Ait— iMCMtor Faming, Saturday, Deeeeiker 17,1983
BY LAURA ENGLAND
MT. JOY For one Lancaster
County farmer, the Bible hymn,
Psalm 23, has a special, double
meaning.
Beginning with “The Lord is my
shepherd,” the psalm emphasizes
the devotion that William
Longenecker, R 2 Mt. Joy, has
towards his religious work as a
pastor. And it is because of his
religious work, Longenecker said,
that he, himself, became a
“shepherd” and is raising com
mercial sheep.
“I’ve been a pastor for 14
years,” he said, “but I wanted to
keep my hands in farming.
Raising sheep was the way to go to
farm and do church work at the
same time.”
The ninth of 10 children,
Longenecker and his wife, Peggy,
and children Tom, 17, and Kathy,
13, currently raise over 300 sheep
on their 62 acres. This includes a
mixture of 285 Suffolk, Hampshire
and Dorset ewes, with the
remaining flock consisting of
market lambs and eight rams.
Longenecker got his introduction
to sheep farming in 1940 when his
father, William S., bought about 80
feeder lambs “just to try them
out.” Up until that time, the
Longeneckers were raising steers
and hogs.
The sheep venture, however,
wasn’t that successful and didn’t
last for long.
“We lost about half the lambs,
probably due to parasites,”
Bill Longenecker uses a wool paint to mark the breeding'
date on his sheep. This ewe, marked 8 -10, was bred Oct. 10.
Ewes and market lambs feed from round hay feeders placed inside the barn
Psalm is special to Mt. Joy shepherd
Over 250 ewes compliment the country setting of the William Longenecker sheep farm in Mt. Joy, Lancaster County.
Longenecker said,
bought about 40 ewes."
Twenty-four years went by
r<F
“We then
Suffolks, Hampshires and Dorsetts, alike, are at home on the Longenecker farm where
they enjoy a diet of hay, pasture grass and some grain.
before Longenecker decided to
give sheep another try. During
that time, he received a
psychology degree in 1951 from
Elizabethtown College, had spent a
year at Bethany Seminary in
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Chicago, and had followed his
father’s footsteps by farming the
family farm.
Like his father, he continued to
raise steers and hogs and for a
while Taised 3,000 laying hens.
Because of an interest in church
and missionary work, he saw
advantages in raising sheep.
To purchase his first flock in
1964, Ixmgenecker set out to get a
financial loan but not without some
hesitation on the part of the credit
corporation. The loan officer,
Longenecker recalled, contacted
former extension agent Max Smith
and asked if it was safe to give a
loan for sheep.
Longenecker got his loan and
purchased a flock of 75 Western
ewes and has since continued to
raise and market sheep year
round.
In raising sheep, Longenecker
said it’s important to “play the
markets” and keep up-t<Hlate on
market prices and trends.
“When I go to the markets,” he
said, “I stay there until my sheep
are sold. This way, you get to know
the buyers, and they get to know
you.
“By building up your own
reputation, you can get more
money for your sheep.”
To break even in the sheep
business today, Longenecker said
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he needs about 60 cents per pound
With market prices higher this fall,
he said he’s been hitting the low
60’s when he had been selling most
for 54 cents per pound.
“I got 68 cents per pound for one
lamb that weighed 80 pounds,” he
said. “That’s not bad for a heavy
lamb when you’re used to getting
40 to 50 cents per pound.”
The whole thing behind the sheep
business, Longenecker said, is
marketing. Markets will vary
depending on the mood of the
buyers, he added, and you have to
be at the right market at the right
time.
Markets also want lambs year
round, and this is why
Longenecker staggers his breeding
program. Ewes are bred to lamb
between January and May. Doing
this, he said, does involve more
labor, but he finds it beneficial in
terms of marketing.
“If you breed ewes to lamb
during a two-week spread, you do
save on labor,” he said, “but then
your lambs are ready for market
at the same time.”
To work under these lambing
conditions, Longenecker said he
adjusts his schedule to what’s
needed. “It pays to be there,” he
said. “You can lose 15 to 20 percent
(Turn to Pag* A 29)
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