We established Roving Ram Ranch in 2019, and although we are new to sheep, we both have
many years of livestock and grazing experience have led us to this place. Seth’s family raised cattle in Montana for most of his childhood, and as an adult, he continued to keep a small herd on his ranches in the Phillipsburg area and in Trego, MT. Amanda started her livestock career working on Wisconsin dairies and attending the Wisconsin School for Beginning Dairy Farmers, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has degrees in Biology (B.A.), Agriculture (B.S.), and Agronomy (M.S.), with coursework for the latter degrees, focused on rangeland ecology and management. She has also raised Savannah and Boer meat goats for many years, using them for grazing projects in both Oklahoma and Nebraska.
We have five amazing children in our family, ranging from ages 11 to 26. Their help and involvement on the farm makes everything more fun! From helping to build a barn to stacking hay bales, from caring for newborn lambs to helping move fencing and sheep, they make our ranch a more dynamic and colorful place to call home.
The farm has 20 wooded acres at the base of the Swan Mountain range, close to where the Flathead and Swan Valleys meet. We share these acres with black bears, grizzlies, wild turkey, mountain lions, and deer—all of which have been spotted here on our land! There are also wolves and coyotes nearby, we just haven’t had any up-close encounters with them yet. And, of course, an abundance of birds and other mammals of all kinds! The home farm is where lambing takes place each year, as well as our early spring shearing.
During the majority of the year, the sheep graze over 80 acres in the Flathead Valley. This leased land is part of a unique partnership with a local family whose land was used for Christmas tree production for many years, but who now desire to have the land used for sustainable livestock production using regenerative grazing strategies to help restore healthy vegetation and soil communities (read more about our approach to grazing management under the ‘Grazing’ section). The sheep return to our home farm in December or January in preparation for lambing. They and their new lambs then return back to the leased property as soon as grazing can begin again, usually in early May.
The mission of Roving Ram Ranch is to produce delicious grass-finished lamb and high-quality wool using grazing practices that sustain and improve the lands which support our operation.
We have also pledged to give back to our local community of Bigfork through donations of butcher lambs to our local food bank, as well as cash donations to organizations that are working to make a difference here in the Valley. In the 2020-2021 season, we were able to donate one lamb to the Bigfork Food Bank and chose Bigfork High School’s cross country team (an unfunded school sport) to support through cash donations. Last season (2021-2022) we were able to increase our food bank donation to two lambs, which was incredibly rewarding for us. We hope to continue to increase the number of donation lambs each year!
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