We caught up with the breeder of the Reserve Grand Champion Market Lamb at the 2025 San Angelo Stock Show. We invite you to read our candid interview with Valentine Club Lambs below and please continue to check back often for our next edition of “Breeder Spotlight.”
What’s the pedigree of your champion?
Ride Time x Gunsmoke (ShootYeah)
Who helped you get started raising sheep?
Stuart Spruill
If you could go back and restart your herd, what is one thing you would have put more emphasis on?
When I started I bought a lot of different ewes from different programs. If I could go back I would put more emphasis on buying more tightly bred predictable ewes to start with.
What is a challenge you have faced as a breeder, and how did you overcome it?
Biggest challenge I’ve faced is getting the right feed and mineral program put together for our donors and recips to be as successful as possible at producing embryos and having high conception rates. I over came this by getting with a Purina nutritionist that helped set up the program we are on now.
Interesting fact about your champion?
We have kids that are showing now and we have decided to not show any of our early born sheep and to sell them all. I told my wife before we sold this sheep that if I were to keep one for our kids to go win a big show it would have been that one.
What pedigree do you feel like has been the most intriguing?
Within my own program I would have to say when we bred Simba (unicorn son of Schminke Genetics) to our Bullseye daughters was very intriguing. And honestly as a whole when we bred Simba to multiple female pedigrees I felt like that was as deep a set of sheep, as a whole, we have ever made. We are just now breeding those Simba daughters and are very excited to see the outcome.
What is your goal show to win as a breeder?
Houston. We have raised the reserve but it’s definitely a goal to raise the Grand.
What is your favorite TX Major?
Houston
