Alger farmer is Ohio’s master shepherd

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By Mark Badertscher

Hardin County sheep producer Dave Burkhart was named the 2018 Charles Boyles Ohio Master Shepherd of the Year at the Buckeye Shepherd’s Symposium held Dec. 1 in Wooster.  

He started his sheep production enterprise in 1987 when he purchased his farm near Alger.  He built his flock up to 300 head of sheep, but has since decreased the size of his operation.  Burkhart is a commercial sheep producer, raising crossbred Dorset white faced ewes, along with some Suffolk-Hampshire crossbred ewes.  His ewes are bred each year with a couple of purebred Suffolk rams, a crossbred Hampshire and a white-faced ram that isn’t always a Dorset.

Over the years, he has sold a few club lambs for 4-H and FFA projects, but his primary focus lately has been producing and feeding out fat lambs to take advantage of the high lamb price and current low corn price.  

Burkhart has been very active in the sheep industry, serving on both the Ohio Sheep Improvement Association Board of Trustees and the Ohio Sheep and Wool Program Board of Directors.  He has also been a long time director of the Hardin County Sheep Improvement Association, serving as president. 

Internationally, Burkhart has participated in sheep and agriculture tours to Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom and Ireland.  

Nationally, he has toured sheep farms in Utah, Idaho, Oregon and most recently California.  Locally, he has traveled to all parts of Ohio and neighboring states as part of the Hardin County Sheep Management Tour planned by OSU Extension and the Hardin County Sheep Improvement Association along with producers from nearby counties. 

The Hardin County Fair is another place where Burkhart made an impact on the county.  He has been a part of the success of the local Sheep Improvement Association’s Lamb Stand, growing it from a tent to a small building. 

 PHOTO:  Dave Burkhart with Ohio Sheep Improvement Association & Ohio Sheep and Wool Program Executive Director Roger High (left), Nancy Wilcox, and 2018-2019 Ohio Lamb and Wool Queen Kaitlyn Stillion.