meet your neighbors
More Than Dollars and Cents By Sarah Teubner
Grace Archer has turned her love for sheep into a business
Submitted Photo
Raising sheep is a great love of my first sheep. She instilled in me a drive Grace Archer. She started her flock in and a love for raising them. I’m grateful 2019, 30 miles north of Harrison, Ark., for the time that I got to have with her.” and has slowly grown from her first sheep Driven by Jolene’s memory, she plans to to 21. Most of the sheep are on Clay Creexpand her operation in the future, hopager’s, her boyfriend, farm, but she keeps ing to reach 100 head. She currently runs some of her pet sheep on her parents’ the flock on about 30 acres but wants farm. Her parents and Clay care for the to fence in more land for them and any sheep while she is at work or when she is more sheep she acquires in the future. at college at Southwest Baptist University The main issue she faces with expansion in Bolivar, Mo. is the cost of the specialty fencing, which Grace finds her sheep at the sale barn she said is the most expensive part of and through Facebook or Craigslist. raising sheep. Many of these sheep need special treatDespite the challenges, Grace is excited ment or just some tender loving care, to grow her sheep flock. something she is happy to provide. Grace In the flock, Grace keeps both haired said she chose sheep because “they’re easand wool sheep. ier and more inexpensive to work than “I actually love the wool for their dispocattle.” sition and to sell wool but I’m not a great “I enjoy being around them, they have shearer,” Grace explained. “And they sell great personalities, and they’re not danworse at auction because they have to be gerous like the larger animals,” she said. sheared.” Grace’s first ewe was a Dorper named As a result, she primarily sells haired Jolene she got from her vet as a lamb. sheep for the improved profit and keeps “Our vet told me if I could catch one of the wool sheep as her pets and shears the lambs in his field that I could have them herself. Since wool does not sell one,” Grace recalled. “That was easier well in the Ozarks, Grace sells most of said than done. What ensued was an her wool online through Etsy and occahour of me and Dad running around the sionally to locals who want to spin or field like chickens with our heads cut off craft with it. In the past, she has sold trying to catch a lamb.” whole fleeces, but that is rare. One year, Jolene quickly adapted to the Archer she said the wool was worth nothing, and family on the car ride home and became she used it as insulation in her barn. a family pet and the first of many sheep “Wool is bug proof and fireproof beto follow. cause of the lanolin,” Grace said. “I hate Grace said the lamb reminded her of having to shear a whole ewe just to use Grace Archer’s first experience with sheep was with a Dorper ewe she “the Biblical analogies of lambs being so the wool as insulation.” named Jolene. Today, Grace’s flock consists of both hair and wool innocent and trusting.” Jolene loved her Because she keeps both haired and sheep, which she sells to other breeders as replacements or through new home and her new people, thriving wool sheep, Grace’s breeding focus is livestock markets. in the happy environment. more for the comfort of the mothers and “Jolene was special, she was friendlier quality of the lambs. She prefers to keep a than any dog, had such a good personalsmaller ram for first-time mothers. Grace ity, would sit with me in the lounge chairs on the porch,” Grace recountcurrently runs a Shetland ram with the first-time mothers to encourage Bergman, Ark. ed. “Sheep were like potato chips after that; I couldn’t just have the one.” smaller lambs to make giving birth easier. With the experienced ewes, she The story of Jolene had an unfortunately sad ending as Grace lost her in runs a Merino ram because he breeds big lambs which sell better. Except January to a ruptured uterus after giving birth to twins. for her ram, Grace doesn’t have a strong preference on the sheep she buys. “I guess that’s the part that sucks the most about farming,” Grace said. Instead, she likes to find sheep that need a little TLC. “You learn to do most everything yourself and in Jolene’s case, I’m not a “I accumulate a lot of ‘project sheep.’ I’ve got a soft heart,” she said. “So, I surgeon and I couldn’t save her. But it’s not all bad. I’m grateful she was wouldn’t say I have a strict breeding program, but I try. I keep the best ewes
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Ozarks Farm & Neighbor • www.ozarksfn.com
MARCH 28, 2022
