I’m a simple man. My two biggest passions in life are fantasy football and agriculture; namely farming.
I currently operate my own sheep farm after being around the animals my entire life. You see, my grandfather is a world-renowned sheep shearer, having been to each corner of the globe to shear the wool of these beautiful creatures. Humble brag (as his grandson I guess,) he has even shorn the personal sheep of the Queen of England.
Pretty cool, I know.
Beyond that, he operated a large sheep farm at one point, having upwards of 1,500 on his farm. During my lifetime, he always had a few head roaming the small wooded pasture he had across the creek from his home.
I’ve assisted him in shearing sheep my whole life. From my young days of picking up wool to my time as a collegiate athlete, working with him over winter break where he, at 70-plus years old, worked laps around me.
Where am I going with this? Well, recently I’ve had a lot of time to think about both of these passions of mine.
You see, I recently underwent an over-eight hour surgery to remove a large tumor from my lumbar spinal cord. The tumor, it’s type and location, is just the eighth reported case in medical history.
Again, why do I bring this up? Because when I do something, I do it bigger or differently than most.
And that brings us to the premise of this article.
I’ve found a way to combine these two outlets of mine. How can we bring farming together with fantasy football? It’s simple really.
I’m hosting the first ever (self proclaimed of course) fantasy football league where the league winner will receive the legal owning rights to a ewe (female sheep) on my farm.
Why would one want this? Why wouldn’t they just want their normal payout?
Well, for one, think of the next time you’re hitting on a girl at the bar and you can show her a picture of the sheep you own.
But really, this is a win that will reward you for upwards of a decade.
The sheep market in the United States is very lucrative at this moment. Prices where I live in Pennsylvania have reached over $3.25 per pound for quality market lambs.
Just west of here, in Ohio, prices have been over $4 a pound. A quality market lamb falls around 90-pounds, netting about $300-350 per market lamb.
Now, sheep are known to have two lambs at a time. Heck, they can have up to four healthy lambs at once.
The Winner would receive 50-percent of earnings from lambs produced from the original ewe. Ewes can have lambs for over 10-years.
All ewe lambs are retained on the farm and lambs from the first lamb would see 25% of profits going to the winner.
Ram lambs are the ones who go to market. On top of that, I own a very nice proven ram. He throws twins over 75-percent of the time. There could be chances of the winner’s ewe and my ram producing a ram worth selling to another ram for breeding purposes.
Now the question remains, why am I doing this? Again, I wanted to intertwin my two passions as well as bring awareness to the farming world.
Men and women all over the world work sun up to sun down to provide food for your table. May it be livestock or vegetables and everything in between, it’s a thankless job that most times goes unnoticed.
Thank a farmer.