Integration is Key for 1997 Master Sheep Producer
Dennis Kubischta
Hope
Dennis Kubischta conditions and sells seed, grinds flour, grows experimental crops, and raises the traditional mix of area crops like corn, soybeans, barley and wheat.
All of those enterprises depend on his 160-ewe flock of sheep and vice versa, Kubischta says.
"Everything on this farm supports the rest," he says. "It's all interrelated." Kubischta owns 1,900 acres of crop land and rents another 1,000 acres with his brother, Joe.
From the wheat that he grows, Kubischta mills flour that he sells to a number of bakeries, including the Hornbacher's bakeries in Fargo-Moorhead and Top Taste Inc. in Finley. The wheat that's not high enough quality for milling and the bran that's left over are fed to his sheep. The seed conditioning equipment he uses to select only top-quality wheat for his flour is the same equipment he uses to condition certified seed for sale. Leftovers-- undersized and cracked kernels and weed seeds--from the seed cleaning operation provide additional high-quality feed for the sheep enterprise. The hull-less oats he raises don't yield as well as traditional oats, are difficult to market, but make an excellent high-energy creep feed for young lambs. The straw from that crop is an excellent bedding and good substitute forage.
"I'm trying to add value at every step," Kubischta says. "When you talk about adding value, the first thing you think about is a huge cooperative or a Pro-Gold plant. But value adding can be on a small scale on your farm. It may be on a small scale, but any value you add is all yours."
It's that innovative thinking and a dedication to other sheep producers that led sheep industry officials to name Kubischta as the 1997 North Dakota Master Sheep Producer, according to Roger Haugen, a sheep specialist with the North Dakota State University Extension Service. The award is co-sponsored by the North Dakota Lamb and Wool Producers Association and the NDSU Extension Service. The award presentation was made at the North Dakota Lamb and Wool Producers awards banquet during its annual convention on Saturday Nov. 1 in Minot.
In recent years, Kubischta has hosted sheep schools at his farm and organized others in the area. He's also made himself available for advice and support to others in the sheep business and serves as a 4-H leader and president of the Steele County 4-H council.
"He's been a valuable resource to other sheep producers in the region," Haugen notes. "Having another producer to talk to when you're having trouble can be a real boost."
Kubischta says he's never given much thought to his involvement with other sheep producers. "I just enjoy being around people who like sheep. And I don't know anybody in the sheep business who doesn't like sheep. Sheep producers seem to develop a closer bond with their animals than other livestock producers do."
He purchased 35 ewes a decade ago as a way to diversify his farm and boost income without renting additional land. "Sheep were the only entry-level farming enterprise that you could get into without a lot of money," he says.
There were initial misfortunes including a market crash, poor purchasing decisions and health problems. He recalls how advice from other producers as well as NDSU sheep specialists helped him refine his production system. Experience was also a teacher. "Much of what I learned, I learned the hard way," he says.
"Some of the absolute worst days of my life have been in the sheep business," Kubischta says. "Sometimes I'd come in from the barn for supper and wonder where the courage would come from for me to go back out."
Today his lambing and weaning averages are well above average, 185 percent and 175 percent respectively, and the sheep provide nearly one-third of his family's living expenses, even though they provide only a small portion of the farm's gross income.
He raises his own ewes--a cross of Columbia, Finn Dorset and Dorset--and crosses them with purebred Suffolk Rams. He selects ewes based on good health and weight gain and reproduction as well as disposition.
"You have to do what works for you," he says. The high lambing rates and the ability to use the variety of feeds available on his farm are keys in his selection decisions.
Kubischta says opportunties continue to exist in the sheep industry, especially in North Dakota.
"The winters here are long and severe and that gives you time to take care of your sheep," he says. At the same time, profits for well-managed flocks are on the rise and the initial investment remains low. "Sheep are still the only entry-level farming enterprise that I can think of," he says.
Kubischta and his wife, Mary, have three children, Cathy, 9, Vince, 7, and Jenny, 5. He is active in the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, the Knights of Columbus, the North Dakota Grain Growers Association, the Steele County Crop Improvement Association and the St. Agatha's men's club. He is a board member of the Red River Valley Wool Growers Association and is on the steering committee investigating the feasibility of a lamb processing cooperative in North Dakota.