Ranching, Family, Sheep & Tradition
The Halverson Family is Well Rooted on Lower Deer Creek
I’ve helped kids out for decades, but
I’m always learning, too.”
-KEVIN HALVERSON
Written by Cyd Hoefle, photography by Stu Hoefle
To say raising sheep is in Kevin Halverson’s blood would not be an exaggeration. Kevin and his wife, Shirley, run 650 head of Rambouillet and Targhee sheep on Lower Deer Creek in Sweet Grass County. It’s something he’s done his entire life, having purchased his first lamb at age 7.
But that wasn’t the start of it. In 1872, Ronald Halverson, Kevin’s great-great-grandfather settled in Sweet Grass County and brought with him the first band of sheep in the area.
“He brought in a thousand head,” Kevin explained. “There were already a few sheep here, but he was the first with a herd that large.”
A fourth-generation Montana rancher, Kevin gives credit to his father and grandfather for the experience of raising sheep and all that they taught him. The ranch sits on the same ground where his great-grandfather first settled. Remnants of his homestead can still be seen along the creek bottom. The large cottonwoods and protected pastures make a fine setting for raising sheep and a perfect location for lambing, which starts in early April.
On a recent warm spring day, the Halversons were shearing, and all family members were present for the annual event. Kevin’s son, Ron, grandson, Trevor, and granddaughter, Eva, were all lending a hand along with several neighbors. A portable shearing trailer had been brought in by a traveling shearing crew of five. They kept busy as the Halverson family pushed the sheep down a narrow alley and up into the trailer to be shorn and pushed out to pasture. The work continued throughout the day.
One of Kevin’s four sisters and Ron’s fiancé were on hand to help out, and his 92-year-old mother stopped by to show support. The work involved a good deal of affection, bantering and camaraderie among the family members. As the work was being done at the corrals, Shirley and her daughter, Sammie Jo, and some neighbors were back at the house preparing a meal to feed the crew.
Kevin is the past president of the Montana Wool Growers Association and spent over a decade on the board. He’s vocally promoted mutton and wool and has given advice to dozens of young ranchers, FFA members and 4-Hers. He spent decades on the Sweet Grass Wool Pool when the county proudly supported around 130 wool growers.
“Back in the ’80s, it wasn’t unusual to have 250,000 pounds of wool coming out of Sweet Grass County alone,” Kevin said. “Today, Sweet Grass is combined with Stillwater and Wheatland and have a combined number of about 30 growers.”
The biggest factor in the declining number of growers was the loss of the Wool Incentive Program. Implemented in the 1950s, the program rewarded growers who produced superior wool.
For over 40 years, the wool incentive provided substantial income to sheep ranchers and was used to sustain domestic production. The program was financed with tariffs and did not require any tax dollars. The government did away with the program in the early 1990s, after which the industry saw a tremendous decline in producers.
““We feel a great responsibility toward educating consumers. There’s so much misconception out there. ”
Still, Kevin hopes that his family will carry on. At 71, he doesn’t show much sign of slowing down. “I have half the sheep I ran at half my age,” he quipped, “and I’m just as tired as I was back then.”
A humble man with calloused hands and kind eyes, Kevin is well liked in his community and still willing to help out other sheep ranchers.
“I’ve helped kids out for decades,” he said, “but I’m always learning, too.”
Today he’s helping 14-year-old Trevor “read” fleece. As Trevor pulled a tiny sample out of the wool on the sheep’s back, he meticulously pulled it apart.
“What do you think, Grampa?” he asked Kevin.
“What do you think, Trevor?” Kevin asked in return.
The two of them discussed the crimping and the waviness, the texture and the fineness of the wool before determining if it would be suitable to add to the blocks of wool accumulating from the shorn sheep. Kevin smiled as Trevor raced back to the end of the alley to continue pushing sheep forward.
“He’s a great kid,” he said proudly. “During lambing, I’ll come down to check the ewes at 5 in the morning and he will have already been here.”
There are many facets to operating the ranch, and it seems that the three generations have each gravitated toward what they are best suited for.
Ron loves the land and is working to implement intensive grazing into the ranch’s operating program. The idea is to break pastures down into smaller allotments, forcing livestock to graze more efficiently, which also helps control the spread of noxious weeds such as leafy spurge.
“We are trying to utilize our pasture better,” Kevin said. “Cattle and sheep actually graze well together. They don’t eat the same native plants, so grazing is more efficient, and the predators seem to stay away from the lambs more when there’s cows in the area, too.”
With the changes in consumer buying habits, government involvement and a growing anti-ag being promoted toward the entire ag instustry, it seems like an uphill battle for ranchers.
“We feel a great responsibility toward educating consumers,” Shirley said. “There’s so much misconception out there. I can’t tell you the number of times I have had conversations with people that thought you had to kill a sheep to shear it. They really have no idea. And that’s just one example.”
Taking care of the herd, being good stewards of the land, keeping up with the economics and changing attitudes of consumers keep the family trying hard to stay one step ahead.
“No matter how bad it gets, you can’t beat wool,” Shirley said. “They’ve tried to duplicate it, but they just can’t. Wool clothing can be worn year-round, it’s far superior to synthetics, it wears forever and you don’t have to wash it every time you wear it.”