By Jennifer Stultz
Tri-County Tribune Editor
jstultz@cherryroad.com

A casual church conversation led to the start of a sustainable sheep farm near Sawyer, Kansas, and co-owners Kretzen and Janette Hartmann and Daniel and Sarah Hampton couldn’t be happier with how their business, Hartmann Hampton Farms, is progressing.

“We are both farm laborers in Pratt County and have worked together for many years,” said Kretzen Hartmann, about his sheep partner, Daniel Hampton. “We were just talking casually after church one Sunday about how hard it was to find lamb to cook for dinner. You just can’t find it readily around here, and we decided we should raise our own. It just went from there.”

Hartmann is originally from South Africa and said in his home country, lamb was a staple. Only occasionally did they have beef.

“There are many farm laborers in this area that come from South Africa, so we found we had a ready market for any sheep we can produce for meat,” Hartmann said. “It’s really hard to keep up at this point.”

In August 2023, Hartmann and his wife, Janette, and Hampton, and his wife, Sarah, went in together and purchased 21 Dorper ewes and 1 ram, formed an LLC, and began business as sheep producers in Pratt County. They rented several acres from Vernon Hirt south of Sawyer and grew their business from there.

“There was just a water hydrant and some broken down fences when we started, so we’ve come a long way already,” Hampton said.

Right now the farm consists of 75 ewes, lambs, and a few rams, a new metal building for shelter, lambing pens, good water, a catch ring, and sheep-worthy perimeter fencing. Predators are kept at bay with solar electric fencing and two loyal Great Pyrenees guard dogs.

“I can see the sheep from my upper level window in Sawyer,” Janette Hartmann said. “And we are thankful to have good neighbors who call us if they hear the dogs barking. The dogs are very good at their job. We have not lost anything to coyotes.”

The Dorper sheep are considered hair sheep so they do not need to be sheared every year. Instead, winter wool growth comes off on its own. The sheep graze grass in the fertile waterway of the property, supplemented with a bit of grass hay in the catch pen trough. Hartmann and Hampton often come out with a bucket of grain and call in the sheep from grazing for a treat of corn in the catch pen troughs as well, keeping them tame and easy to manage.

“They know our voices,” Hartmann said. “If I call, they come running from all across the pasture.”

When customers come to buy a sheep on the hoof, the sheep are called into the catch pen and Hartmann moves among them to easily pull out the desired purchase.

“So far, we have sold more than 10 bucks to people who like to choose their own purchase. We offer suggestions as to where they can go to get them butchered and processed,” Hartmann said.

Currently, Hartmann Hampton Farms lamb meat is available for sale at Rattlesnake Meat Company in Pratt. They also sell sheep by live choice at the farm, by reservation.

Contact information for the LLC is HartmannHamptonFarms@gmail.com, or by calling 620-309-0572 (Hartmann) or 785-650-7709 (Hampton).

The farm also readily brings the lambs out for petting zoos or informational workshops.