will-c nance farm

Will-C Nance Farm began officially in 2005.  William and I got married in July 2005.  The sheep kinda came with the package for William.  He grew up in South Carolina on a commercial beef and crop farm.  I grew up in Georgia raising a few head of show calves, show pigs and a whole mess of sheep.  The marriage excluded the pigs but we still have beef cows and sheep.  We also began a dairy farm 15 days after we were married.  It was an exicting time for us.

The farm began with 5 Suffolk ewes that I had remaining from my show flocks during high school.  We soon had about 25 head of ewes.  For two years we raised only Suffolks and a few market lambs.  In 2007 we expanded to include 45 Border Cheviots.  It was quite an adventure.  The week after we agree to purchase John Sponaugle's entire Cheviot flock we found out I was 6 weeks pregnant.  We lambed out 60 ewes in 2008 and 1 owner.  Our little boy Wyatt was born right in the middle of lambing season.  It was difficult having a new baby, ewes lambing, and a dairy.  After much thought I decided not to return to my full time job as a teacher and we reduced our ewe numbers.  I took six months off to enjoy our new bundle of joy, work on my Master's, and decide if I really wanted to teach, right then.  I found a position with our county government  in Nov. 08 and it allowed me the flexiblity to be at home with my son more and still get into the classroom as a non-formal environmental educator.  A great combonation for our lifestyle.

Currently we run about 20 head of purebred Suffolk and Cheviot ewes.  We plan to stay at this size for a while perhaps adding a third breed in the future.  In the summer of 2010 we plan to begin offering retail cuts of lamb to consumers.  For more information on our farm please check out our blog at www.willcnancefarm.blogspot.com.