Jared Frieze of rural Polk County is a man who knows his business and even at his young age, has a pretty clear idea of where he’s going next. A 2013 graduate of Marion C. Early High School of Morrisville, Mo., Jared raises 80 White Dorper sheep on 30 acres at his family’s home.
“We do some pretty intensive grazing,” Jared admitted with a laugh, as he related the numbers. “My parents, Mike and Diane, as well as my older brother and sister, Justin and Bethany, have also raised them over the years. For 18 years, this is all I’ve known. I’ve always done this.
“These are meat animals, bred to produce more meat. They feed on grass with minimal feed supplement. They have hair instead of wool so we don’t have to shear them. They are easy keepers. That means they don’t need a lot of daily care. We rotate them on 5 to 6 acres so they get fresh grass every month. In the winter, we supplement with round hay bales.”
Jared continued, “Ours is a purebred operation and we sell a lot of them in registered animal sales. We keep back about 20 replacement ewes each year and then our cull animals go to the sale barn. Those are the ones who don’t have the desirable traits of the breed.”
Jared went on to explain exactly what those traits are. “We’re looking for heavy-boned, heavily-muscled animals. You want the sheep to be barreled out, not too flat along their sides. We look for a longer body build because that and the barrel shape helps eliminate a lot of lambing problems.
“They are a fairly calm breed,” Jared said as he snatched up a lamb and cradled it in his arms. “What I like best about raising the sheep, I guess, is that it is always something new. I like a change of pace and with sheep, I get that. Lambing is my favorite time of year. You work all year on the genetics and it is good to see how they did, to see what we’ve helped to create.”
Jared also shows his sheep at Missouri State Fair at Sedalia, Mo., each year as well as the Dorper National Show held each January in Ft. Worth, Texas. “We do most of the showing in the summer, of course,” he added. “And we sell some at the breed association sale, the Midwest Stud Ram Sale, also in Sedalia. It’s the biggest registered sheep sale in the country.
“The meat from these sheep goes primarily to the ethnic market on the East and West coasts and in big cities. Romanians, for instance eat a lot of sheep.”
Jared concluded, “I’m going to Ozark Technical College this fall to get general education courses out of the way. I’ll probably major in ag business or ag education, but I’ll keep doing sheep on the side and keep showing.”
And with young men, like Jared Frieze raising livestock in southwest Missouri, the future of agriculture in the Ozarks is looking healthy and strong.
