Sheep Industry News May 2024

at Southeast Missouri State University. “That’s raw wool go ing to every state, Canada, Scotland, Ireland and the United Kingdom. And our yield is 6.8 pounds per ewe, so we do okay on the wool. But that’s the only profitable way to sell wool.” The farm’s Rambouillet sheep came from South Dakota and North Dakota, except for the naturally colored ones that are out of Wyoming. Cormos also call the farm home and produce a combed top that is generally a best seller. “Spinners love the stuff,” said Ed, who sends his raw wool to Mountain Meadow Wool in Wyoming and Zeilinger Wool in Michigan for processing. Some of that gets sold as yarn and top, while some of it is turned into hats and socks that are sold in the on-farm Mason Jar Store. “We sell some lamb to restaurants, but for the most part we want to sell direct because we’ve got to capture all of the value from what we raise on the farm. We’re not big enough to make it on scale. We actually figure that between lamb sales, registered stock sales and wool sales, we average $298 in profit per ewe. And we can run five ewes per acre in this country. That’s as good as growing soybeans.” A small – but likely to grow – dairy sheep flock produces raw milk and ice cream for the store. Ed is definitely scream ing about his ice cream these days, which sells for $7 per serving. “That’s $128 a gallon,” Ed said. “That’s the most profitable

Terri Crowley skirts a freshly shorn fleece during the Ozark Highlands Sheep & Fiber Festival.

business we’ve got. We’re planning to turn the back half of the store into a creamery. What we’re doing now isn’t really a commercial level production. We really want to ramp it up because of the value that it offers. We could expand the dairy flock to 30 or 40 ewes and we don’t really need a lot of acre age to do that. If we’re turning that milk into ice cream, then it’s really profitable.

The petting zoo at the festival is a popular place for photos.

May 2024 • Sheep Industry News • 21