We caught up with the breeder of the Reserve Champion Market Lamb at the 2025 California Youth Ag Expo. We invite you to read our candid interview with Pagliaro-Bohan Club Lambs below and please continue to check back often for our next edition of “Breeder Spotlight.”
What’s the pedigree of your champion?
Unicorn x Rowdi’s Ewe (Ring Help x Timber)
What are your long-term goals as a breeder?
To try to make lambs higher quality than the previous year. We hate it when we feel like there wasn’t any progress, it makes for a long year.
Was there a moment when you almost gave up? What made you push through?
There have been many moments where we have wanted to throw in the towel, almost every picture day ends up in one of us storming out of the barn screaming we are over it. It is kind of like child birth, you forget all of the agony and sacrifices with the next win or the next good flush day.
What’s something you’ve changed your mind about over the years?
We used to not like to get baby lambs too fat and bloomy, but the buyers and bidders pretty much demand it now, so we try to work hard at having them fat and bloomy for sales.
If you could rebuild your herd/flock from scratch, what would you do differently?
We should have cut our numbers back way earlier in order to put more time into the top end. We wish we would have started aggressively flushing earlier, it certainly made the top end deeper and definitely brought up the quality of the bottom end.
What trait do you wish you had focused on sooner in your program?
We have always put a lot of emphasis on chest floors, round bodies and short blades. We were nervous to sacrifice those traits and we waited too long to focus on bone and skeletal width.
Is there a breeding decision you’re especially proud of — or one you regret?
Rowdi’s ewe was 26lbs when we sent her to Hayley Byrd’s place, I had to convince Hayley’s dad, Ty just to take her and throw her in a pen and just feed her and not look at her for a couple of months. 3 months later she went to her first show and was able to find the backdrop at most shows from then on. Her first lamb crop was a disaster it was a terrible pull that resulted in her loosing her milk and neglecting the lambs, the neglect continued her 2nd lamb crop and that’s when I decided we just needed to let Dorpers raise her lambs so we started flushing her, she never flushed big numbers and her embryo quality wasn’t always great but I said as long as I can get a live lamb out of the deal, we will keep rolling with her. Most thought I should ship her, but I believed in her. In May she shocked us when she flushed 18 beautiful embryos bred the same way, with 14 due in October. I am so glad I stuck to my guns on this one.
As far as regrets, we wish we would have utilized Drop the Mic and Unicorn a whole lot sooner, we were way too late to that party.
What’s your favorite state fair — and why?
The most impressive state fair I have attended was Iowa.
Is there anything you wish you had known when you started breeding?
t costs just as much to feed average ones as it does to feed good ones.
What’s next — any big goals or projects in the works?
Just to try and keep making them better and staying progressive.
