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Larry and Marcia Shell 4800 Bickel Church Rd. Baltimore, Ohio 43105 Dan Shell 1901 Doak Road Midland, Ohio 45148 Phone: 937 302-8367 E-mail: Shellshamps@hotmail.com |
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“Raising Hampshires for 39 Years” |
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We welcome you to Shell’s Hampshires! A family operation since 1970. Shell’s Hampshires is built on integrity, hard work and a dedication to the improvement of the Hampshire sheep business. We take great pride as a family in doing our best to provide good solid Hampshire sheep that are structurally correct, productive, show good breed character and have adequate size to be competitive in today’s show ring. We welcome your inquiries into our flock and the sheep we have at the farm. We know you will be pleased! |
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Shell’s Hampshires began in 1970 with the purchase of 10 ewes and a ram not knowing a great deal about the Hampshire breed. 39 years after that first lambing season we are still around. The sheep began as a project of Dan and soon grew to be a project of the whole family. In the early 1970’s, we purchased stud rams from Clarence Williamson in Ohio and built a foundation for our flock. This base was a great foundation for a start. We later began purchasing ewes and rams from Schlichter Hampshires and added to our foundation. We owe a lot of our success early to the help from Dan Schlichter and Schlichter Hampshires. In the late 1970’s, Dan went to Ohio State University and worked as a student shepherd there under the direction of Ron Guenther. The flock began to improve more as the help from Ron in teaching Dan flock management skills and fitting skills that he shared with the family. At about this same time, Shell’s Hampshires purchased the Fred Hergert flock from Wilmington, Ohio which was a club lamb flock of Hampshires and expanded the operation. We then took Fred Hergert’s spot in the Lamb Power Club Lamb Sale and met Bruce Achor and Don Melvin where a great relationship was established. We sold club lambs in that sale for 10 years concentrating on Hampshire type market lambs. We phased that part of the operation out in the mid 1990’s to concentrate on the frame Hampshires with the Hampshire club lamb influence. After college in the early 1980’s for Dan, He accepted a job as shepherd for Charlie Kirlin in Indiana. After 6 months, he missed working with his own sheep and moved back to Ohio to help with the family flock. Since then Shell’s Hampshires has been a family operation with Dan’s brother Doug and sister Deetra joining in to help with the operation. With the addition of 6 grandchildren for Larry and Marcia, the showmen in the family increased and all 6 grandchildren show at the Ohio State Fair, county fairs, and Louisville. The girls have all done well in ladies lead and participate in that to keep grandma happy! They have had much success in the show ring. Currently the flock is at two locations. Larry and Marcia keep many of the brood ewes at there home in Baltimore, Ohio and Dan keeps the yearlings, lambs and show sheep at Midland, Ohio. The lambing season is split up between the two locations as to keep the intensity of the labor down on just one person. Dan has great help from his two children Austin and Marinda who help do the chores and lambing. Currently the Hampshire flock is about 35 ewes. It is built on about 4 ewe families that are very strong. We just added 5 ewes from the Timber Lake Hampshire flock that will add to our strength. Last year we combined Chad Epley’s Hampshire flock with ours to increase our quality. Chad is a nephew of Larry and Marcia and has started his own Tunis flock at the farm. He is now concentrating on them but still a valuable part of the management team for the Hampshires. Culling ewes has been very heavy the past couple of years to make sure we build on our quality. We show at three state fairs and attend show and sales. We have an excellent balance of frame sheep with a touch of the club lamb type from Cabaniss to maintain the combination of qualities we like. We never sacrifice integrity, structural correctness, muscle, and adequate size. We are also active in the Ohio Hampshire Sheep Association where Dan is past President. You may also know Shell’s Hampshires from the Hampshire Heartbeat magazine. Dan writes the “Youth Connection” page for the magazine. He also has judged for 29 years, judging breeding sheep shows and market lamb shows throughout Ohio and surrounding states. We welcome you to our website and hope you find the type of sheep that you will be interested in adding to your flock or just seeing what we are raising to improve the Hampshire breed. Contact us for more information or stop by and see us at the next show! |
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Ed and Deetra Mattox Marcus and Marissa |
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Doug and Becky Shell McKenzey and Logan |
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Dan Shell Austin and Marinda |
