B&UncMtar Farming, Saturday, April B,IMB
Combining An Urban Career With A Rural Lifestyle I
BY
WALKER
Centre Co. Correspondent
CENTRE HALL (Centre)
Although his children and his
sheep certainly are just two of the
many facets of Roger Dudlck’s
fast-paced life, a conversation
with this progressive shepherd
quickly proves that his kids and
his Corriedales are the most
rewarding. When I visited Roger
on a recent Sunday afternoon, he
and son, Eugene, were vaccinating
and weighing lambs while wife
and registered nurse, Margaret,
was in the kitchen baking cookies
and looking after Eve-month-old,
Blair, Allison, Elliot, and Rachel,
ages three through seven, romped
in the backyard with their
recently- “shorn” Standard Poodle
named DISC, a.k.a. Dog in
Sheep’s Clothing. Because Roger
is a self-employed consultant who
travels throughout the country
during the week, the sheep receive
his attention primarily on the
weekends; Eugene shepherds on
weekdays. So, while frtiher and
son worked. I picked Roger’s
brain on his theories and goals for
his prize-winning sheep.
As spring breaks, the Dudick’s
thoughts turn toward the Mary
land Sheep and Wool Festival,
which is held the first weekend in
May in West Friendship, Md. This
wool sheep extravaganza, in its
16th year, is the largest festival of
its kind in the East. It draws wool
sheep competitors from all over
the nation, as the Dudicks are well
aware. After all, at the 1988 festi
val, they captured the premier
natural colored exhibitor award
after a nine-year absence from the
show. Chances are that colored
sheep competitors will be watch
ing pensively as the Dudicks cam
paign their Corriedales at Mary
land again this May.
What events brought about the
Dudicks’ successful flock? Roger
attests that he is “a country boy by
choice, not birth, and that’s a lot
better.” In 1969, toward the end of
his “hippy days.” he rented a small
farm in Maryland. Four years later
Roger bought his first place and,
for a short period of time, raised
registered Angus cattle and a few
hogs. After a stint as a college
teacher, Roger bought a 40-acre
farm, married Margaret, began a
family, and became a shepherd.
The Dudick family has pushed
full-steam-ahead since then.
Those first few sheep that Roger
purchased were “whatever cheap
animals I could get away with,” he
admits. The two elder Dudick
boys were in 4-H, and Roger says
that many shepherds were quick to
tell him,” you can’t do anything if
you don’t have Suffolks or Hamp
shires.” Dudick found such state
ments difficult to accept: *T got
tired of hearing that I’m a con
trary so-and-so, I wanted to do
something different.”
It was at this point that Roger
purchased his Erst colored sheep
from Randy Irwin. Irwin manages
a farm for John Hopkins Universi
ty and is now a well-known breed
er of Border Leisters and North
Country Cheviots. In 1981, Roger
showed his animals at the Mary
land Sheep and Wool Festival, and
in his words, “got jny buns kicked
from one end of the ring to the
other, and deservedly so.”
The Dudicks later moved to
York County, and Roger began
looking at his flock with a very
critical eye, concentrating his
efforts on rebuilding. Using
crossbred rams to this point,
Dudick found no consistency in
his lamb crap ~ no uniformity of
fleece or of conformation, in
which he was particularly inter
ested. Roger explained that con
formation makes up 40 percent of
the total score in wool sheep clas
ses. and he added: “I didn’t know
lif the handspinning fad would
last” Because of his doubts plus
the fact that “everyone said that
black sheep had terrible carcas
ses.” he set out to produce colored
sheep with the goals of fleece
quality and carcass composition
being equally crucial. In the mid
' 80’s, Randy Irwin was able to
locate two black purebred Corrie
dale rams, which became die basis
of the current 25-ewe Dudick
flock.
Three years ago. Roger and
family moved to a 1014 -acre farm
in Centre Hall. Here, in Centre
County, Dudick continues to
develop his flock by emphasizing
wool quality and body scale. He
has concentrated on medium-fine
fleeces, culling stock with Kara
kul blood. Karakul is a predomi
nately black breed with coarse
textured wool. He believes that his
animals still have room for
improvement in the area of rate of
growth. Roger also would like to
develop finer wool that reaches a
longer staple length in a relatively
short period of time. A staple
length is a year’s growth of wool.
“When I started with these sheep,
I realized that it would be a
20-year project,” says Dudick.
The Dudicks market their
fleeces locally to handspinners
and also ship wool to Europe.
Most of their lambs are marketed
as breeding stock to colored sheep
breeders. Roger is reluctant, how
ever, to take complete credit for
his successes in the sheep indus-
A group of the Dudicks’ Corriedale rams gather as the sun sets on their Centre Hall
farm.
David Harpster, a
purebred sheep breeder
and part-time employee of
the Dudicks, has been
instrumental in creating
their top show string.
homestead
try. “I would say that 80 percent of
our success is due to David Harp
ster,” he stated. Harpster, a
purebred breeder from Boalsburg,
began working on a part-time
basis for the Dudicks a Utile over a
year ago. David very successfully
has campaigned the Dudick flock
at many county fain in Pennsylva
nia. Harpster also aids in making
selection and breeding decisions
and is a master in the show ring,
according to Roger. “When it
comes to decision making, I defer
to David’s judgment,” said
Dudick.
Dudick spoke frankly about his
mix of an urban career and a rural
lifestyle. When asked why he
chose shepherding, he answered:
“It’s a conscious choice. I despise
urban living, personally, and as an
environment for me and my fami
ly. I like sheep more than any
other animal I’ve worked with.”
t/l/eies
Roger hopes to spend his golden
yean with his flock, and he refers
to his sheep as his “1.R.A.”
It may have been nine yean in
the making, but it seems that, with
a little help from his friends,
Roger Dudick has produced a top
show string of colored sheep.
More importantly, however, he
and Margaret have produced a
beautiful family that’s obviously
benefitting from the lifestyle their
parents have chosen. As for his six
children, Roger smiles, “We
found having kids to be addic
tive.” He joked, "When my kids
grow up, they’ll probably not want
to even look at a sheep!” As for
his flock, “I’d love to have a big
operation with 1,000 or so ewes
someday,” he mused. But, for this
spring, anyway, Roger and Mar
garet are making plans to pack up
the family (including baby, ,Blair)
and head to Maryland in May for a
very exciting weekend.