When breeder says ‘I love ewe,’ she means it
Staff writer
Sheep breeder Sherry Nelson has a place in her heart for every lamb born on her farm, but one that competed Friday in the Kansas Junior Livestock Show has a place no other will ever hold.
That lamb, now a year and a half old, was born the day Nelson’s mother died.
Nelson owns Stardust Sheep Farm near Lincolnville.
Her mother’s name was Helen, and that’s how the ewe got its name.
After a sad day dealing with her mother’s final hours, Nelson came home and found that one of three pregnant ewes had given birth to a lively lamb.
Two of three ewes staying in a pen together wanted the lamb, but Nelson figured out which was the dam and moved the mother and child together to their own stall.
For a time after the lamb was born, Nelson thought she would keep it and not let an FFA or 4-H student train and show it, but Helen was too beautiful.
Helen has done well in competition, winning reserve Dorset advantage ewe and breeding ewe at this year’s Kansas State Fair and best of category at Friday’s Kansas Junior Livestock Show.
Helen is now back with Nelson.
Besides breeding sheep for sale, she also does artificial insemination and sells semen from her champion bloodlines to sheep breeders in many other states.
A Wisconsin man who bought semen from Stardust Sheep Farm sold the resulting lamb for $15,000. He returned the following year to buy more semen.
Nelson often works in partnership with SEK Genetics in Galesburg.
Kayla Hall, lab technician for SEK Genetics, characterized the company as one of only a handful of laboratories in Kansas that offer semen sales and reproductive technology for sheep.
The laboratory helps breeders by preparing ewes for artificial insemination, implanting the sperm, waiting the required 14 days, flushing the embryos out of the inseminated ewe, and examining them for viability.
Viable embryos are implanted into host ewes or frozen in liquid nitrogen for later sale.