King of the Hill and Follow the Leader are a few games the lambs appear to be play
ing in the meadow.
This L
Stephanie
LOU ANN GOOD
Lancaster Farming Staff
LANDISVILLE (Lancaster
Co.) You’ve heard about the
lamb that followed Mary to
school. Lambs are still showing up
in unexpected places.
Last Sunday, which was Easter,
Stephanie Kauffman’s little lamb
followed her to church.
Named Little Joe, the South
down lamb is extremely tame. Be
cause the minister wanted to talk
about Jesus being the good shep
herd, he asked Stephanie to bring
one of her lambs to church.
It was an easy choice to select
Little Joe from the 39 sheep Step
hanie raises on her grandparents’
property.
“He’s my favorite,” 11-year-old
Stephanie said as she gave the
woolly lamb a hug.
Smack in the middle of a Land
isville housing development, her
flock of 39 lambs romps in the
meadow.
“It’s my fault. I started it,”
Stephanie’s mom Ellen said as she
points to the frisky lambs.
Growing up, Ellen took little in
terest in her family’s steers and
pigs. She wanted a lamb for a pet.
To pacify her, Ellen’s parents,
George and Lorraine Lewis,
bought her a lamb. Because lambs
Stephanie and her grandpa spend lots of time with the 39
head raised for show and to sell to other 4-H’ers.
ittle Lamb Followed
To Church Last Sunday
require different care than the Surprisingly, the lamb won “ev
other livestock, George accompa- erything.”
nied his daughter to 4-H meetings When Stephanie expressed in
so he could leam the basic sheep terest in showing lambs, she had a
care. request. She wanted a Southdown
“Compared to other livestock, lamb, which is smaller and easier
lambs are not very intelligent,” to handle than the taller Hamp-
Ellen conceded. But what her first shire breed that her mother had
lamb Annabelle lacked in brain shown.
power, she made up in personali
ty-
“Annabelle was so tame, she there are more Southdowns than
followed me everywhere,” Ellen any other breed at the shows,”
said. Annabelle didn’t even need a Ellen said.
halter in the show ring, but fol- It’s unusual, but just like her
lowed her owner docilely without mother, Stephanie won big in her
a halter. first year of competition. She won
Ellen and her parents grew at- a trophy that was bigger than her
tached to the flock of Hampshires for showing the supreme champi
they soon accumulated. In her on sheep at the Elizabethtown
first competition, Ellen showed Fait
the champion Hampshire. Although she’s won several rib-
“At first I only had breeding bons since then, she said, “Some
sheep because I couldn’t bear to times you win, sometimes you
part with a market lamb,” Ellen don’t do so well, but that’s OK, it
said. She was thrust unwillingly gives you a chance to figure things
into market sheep, when her dad out
picked a lamb from her breeding Stephanie loves the lambs bom
flock and encouraged her to show ° n the farm and names each one.
it at the local fair. She and her neighborhood friends
“I was so embarrassed to take s P en d hours walking the lambs
it,” Ellen said. Compared to the and watching them run and push
purchased market lambs others o 3o * l other trying to get to the
were showing, Ellen was con- water trough,
vinced her homebred lamb didn’t Stephanie is following in her
stand a chance. mother’s footsteps. Not only did
Koriie r.
MbV
“When I was into showing, few
people had Southdowns. Now
she win in her first show, she also
joined the Lancaster County Live
stock Judging Team. She hopes to
win at the state level and travel to
national competition just like her
mother had done.
Although Stephanie participate
in local judging, she needs to be 13
before she can compete at state
judging, but that doesn’t deter her
enthusiasm for attending all prac
tices and competitions.
On Saturday mornings, most
kids her age sleep in. Not Stepha
nie. She’s up at 5 a.m. in order to
meet the team and travel to dis
tant competitions.
According to Stephanie, those
participating in livestock judging,
learn to read, use performance
data, and give reasons for placing
animals in competition.
For several years, Stephanie ac
companied her mom as part of the
Ag in the Classroom program.
Stephanie took her lamb while her
mom told students what’s involv
ed in raising sheep. This year,
Ellen was too busy teaching eighth
graders at the Milton Hershey
School to accompany Stephanie.
So Stephanie primarily did the
presentation herself.
On Easter Sunday, Little Joe went to church with Stepha
nie to help illustrate the biblical story of Jesus being the
good shepherd. Of the 39 sheep Stephanie raises on her
grandfather’s property, Little Joe is her favorite. But Step
hanie can identify every one.
Much of the knowledge Stephanie has about sheep, she
learned from her mom Ellen and grandparents George and
Lorraine Lewis. Her mom won many awards for the Hamp
shires she raised growing up. Now Stephanie is winning
many awards for her Southdowns, a breed she prefers be
cause they are smaller and easier to handle.
“I figured out what to say and stead of gymnastic competition,
wrote it on notecards to help me She continues with gymnastic
remember,” Stephanie said of the classes but no longer competes,
presentation. A straight “A” student, Stepha-
Stephanie toys with the idea of p* e s^*e prefers science classes
someday become a lamb queen. the teacher makes it interesting.
Her mother had reigned as Penn- She also likes music, art, and gym.
sylvania Hampshire Queen and home she likes to play with
acted as the national queen at the r pany cousins. In addition to
national breed show. P l *™ ™th the lambs, the cous
ms like to do flips on bars and
Stephanie plays communty watch the Hers £ Bears ’ ice
soccer and the viola. She also Hockey Team
takes an after-school Spanish her mom fa leased tQ see
class Durmg the Easter season, her daughter enjoying lambs, 4-H,
Stephanie and her lamb partici- and judging competitions just as
pated in several church plays, s h e had done, Ellen said, “She’s
where lambs are often associated not pushed to do this. It’s reward
with the life of Christ. j n g ( 0 see her take it (judging and
Stephanie’s schedule became so showing) seriously but have fun
busy that she had to make a doing it. If you don’t have fun
choice. She elected to stay with doing it, it isn’t the thing for you
sheep and livestock judging in- to do.”
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