Goodbye herd, hello flock

KANDIYOHI — For over a century and through multiple generations, the Knudsen farm has milked dairy cows on their land south of Green Lake. For the last few years, though, the moos have been replaced by bleats as Cole Knudsen and his wife, Steph have transitioned the farm to raising and selling sheep.

“I love milking; I miss it every day, but … the sheep, you can handle them easily,” Knudsen said. “They’re just nice, pleasant, calm animals, and … cows are hard on you.”

Knudsen’s great-grandfather, Alfred Knudsen, moved onto the farm in 1919 and operated it as a dairy. From there, the farm passed to his son, Gordon Knudsen, and then his son, Darryl Knudsen.
In the face of health complications, Darryl transferred ownership of the dairy to his son, Cole, in 2023, making him the fourth generation to work the land — and the only member of the Knudsen family still farming today.

The Knudsens had a flock of sheep when Knudsen was growing up, and he always enjoyed buying, selling and taking care of them. When he took on farm ownership, the margins from shipping milk had gotten tighter, so Cole decided to sell the cows and raise sheep instead. His last day of milking was Sept. 9, 2023, a couple of days before his youngest daughter, Kinsley, was born.

The money for the cows went into more land and other input costs of switching the farm over to sheep.

“We’ve never taken a loan out on anything,” Knudsen said. “We don’t operate with debt whatsoever. … In about two, three years, once I’ve built up the numbers I want to be at, then I can start shipping more instead of retaining more females.”

To learn how to manage the sheep, Knudsen started with some of his family’s books from the 1970s; he then bought a sheep course textbook from Minnesota West Community & Technical College in Pipestone, along with a veterinary book by Dr. Gerald Kennedy of Pipestone Veterinary Services, who was also a member of the Minnesota Agricultural Hall of Fame and Pipestone Lamb and Wool Program Hall of Fame before his passing in 2018.

“There were some tips and tricks in that (Dr. Kennedy’s) book that kept a lot of lambs alive for me,” Knudsen said. “I do all my own vet work, pretty much everything.”

Currently, the Knudsen farm has about 175 sheep, and Knudsen aims to reach about 200 ewes and 400 lambs so he can fill a semi and ship directly to Denver, Colorado, instead of using local sales barns. He sources rams from herds in the National Sheep Improvement Program, raising Polypay sheep with a high lambing rate; this spring, he had two ewes give him five lambs each, along with two more mothering sets of four, and there were many triplets and twins.

The sheep are raised mainly for meat.

“The wool is a loss,” Knudsen said. “The shearing costs more than the wool is worth. … As the years go on, I might dabble in selling some breeding stock, because I know what I’ve got. I have quality animals, and I’m pretty picky. Just from going from cows into sheep, my attitude toward feeding and breeding is probably over the top.”

The Knudsens raise corn and beans as well. When they milked cows, they used to rotate them through three of the farm’s four pastures. Since adding the sheep, they built stronger fencing and reseeded one of the fields to create additional pastureland.

“The nice thing with the sheep is you can run them into areas you don’t want your milk cows in,” Knudsen said. “They’ll go in and just clean it out. … My goal with them is to use them to graze on some areas that have been a tax liability since forever — get in there and make some feed out of it for once.”

The sheep can also be left in their pasture overnight, especially with the stronger fencing. Because they require less maintenance than cows, they allow the Knudsen farm to financially diversify.

“We have the crop, we have the sheep (and) I go and work on silage crews out West; I’m gone for about a month doing that,” Knudsen said. “I do tillage and grain cart work. You’re not just reliant on the cows.”

Feed is another simplified matter. Along with the pasture grass, the Knudsens often use a wet cake byproduct from a local ethanol plant as a high-protein feed during lambing season.

Another difference between cattle and sheep is milk fever, which occurs most often in cattle after calving but can occur in sheep before lambing. Fortunately, sheep can be treated with an intravenous injection just like cows.

“That turns them right around,” Knudsen said. “The vet work side of it is quite a bit different, but otherwise, it’s the same principle: Keep them comfortable, cool in the summer and out of the wind in the winter.”

In Knudsen’s experience, sheep are easier to move around than cows.

“If they tear through a fence and are out in a bean field, I can walk out and shake a 5-gallon pail of corn, and they will all come flying to me, mob me and follow me right back into the pen,” Knudsen said. “It’s pretty slick. I have two border collies I work (and) push them around with.”

The rams, though, sometimes make things difficult and get mean during rutting season. They can be hard to spot among the other sheep, so Knudsen has begun to mark the rams’ wool with spray paint.

In the spring, lambing is a 24-hour endeavor, keeping the peace in the flock during the middle of the night and ensuring the right lambs are with the right ewes. Summertime, though, is more relaxed, with the lambs out at full feed, and Knudsen can go out to the sheep pen with his 2-year-old daughter.

“Sheep have their moments, but I’ve seen some first-calf heifers go pretty nutty in my life, and sheep aren’t like that at all,” Knudsen said. “They’re easy to work and move and handle — besides the rams.”