Quality Grass-Based Sheep Ranching

Explore our range of production and registered sheep breeds for sustainable farming practices.

Registered Sheep Breeds

Pedigree Horned Dorset sheep high maternal traits and low input grass based production.

Milking breeds East Frisian and Registered Finns

Hardy commercials bred for natural out of season lambing and no grain supplementation.

Dairy Sheep

Commercial Dorset Finns

Pasque Hills Ranch: Grass-Based Sheep Farm

Located in central South Dakota. Pasque Hills Ranch specializes in raising production type, registered Horned Dorsets, pedigree Ile de France, and a commercial band of dorset finns. We also have high percent East Fresian and Finn dairy breeds.

*Coming soon pedigree East fresians! Look back to see in September 2025.

We run ewes on pasture with mineral and salt supplements. The pedigree animals are lambed in February and do not get grain. The only time we have fed extuded soybeans is if we get -30 F or less spells that last at shearing for 1 week. The ewes then may receive 1/3 lb each. This helps with energy loss from shearing and the extreme weather and wind chills we have in South Dakota.

The fall group is naturally bred and lambs unassisted on pasture. We check once a day to tag.

The lambs are selected at birth from dam's that are able to keep track, feed, and take overall care of their lambs. The lambs then have to live up that expectation. Anything that shows environmental intolerance and lags in production and doe not posses maternal qualities get moved to feedlot market pens. Ram lambs and ewe lambs are treated equal. The lambs are grown slow to ensure adequate growth, function and structure.

We also have found feeding apple cider vinegar has helped with worms and keeps the animals at top notch performance. We've noticed this especially at lambing and during the dry season (July-September).

Family-Owned Sheep Ranch

Sustainable Livestock Farming

Our mission at Pasque Hills Ranch is to provide high-quality grass-based sheep while promoting sustainable farming practices and preserving heritage breeds. Sheep are all raised on pasture and forage alone unless deemed necessary.

We take great measures to ensure sheep are healthy and happy. Animals are test negative for OPP/CAE, Johnes, and Cl. We do provide results, and they are randomly tested yearly. We check animals famacha scores to keep the well known worm resistance patterns at bay. Normally its 2-3 ewes at most.

Ewes are housed in barns after shearing to protect them against the elements in the winter. The ewes otherwise run out on the pasture grounds were they are fed and allowed ample exercise.

All incoming stock is rigorously tested and quarantined and retested again to obtain accurate results.