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This article is from the spring edition of Islands' Farm & Food Connection.
sanjuan.wsu.edu/fagriculture.htm
By Lovel Pratt
Photo by Annie Britton
posted 05/19/01
A sure sign of spring in San Juan County are newborn lambs bouncing across bright green pastures. And the largest flock of sheep in western Washington is right here on Lopez Island. Shepherd Julie Matthews figures that she has about 950 new lambs, though she has yet to finish docking their tails and making her first complete count of this year’s crop.
Julie’s pasture-based sheep operation uses approximately 600 acres of land, none of which she owns. "It would be difficult, though not impossible, to pay for land in the San Juans through farming," says Julie. "I also don’t think it’s necessary to purchase land in order to farm."
Pasturing her sheep on other people’s land has worked well for both Julie and the landowners. Some people lease their land to Julie so that it will stay in active agricultural use. Some people have allergies and want the grass kept short without having to mow it. Some people simply believe in what Julie is doing and want to participate in any way they can. And everybody, Julie included, wants to maintain and improve the quality of the land.
"My ultimate goal is to improve the land-base that I manage," says Julie. "I benefit along with the land-owners by being able to produce more."
"If you want a pastoral landscape," she continues, "You have to manage it as a working pasture. Mowing or cutting for hay alone is not a sustainable practice."
Julie divides her flock into groups of 200 – 300, and with the help of her four dogs, moves the sheep from pasture to pasture (most are between five and twenty acres) as needed. Her rotations depend on the availability of feed, the stage of grass growth, and the number of sheep to the number of acres.
Before moving to Lopez Island, Julie worked at several jobs, from a 1000-acre organic produce farm north of Fort Collins, Colorado, to a San Francisco organic produce wholesale operation. She grew up on the west coast of the north island of New Zealand, first on a dairy farm, and then on a sheep farm. Julie worked for Sally Bill when she first moved to Lopez Island in 1990. In 1992 Julie bought her first ten ewes.
Julie’s flock now has 650 ewes, which are half Coopworth, quarter North Country Cheviot and quarter East Fresian. She breeds her ewes with a terminal sire that was a Dorper ram last year. Coopworth provides for a quality fleece while the East Fresians, a dairy breed, get the lambs off to a good start. "My primary objective," says Julie, "Is to breed an ideal sheep for my operation and my management style, which takes into consideration both the meat and the fiber."
Julie’s operation is pasture-based as opposed to grain fed. Much of her breeding stock comes from New Zealand where sheep have been developed to produce well on pasture. Pasture-based sheep are very different from the prevailing US breeds that have been developed primarily for feedlot operations. Julie works to develop her flock so that they require minimal care at lambing time. All replacement ewes must be born unassisted, be a twin, and have a mother that has sound confirmation and feet and a reasonable fleece. "Animals are capable creatures," says Julie, "And I’m here to be an overseer, a manager -- not a midwife."
Julie likes to tackle problems directly. "Deal with your problems, not the symptoms," says Julie, who then goes on to give an example: "You could spend your whole life dealing with foot rot, but that’s a symptom of mineral deficiencies, not the problem. I find out what the deficiencies in my pastures are, and then supplement the needed minerals. If you’ve got foot problems, let the butcher trim them!"
Julie butchers her lambs beginning at five months. She also butchers some hoggett, which is in between lamb and mutton at eighteen months to two and a half years. With the nearest USDA facility now in Chehalis, Julie does all custom butchering. Julie is a member of the Island Grown Farmers Cooperative and looks forward to the marketing opportunities the new USDA meat processing facility will provide.
Recent requests from a number of customers for fresh ground lamb for their dogs led Julie to experiment with a value-added product from her culls – old retired ewes that usually aren’t worth more than $20 - $30 at Marysville. A custom butchering facility ground up the culls and the packages were labeled, "Julie’s Lopez Lamb for Dogs". As lamb is commonly recommended for dogs, and often prescribed for dogs that have allergy problems, Julie thought that she would have a successful product. But someone from the USDA came to Lopez and told her that it is illegal to sell meat for dogs that is not denatured. Julie was told that she would have to add charcoal or bone meal so that the product would be inedible to humans.
"It’s frustrating to have your efforts to provide a healthy product -- even one for dogs -- thwarted by regulations," says Julie.
Despite being discouraged by her inability to follow through on this innovative product, Julie perseveres. She continues to approach all aspects of farming with a blend of innovation, hard work, and creativity, along with her solid base of farming knowledge that all combined continue to build upon her successes.
Sharon Kivisto
and
Matt Pranger
can be reached:
phone:
360.378.3748
fax:
360.378.9748
by e-mail:
news@sanjuanislander.com
by mail:
San Juan Islander
PO Box 1118
Friday Harbor, WA 98250 USA