Sheep Industry News November 2023

utilized mostly for his teaching and extension programs, but we haven’t had a sheep production class since he retired,” Taylor said. “We still need the sheep here to service our extension mis sion. The research project kind of got us back on solid ground.” But the sheep unit has had to change and adapt in the last six to seven years. There was talk of dispersing three of the unit’s four breeds, but in the end only the Rambouillets were com pletely eliminated. Polypays are the dominant breed on the unit and the ones involved in the current research. “We’ve always sold a lot of genetics through the National Sheep Improvement Program,” Taylor said. “We built the Polypay flock to be very prominent and our Hampshire flock has always sold pretty well. The Targhees are consistently com petitive at the national show and sale, even though we’ve never had a lot of them. Our biggest source of income is the produc tion sale we have every fall. “If we had sold those Hamps and Targhees, I knew we’d never get them back, so I drug my feet a bit when they talked about getting rid of them. I felt like we needed a few different breeds to suit our research possibilities. I also thought it was important that we have at least one fine wool breed.” One argument against drastically cutting numbers at the sheep unit was the dispersal didn’t necessarily cut expenses. The Arlington Agricultural Research Station consists of more than 2,000 acres with beef and dairy units, but also grows most of its own feed – which is mixed at its own feed mill. Approxi mately 45 acres are devoted to sheep pasture and two large barns provide plenty of room for lambing and dividing sheep into small pens for research. As long as the unit hosts sheep,

expenses don’t vary much whether there are 10 or 300 head on the property. The sheep unit has also proven to be a critical cog in the Wisconsin sheep industry. While Taylor’s appointment includes only 8 percent extension funding, he spends a fair amount of his time working as a resource to the state’s sheep producers. At the annual Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival in September – put on by the Wisconsin Sheep Breeders’ Cooperative – he pro vided bred ewes for a lambing area and brought in sheep for the shearing demonstration and judging competitions. “My current department chair was a dairy extension special ist, so he has an appreciation for extension work,” Taylor said. “He’s very supportive of my involvement in that.” Other programs Taylor oversees include lambing and shear ing schools, as well as the Arlington Sheep Day, which serves as WSBC’s annual meeting. Managing a university sheep unit is the only job Taylor has ever known. He grew up on the University of Wyoming’s sheep unit, where his dad managed the operation. “Dad was the one who drew the paycheck, but we all worked the barn,” said Taylor, whose dad ran the unit from 1975 to 2004. “That’s basically the way I brought up my family here in Wisconsin. I raised four kids and the youngest one is 20 now. They’re all still involved in livestock in some way. We still have 75 to 80 ewes of our own in addition to what we manage here at the sheep unit.” And thanks to the current research, Taylor’s day job has been secured for the immediate future. That’s good news for sheep producers throughout the state.

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