Sheep Industry News September 2024

Young Missouri Producer Learning on the Job T ravis Ellis is learning how to be a leader in the American sheep industry. But instead of studying such skills in a classroom, he’s partaking in a crash course of on-the-job butt than anything. Originally, we looked at Suffolks, because I had wool sheep in high school. Then I learned about hair sheep and found the St. Croix. Their maternal instincts and parasite resistance really drew me to them. In 2019, we got started with a handful, and now we’re up to about 130 head, all registered.”

training as president of the St. Croix Hair Sheep International Association and as a member of the board of the Missouri Sheep Producers. With just five years of experience as a seedstock producer, the 36-year-old Missouri native has been a recipient – some might say victim – of the industry’s need for a new generation to step into leadership roles. He’s also served on boards at the county level with Farm Bureau and the University of Missouri Exten sion, and he’s president of the local FFA Booster Club – where he got his first experience with sheep as a high school student. “I wish I would have done more public speaking with FFA back then,” said Travis. “I kick myself for that. But you never know where you’re going to end up when you’re in high school. Being a leader has taught me a lot. I can have an opinion and be vocal about it, but I don’t have to overshadow other peoples’ opinions. I don’t have to look down on anyone just because we don’t agree on an issue. “That’s one of the things I like about the St. Croix Hair Sheep International Association. There’s a lot of variety in the way we all raise our sheep, but there’s no judgement. And now I have friends all over the country that I can call when I have a ques tion.” Travis had a few sheep in high school, but he was running cows on his place with wife, Melissa, just north of Maysville, Mo., before his son, Tyce, was born in January 2018. “We sold the few cows we had before he was born because we wanted livestock around for him, but we wanted something he could get involved with as soon as possible,” Travis said. “At that point, the three or four cows we had were more a pain in the

With an off-farm job at a local power cooperative, Travis hoped the sheep would one day become his full-time job. Instead, the additional income from selling breeding stock and lamb meat has allowed Melissa to stay home with their son. “We bought a few more head to make that happen,” he said. “It was supposed to be a hobby at first, just something we could get Tyce involved with. He really loves lambs. I don’t really have the footprint (30 acres of his own and an additional 100 or so acres through family that live in the area) to get big enough to replace my income. And its tough to find more land around here because everyone is converting pasture to row crops.” APPEAL OF ST. CROIX Living in a fairly humid climate an hour northeast of Kansas City, Travis is thankful for his flock’s parasite resistance and good feet. For instance, he’s dewormed just two ewes in the past five years. They grow a little slower than Dorpers and Katah dins, but that’s less of a priority as most of his sheep are sold for breeding stock. He doesn’t have to pack on the pounds as quickly as the average commercial producer. “My waitlists are full and I sell all the ewes that I want to sell every year,” he said. “They’re just such easy sheep. They are browsers. We have a lot of timber around here that I can run them through. It doesn’t seem to matter what I put in front of them, they’ll eat it. I’ve posted videos on Facebook of what it looks like after they’ve gone through the timber and people will contact me and ask me to bring them to their places. So far, I’ve just done that with some neighbors to help them out.” Travis’ parents own nearly 100 acres of timber that provides a buffet of hickory nuts, oaks and walnuts in the fall each year. And it makes for excellent feed for the St. Croix. It’s a good thing they are excellent mothers, as the ewes in his flock produce twins and triplets with regularity. He even had his first quadruplets this year. “These ewes can handle triplets,” Travis said. “They produce a lot of milk. We had 140 babies in 2023 and only had five bottle babies. We don’t mind them because it gives us something to do. Some people will say the bottle babies don’t make good moms, but I haven’t experienced that with this breed. As long as they gain weight and catch up to the rest of the lambs, I’ll keep them around.”

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