Mike & Carrie Caskey
Pine Lawn Farms – Holland, MN

Mike Caskey, who owns and manages Pine Lawn Farms in partnership with his wife Carrie and their grown sons Jason and Kyle, is a fourth-generation sheep producer. In 2016, Pine Lawn Farm is celebrated 50 years in the sheep business.

It’s with a “been there, done that, glad I’m doing it” philosophy that Mike wishes all production and genetics decisions in the sheep industry were based on objective data rather than a majority of decisions being based on subjective guessing.  “Records make it more likely that producers can achieve their goals,” Mike says. “Our 50 years of records show that our performance bar keeps raising.  Certain criteria that existed perhaps 10 years ago are no longer okay. We expect more — and get it— from our rams and ewes.”

Seeing the role of a purebred producer as more than just providing high-quality genetic material to commercial producers, Mike also wears the hat of educator when it comes to working with Pine Lawn Farms’ partners.

“We’ll be growing at a pace that is appropriate for the farm and our management situation,” Mike relates. “If all goes as planned, we’ll be at 1,000 commercial ewes five years from now.”

Mike says he already knows where the lambs out of their commercial ewes will be marketed. “That’s an easy answer: Superior Farms,” Mike states.