White-faced Dorset sheep can be seen grazing the pastures near the home of Ronnie and Debbie Dains, residents of Rockville, Mo.
Ronnie’s grandparents, George and Mabel Newell, raised commercial lambs and ewes on this very farm, which George purchased in 1929.
“We moved on this farm in 1979 and we have been here ever since,” Ronnie said.
The Dains family is known for raising and showing registered Dorset sheep. They added crossbred club ewes and rams to the flock when daughter Kalie started showing.
“We have our show sheep and then we ventured out into the crossbred sheep,” Ronnie explained.
They have around 25 ewes, mostly registered Dorsets. They own a Dorset buck, which they use to produce crossbred and spot lambs.
Their journey in the sheep industry began in 1985 with a Dorset bottle lamb that Lloyd Alexander, a friend and mentor, gave to their daughters. Nearly 30 years later, Misty Long, Mendy Bowlby, Kristie and Kalie Dains, are still known in the sheep world as the “Dains Girls,” and they continue to be involved and help out during the sheep show at the Missouri State Fair every year.
The trends in the sheep industry have changed over the years.
When Ronnie and Debbie first entered the business, value was placed on the lamb meat and wool.
“We can remember when wool was $1.80 to $2 per pound. Now it is maybe a quarter, 30 to 40 cents,” Debbie recalled.
While the demand has shifted away from wool and more toward synthetic fabrics, value is still placed on lamb meat.
“We went to more meat animals, putting more muscle and meat on them,” Ronnie said.
“We went from muscle and meat to tall and big, and now they are coming back,” Debbie added.
“As far as the quality of animals, I believe it has improved immensely,” Ronnie assured.
The Dains’ focus is to produce a high-quality show animal.
“The Dorsets we have are the big, showy kind,” Ronnie explained.
Debbie said they have sold a few of their Dorset as weathers, but the breed simply isn’t “built for that.”
Completeness, mothering ability and size are deciding factors in replacement ewes.
”Not necessarily are they going to be the biggest, but they have the ability to go out on grass and produce a lamb,” said Ronnie.
The couple’s daughters began their showing careers at the Bates County Youth Fair and over the years they traveled many miles showing sheep at the Ozark Empire Fair, Missouri State Fair, Tulsa State Fair, American Royal and the North American Livestock Exposition in Louisville, Ky.
“Different years, we would go different places with what our schedule would allow,” Ronnie said. “Both of us worked; we have always made time and had fun. We have always had fun. It’s been really, really good for the family. It’s been a family affair, it really has.”
His grandsons, Tayton Dains and Jarrett Long, have taken an interest in showing sheep and are following in their mothers’ footsteps. Tayton is a competitive sheep and goat showman on the county and state level.
“We have really been blessed with the amount of people that have worked around us and with us. It’s been more of a family project,” Ronnie shared. “The memories are what I will go back with.”
The shows have brought the Dains family a great deal of attention over the years.
“We never were, what you would say, a high-budget operation,” Ronnie explained. “We have always done with what we could and done the best that we could. We have won the Missouri State Fair, we had a junior champion at Louisville; Kalie did. The last year they had breeding sheep at the American Royal, she won that. We have had success.”
Ronnie is the chairman of the Missouri Sheep Merchandising Council and is an active member of the Missouri Sheep Producers, Inc. He was part of the committee that started the fitting contest at the Missouri State Fair. This contest is one of the few in the nation where the exhibitors fit a raw lamb to be show ready. It has since expanded to include the fitting of slick lambs.
“Trimming of the sheep is a lost art,” Ronnie said.
In addition to working with her family at the Missouri State Fair, Debbie has promoted lamb by helping serve dinner to the exhibitors in the Missouri State Fair Sale of Champions for the last 10 years.
Cattle and goats also call the farm home.
Ronnie has a crossbred Angus cow-calf enterprise and Tayton has a herd of Boar goats.
“It takes it all to make one,” Ronnie said. “Sheep probably won’t make you a living, but it will add to your cash flow, along with the calves.”
Off the farm, Ronnie has been employed with Hiland Dairy for the last 18 years and Debbie works part-time for Appleton City Feeds, Inc.
