Montana Sheep Grower Explores Value-Added Options for Livestock

When it comes to lambs, wool, and resource conservation, Ben Lehfeldt is modeling innovation well beyond the borders of his own ranch.

In the wide-open rangelands of eastern Montana, Ben Lehfeldt shepherds thousands of sheep over hill and dale near the Musselshell River. As a fifth-generation rancher, his herds are reminiscent of centuries past.        

Lehfeldt’s great-great-grandpa first settled these rolling grasslands in 1885 at the beginning of Montana’s sheep boom. By the turn of the 20th century, Montana was the nation’s top sheep-growing and wool-producing state, with six million sheep roaming the range. According to the American Sheep Industry, 180,000 sheep and lambs were raised in Montana in 2024, ranking it 8th for sheep-growing in the nation.

“When we’re talking about rangeland health, sheep can bring diversity to the grazing plan because they graze different plants from cattle,” noted Tom Watson, state conservationist for Montana NRCS. “They can also help to manage invasive species like leafy spurge.”

Lehfeldt is proudly continuing his family’s legacy as a sheep and wool grower. Plus, as a director of the Montana Wool Growers Association and vice-president of the American Sheep Industry (as well as the industry’s representative on the National Grazing Lands Coalition), Lehfeldt is a mentor and a voice for 89,000 other sheep producers around the country.

Getting creative keeps the ranch profitable

After growing up on the ranch, Lehfeldt earned degrees in agronomy and biochemistry from Montana State University in Bozeman. Then he headed to the Midwest, where he spent seven years working on corn genetics for Monsanto in St. Louis. In 2005, Lehfeldt moved back to Montana to help run the ranch with his father.

Today, Lehfeldt teaches his two sons and four nieces and nephews the ins-and-outs of ranching. “They especially seem to enjoy helping with shearing and lambing,” Lehfeldt said.

Down the road, his goal is to ensure the ranch remains profitable enough to support his children’s families. “But that takes the work, it doesn’t just happen,” he noted.

Lehfeldt raises both sheep and cattle on their deeded and leased rangelands. Sheep yield annual profits from selling their wool or by leasing them out to graze weeds, he pointed out. They also tolerate Montana’s cold winters well and tend to cost less than cattle to raise. And when cattle prices drop, selling lamb and wool products can help make up the difference.

To keep his operation sustainable for the long term, Lehfeldt comes up with creative ways to generate income from his livestock. “We’ve always stressed dual purpose to get the value from both lambs and wool,” he said.

Lehfeldt’s ewes are Rambouillet, a merino breed, known for their fine wool. He sells the wool to high-quality, ethically made clothing companies like Ibex, Ramblers Way, and Duckworth.

The family also tries to spread out the sale of their lambs to capitalize on niche markets during a variety of holidays rather than selling all of them at once.

Targeting weeds with sheep grazing

One innovative income stream Lehfeldt taps into is using his herds to get rid of noxious weeds. “In terms of managing weeds, sheep can be very specific. We try to time it just right so the sheep eat mostly the weeds, not the grass.”

In exchange for keeping weeds under control on public or private land during the summer, Lehfeldt is able to keep his sheep on those parcels into the fall for free or reduced lease rates.

This year, he’s experimenting with virtual fencing on his cattle, which he thinks might be more cost-effective than rebuilding old fences as well as better for range health.

Lehfeldt is interested in using virtual fencing for his sheep, too, in order to maximize their weed-eating powers. “We could map areas that have noxious weeds, create a virtual fence around those areas, and the sheep would be guided by their collars to those areas,” he explained. “You could switch the area the next week or even the next day to get the most out of the sheep.”

Conserving natural resources for livestock and wildlife

Lehfeldt is mindful of stewarding his ranch’s valuable water, soils, and native plants to keep it sustainable. He signed a five-year grazing contract with the NRCS-led Sage Grouse Initiative to create smaller pastures, and rotate livestock more frequently between them. This helps the grasses flourish.

The contract with SGI also helped Lehfeldt construct a pipeline that distributes water across the ranch so his livestock can better utilize dry uplands. This project included building fenced water gaps for livestock that protect fragile streamsides and riverbanks. “Without the cost-share from SGI, this was something we would have had to space out over 30 or 40 years,” he said.

Wildlife on Lehfeldt’s ranch also benefit from these conservation practices, since hundreds of species rely on healthy native grasses and shrubs. And he’s willing to work with scientists to improve our collective understanding of rangeland systems and conservation actions, including a recent example where researchers from Montana State University studied his pastures to learn how sustainable grazing can boost populations of native bees.

“We have a sage grouse lek on the ranch, and in March and April they’re out there in the morning dancing on that,” Lehfeldt said. When the landscape dries out in late summer and fall, sage grouse and other wildlife move in to access the water, plants, and insects that abound in Lehfeldt’s irrigated fields.

To stay sustainable, try new things

When landowners do their part to keep public and private rangelands productive and vibrant, the positive impacts ripple out well beyond their ranches. It helps communities around the region thrive, and protects vital ecosystem services for people downstream, too.

“In Montana, more than 38 million acres of private land are used for grazing. Families like the Lehfeldts are critical for managing a huge portion of our state’s natural resources,” Watson pointed out. “If I could wave a magic wand, I would hope to see a future where families like the Lehfeldts are still running a profitable operation that the next generation wants to be part of.”

The bottom line advice Lehfeldt offers other livestock producers? “You’ve got to keep trying new things. You can’t be doing the same old,” said Lehfeldt. “In order to be sustainable, you’ve got to look at all the pieces. Every bit counts.”