{Rebekah Seipel (right) shows her Katahdin ewe}
Residents from across the state gathered in Sedalia, Mo., at the recent Missouri State Fair, testing skills in everything from baking pies to curing bacon and hams. During the 10-day event in mid-August, flower arranging, growing hay and raising 94-pound watermelons garnered admiration and cash prizes. Barbara Clark of Kohoka, Mo., won an heirloom recipe contest sponsored by The Greater Midwest Foodways Association. Her tasty and poignant presentation of Preserved Carp Pancakes with Dill Sauce, which her father used to make for the family during the Great Depression, garnered a $250 cash prize.
Michael Seipel is the agricultural science department chair at Truman State University and the proud father of three children who competitively showed the family’s Katahdin ewes. Seipel’s oldest daughter Rebekah presented several of the family’s best show ewes and assisted her younger siblings. Rebekah has worked in the family barn since she was a child. Now a confident 15-year-old competitor, she shows meat heifers and hogs in county and state fair competitions – that is, when she’s not helping to raise the laying hens, hogs, meat birds and 60 or so breeding ewes the family keeps on their small farm in northeast Missouri. She and her younger sister Abigail cleaned house this year, winning 18 first place gold ribbons in several sheep competitions, first place in the 4-H Berkshire Gilt competition and various money prizes.
{Alyssa Francis}
Alyssa Francis of Francis Family Sheep Farm in Paris, Mo., also did well, elegantly presenting four first place Southdown ewes, four first place Katahdin ewes and a third place in the Show-Me lead line. After the competition, Cherie Seipel, Rebekah’s mother, congratulated the Francis family and inquired about their stock used to breed the beautiful show ewes. “All the sheep kids know each other and work well together,” Cherie Seipel said.
Michael Seipel said raising livestock allows his family to make a difference and continue the farming tradition in Missouri. “We enjoy the animals, but we also just enjoy being on the land and feeling like we are improving it, doing small things to try to reduce erosion, building better pasture management, creating better wildlife habitat and gradually leave it better for the next generation,” he said.
This article appears in August 2013.