By CELESTE BAUMGARTNER
Ohio Correspondent

RADNOR, Ohio  — Tim Barnes was named by the Ohio Sheep Improvement Assoc. (OSIA) its 2009 Charles Boyles Master Shepherd Award Winner.

Barnes and his family operate Scioto Farms. Through the years, he has been active and competitive in showing and selling sheep. Barnes has held leadership positions on the county, state and national levels, and has judged sheep on those levels as well. He has worked with other sheep producers to promote lamb and wool.
Barnes also grows corn, soybeans, wheat and is a contract finisher for 2,400 head of hogs. “We have about 60 head of Shropshires, and that is our main breed,” he said. “We have 10 head of Tunis (the breed which grazed on the White House lawn under President Washington); they’re one of the older breeds.”

The sheep industry is constantly evolving, Barnes said. Lamb can furnish protein for an ever-increasing population. It is the meat of choice especially for ethnic populations from the Middle East and from parts of Africa.

“We still have several acres of marginal grass grounds here in the United States,” Barnes said. “Sheep, being a ruminant, surely can benefit from those types of environments. If you want to feed corn and soybeans on a more intensive feedlot-type situation, there are opportunities, too.”

In the future it would be helpful if the sheep industry was more proactive in the acceptance of performance data and also of artificial insemination, Barnes said.

“If we accepted that, it would lead to more ewe bases of an economic size,” he explained. “Realistically, 50 ewes isn’t an economic unit. We need commercial-sized operations, 1,000 to 2,000 just to have the economic scale to really produce a product at the least cost. That’s the type of thing the sheep industry is going to have to change, to compete with pork, beef and poultry and turkey.”

Australia and New Zealand have been much more successful with artificially inseminating sheep; their technology could help the U.S. Using artificial insemination could produce superior sires, Barnes said.

Roger A. High, executive director of the OSIA and Ohio Sheep and Wool Program, said of the award, “Tim has been a tireless leader for the Ohio, as well as national sheep organizations, for many years. He is one of those leaders that you can always go to when something needs done.

“Tim has been successful with his sheep operation and his large crop and swine farm because he has made necessary modern changes in these operations, and has kept up with the industry trends over a long period of time.”

The award was named after Charles Boyles, a teacher and supporter of the Ohio sheep industry. The 2009 award was sponsored by ABN Radio; Lindsey Hill of ABN presented Barnes with a sculpture of a ewe.  The award is also sponsored in part by the OSIA and the Ohio Sheep and Wool Program.

“I am thankful I had the opportunity to win the award,” Barnes said. “My family has been very supportive, as the whole sheep industry has been.”