Sheep Industry News December 2024

Lands Council’s board of directors and also played football at Cedar City’s Southern Utah State College – now known as Southern Utah University. Scott and his wife, Stacy, have four children, all of whom have participated in working the family’s sheep flock through the years. His son, Marty, also runs a shearing crew in the area. “It was pretty exciting when they told me,” Stubbs said of his selection as grand marshall. He was recognized two days before the parade with a dinner in his honor. “I think it’s great that we con tinue to recognize the history of livestock in this area.” Fortunately for festival organizers, the first snowstorm of the sea son hit the weekend before and snow was in the forecast early in the week after the parade, but the 2024 festival fell on a nearly perfect weekend and weather wasn’t an issue. The fesvital parade featured a little of everything, from classic cars to horse-drawn wagons to area sports teams and, of course, lots of sheep wagons – both new and old. Townfolk, tourists and chil dren waved American flags and collected candy and other goodies handed out by those escorting the various parade entries. A second parade followed as everyone from Main Street jumped in their vehicles and headed West to the Cross Hollow Event Center for the remainder of the day’s activities, that ranged from an antique tractor pull to children’s events to a dutch oven cooking contest and a sheep shearing demonstration. Sheep wagons and antique tractors were on display there, as well. Other than the line of traffic to get into the facility’s parking lot, the longest lines of the day were at an old sheep camp that served as the backdrop for a booth selling the festival’s famous lamb burgers. At times, it weaved its way around and through the 100 vendors setup inside the Diamond Z Arena, which also hosted the dutch oven cooking contest, a Make It With Wool fashion show, an art show, and cowboy poetry and music. For those not inclined to wait in the line, Anchor Sheep Compa ny of Fountain Green, Utah, offered a much shorter wait for sliced

lamb sandwiches. Selling at the festival for the first time, Kade and Julia Francom sold out of their supply in less than two hours. “We’re trying to do a little different approach with our market ing,” said Kade. “We want to do more direct marketing, so that’s why we decided to come here this year. We need to get our name out in front of people more. This has been a good learning experi ence. We didn’t set out to make a huge profit today. We just wanted see if there was an opportunity here. We were hoping there would be plenty of people here who would be familiar with lamb and want to eat it.” While Kade grew up with cattle, his wife comes from a multi generational sheep operation in central Utah. Her family – the Bai leys – has been supportive as they look to get their new company off the ground. “I’ve got a soft spot for the sheep industry,” Julia said. “It’s a lot of work, but I want to keep it going.” The festival will celebrate its 20th year on Oct. 25-27, 2025. Learn more about the festival at CedarLivestockFest.com. Above: The parade’s sheep escorts wore shirts reminding onlookers to share the road with the area’s livestock population. Below: Anchor Sheep Company sold out of lamb sandwiches in less than two hours.

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