Buyers hauled sheep home to Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, Oregon, Arizona, and across Montana.
In the 99th Annual Montana Ram Sale, a total of 260 bucks were offered and sold, for an overall average of $1,525/hd. The Ram Sale grossed $396,600.
The blackface breeds averaged $924/hd on 39 head. Dawe Suffolks of Big Timber topped the blackface portion of the sale, selling a Suffolk buck for $2,700 to Mike Hoggan of Valier, MT.
Rambouillet bucks sold with an overall average of $1233/hd on 48 head. Helle Rambouillet of Dillon had the top lot, a pen of 2, purchased for $2,100 each by Peter Wirtzfeld.
Three South African Meat Merino Cross bucks were offered by Montana Ag. Experiment Station of Bozeman, high seller for $600.
The Targhee sale average was $1765 on 170 head. The high selling ram overall, was a Targhee consigned by Sam Ortmann of Wolf Point, MT. The buck sold for $7500 to Turner Sheep Co. of Wyoming. Two Targhee lots sold for $7,000/hd.
The evening prior, a total of 478 ewes were sold, for an overall average of $410/hd. The ewe sale grossed $169,155.
John and Betty Sampsel of Hughes Newford Co, of Stanford, MT donated a yearling Targhee Ewe to kick off the Ewe Sale. The proceeds from the donation were collected to support legislative efforts.
The Roeder family of Montana Sheep Company topped the sale with a consignment of 10 head of Targhee ewes, selling for $700/hd to Chip Dye of Alzeda, MT. The volume buyer was Bill Schaefer of Hoven, SD.
Whitefaced ewes sold on site averaged $351/hd. Blackfaced ewes sold on site averaged $650/hd. Whiteface yearling ewe average on 473 head: $351/hd. Blackface ewe lamb average on 5 head: $650/hd.
The Montana Wool Growers Association extended a big thank you to all buyers and bidders of both sales, as well as Lewistown Livestock Inc for clerking and sale management, Sam Fraser of Frontier Productions, LLC for the online sale hosting, and auctioneers, Kyle Shobe and Cole Morrison. They invite everyone to attend next year’s sale which will be the 100th Montana Ram and Ewe Sale.
Wyoming Ram Sale
Also, the week in Douglas, the Wyoming Woolgrowers held their 96th annual Wyoming State Ram Sale. A total of 311 bucks were offered with 252 selling for an overall average of $999/hd and a total gross of $251,625.
Rambouillet bucks sold with an overall average of $1,060/hd on 92 head. Targhee rams averaged $1,037 with 53 head selling. 20 Suffolk/Hampshire yearlings averaged $805 and 30 Suffolk Hampshire lambs averaged $1,035. 29 straight Suffolk rams averaged $1,017.
Borcher Sheep company and the Von Krosigk Family donated a ewe and a brand to raise money for the WWGA. The brand brought $1,000 and the ewe $850. JD Atkinson donated two guard dogs pups to the auction to raise money to aid Wyoming ranchers affected by the recent fires.
Sheep Sales Offer Education in Addition to Sheep
Buyers and sellers at both ram sales got more than just the opportunity to buy sheep. Both sales offered educational programs, which are becoming the norm at these annual gatherings of the industry.
The Montana Ram and Ewe Sale kicked off with a program focusing on Opportunities and Challenges for U.S. Grown and Sewn Wool and Natural Fiber Clothing. The consensus among the three entrepreneurs on the panel was that despite the challenges, there are real opportunities in creating value-added products from wool.
Organized by Montana State University Extension Sheep and Wool Specialist Brent Roeder – who has also created an added value product through his family’s Montana Wool Company – the panel included Evan Helle of Montana-based Duckworth, Ben Hostetler of Wyoming’s Mountain Meadow Wool Mill and Wade Kopren of Fishhook Sock Company in South Dakota. The panel addressed everything from the process of deciding to start their own businesses to the significant difficulties of manufacturing an American-made product to marketing and building a customer base.
“If you’re thinking about value-added, I can’t stress enough knowing your market,” said Hostetler. “I see it underestimated so often how much that last 10 percent – the last leg of the journey to get to the consumer – and I think that’s probably the hardest leg of the journey. Getting it to the consumer is often underestimated in terms of how much it takes to get it to that final consumer. We’re a small batch manufacturer, but we’ll spend 90 percent of our margin on a Facebook or Google ad on some of our products. That last leg of the journey can be very daunting.”
As a sheep producer whose family later developed a value-added product with the Duckworth clothing line, Helle went back to the sheep flock in his final words of advice.
“The biggest value add you can do on your ranch to your wool is getting good genetics,” he said. “I can’t stress this enough. When people talk about not getting a good price for their wool, you look at that 80 percent of Australian, that’s because American wool varies so much. There’s so many different breeds, so many different types of sheep and so many different types of wool. You’re not going to go out and use the same 80-year-old tractor to plow your field as you would today. You have a brand new tractor because it’s efficient and it does a good job. It’s the same with genetics. If you’re growing wool that is really coarse, there’s no (commercial) market for it.”
The variety of wool in the United States makes it difficult to create large, uniform lots to process, while consistency of the wool clip helps the industry in Australia. And as Kopren has learned, processing small lots of wool is significantly more expensive per pound.
At the Wyoming Ram Sale, Dr. Whit Stewart presented a session on Monday entitled Effective Genetic Improvement: Assessing Current Levels, Setting Goals and Selecting for Success. Stewart urged producers to invest time, energy and money in recordkeeping that would allow them to make information-based decisions within their flocks. While there are a variety of metrics producers can use to judge the health and success of their flocks, they are all “tools that are reliant on good recordkeeping.”
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MWGA/WWGA/ASI
