We caught up with the breeder of the Reserve Grand Champion Market Lamb at the 2023 Houston Livestock 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.”
Who had the biggest influence on you to start your own herd?
My wife Jessica Valentine and Stuart Spruill gave me the biggest nudge to get a herd started. I had just moved to Stephenville in 2010 and had hung up my rodeo career and was kinda trying to figure out what I was going to do next and luckily I found myself working for Stuart Spruill not long after moving there. He helped me fall in love with the industry all over again after not being in it since showing in high school. And I remember Jessica at the time telling me “if you’re gonna do it nows the time” so we jumped in head first and never looked back.
First buck you can remember you bred to:
Stuart Spruill’s buck Jock Strap
Favorite ewe? Why?
We call her Donor 2012. We raised her. She’s a Bullseye x No Doubt. She is the mom of the reserve grand sheep at Houston and not only that she raised the buck Pruitt livestock and I own Fast & Furious and she has also raised multiple high sellers for us that we have sold at the Young Guns live sell. She’s put a lot of food on our table for sure
Growing up what did you think your occupation would be?
I knew I would be here on our family ranch cowboying for a living like I am now but never knew I’d be raising club lambs.
Are you still on the farm or buildings that you started raising sheep in? If not, when and why did you decide to move?
I still use our original barn set up for a recip operation but have moved all our donors and herd ewes to a larger barn due to growing in numbers.
What has been the scariest decision for your operation?
Buying Joy Ride from Diamond C Club Lambs would be one of them. That’s the first high solar buck we bought. We are a small operation and even smaller then so took a big chance writing that check but I couldn’t have worked out better. We have built a ton of our program around that buck. Thanks for the opportunity Skip.
If you could add one thing to your operation, what would it be and why?
Another lambing barn amd AI/ET facility. We are running out of room again and have big plans on continuing to grow our herd and operation.
