Tollefson Land + Livestock

04/04/2026

Love seeing what talented chefs do with our lamb.

Sysco buying out restaurant depot is gonna change a lot of people's ways of doing business.

If you're a farmer , rancher , butcher , local goods seller id be making some connections with all these food businesses real quick. My favorite person and product is Patsy’s Prime Lamb
Local to the Midwest , easy to get ahold of , and the best lamb you'll find in the US in my opinion. We just used her lamb for croquettes

We braise the lamb and fold in the shredded meat into Yukon gold mash and some of the braising liquid. Fried and paired with a spicy white bean puree and a herby yogurt sauce.

03/19/2026

I’m going to miss this. Drake scouts the timber so no ewes get left behind and to save the dogs some miles. Everyone’s been moved to the front pasture. Tomorrow we sort.

02/17/2026

01/28/2026

Barrel and rib shape matter a lot in my environment. Pasture conditions can be wet or lower in density at times, and sheep need the capacity to consume volume to meet their nutritional needs. Animals with good spring of rib and depth of barrel consistently hold condition, fertility, and muscle better on grass. Sheep that are tighter flanked or more cylindrical tend to struggle here over time. Barrel isn’t about appearance, it directly affects intake and long-term performance on pasture.

When that intake and capacity are in place, a wide, full loin becomes one of the better visual indicators of overall muscling in an animal. 👌

01/21/2026

To follow the post earlier this week on the breed standard

Everyone talks about maternal, performance, or carcass, but no one ever mentions structural correctness.

As I view more and more sale catalogs and videos, I notice a trend that most producers describe their program as “maternal with performance” or “maternal with performance and carcass.” Although some breeders make note of feet as a priority, feet are just a small component of structural soundness and skeletal design. Bad feet are most commonly due to either management/nutrition/exercise, or other underlying skeletal issues. Feet don’t tell the entire structural story. Some of my best footed animals have restricted movement.

I’ve seen numerous bull videos already where you can tell that he won’t last two years in the breeding pasture just based on structure. Bulls will get foot rot or injured causing them to have a shortened career, but they shouldn’t be falling out of the herd before 5 just from bad phenotypic design. Does it matter if a bull is top 1% WW if he can’t travel with ease? Should it be a rarity for a breeding bull to last 5 years?

Someone once told me that when you’re in the picture pen, the animals that never set up and strike a pose are probably just physically unable to do so whether it is being short hipped, incorrect angle to the hock, etc.

Meanwhile, the animals that are constantly setting up and striking a pose are more likely to be correct in the layout of their skeletal design with more range of motion.

Think about how many issues could be eliminated for commercial cattlemen if we got the structural design of their cowherd honed in and then started pushing the needle towards greater performance.

There are higher performing, bigger scaled cattle that are correctly made just as poor performing cattle can be incorrectly made. It seems that evaluating skeletal layout, mobility, and flexibility are overlooked and under emphasized in genetic selections regardless of the type of cattle you are breeding towards.

I understand that heavier bulls are easier to sell because growth/size is a tangible selection measure. So how do you explain to a customer that “this bull may give up a little performance (he’s not the biggest) but he’s from a cow family that is consistently fertile and sound with good udders.” Conformation and skeletal design needs to be a higher priority than performance, but that is so unattractive to incorporate into marketing and messaging.

Maternal function, production, optimal performance, feet, udders, fertility, docility, muscle, mothering ability, and more are selection priorities, but structural design is the area I am the most critical of in my own cowherd.

Direction is more important than speed. While generational turn around in cattle breeding is a slow process, it is exciting to intentionally breed towards cattle that balance maternal, performance, and phenotypic design with emphasis on structural conformation.

01/20/2026

Correct structure matters in commercial flocks because it directly affects foot wear and the need for trimming feet. When sheep don’t stand square on all four legs, their feet don’t wear evenly. Over time, that leads to more frequent trimming, more handling, and more labor for the producer.

In low-input, pasture-based systems, correct structure is what allows sheep to travel, graze, and wear their feet naturally with minimal intervention.

Selecting for correct four-leg structure reduces labor, improves longevity, and increases profitability for commercial producers.

01/19/2026

Do I have any friends in need of adult LDGs? They are brother/sister/siblings to my dogs, raised by the same owner. My dogs are phenomenal, and I have been extremely pleased with them. These dogs are ready to work, but will only go to an approved working home. Current owner is no longer in Livestock.

01/13/2026

Form Follows Function
This is one structural trait that new breeders can learn to spot easily.

A flat chest is often associated with legs set too far forward. This is an area where some current show trends don’t align with function. Even if movement looks acceptable today, that structure can show up later as shoulder breakdown, reduced longevity, and less functional daughters.

(Many well-known South African breeders photograph sheep slightly quartering away, which can visually minimize brisket. Don’t be fooled by angles, brisket protrusion remains a priority in functional flocks.)

01/06/2026

Shoulder issues directly affect comfort, longevity, and performance in working conditions. In breeding rams, repeated mounting places forward, outward, and rotational stress on the shoulders, accelerating breakdown and reducing their ability to consistently cover ewes. Because shoulder structure is highly heritable, retaining daughters from these animals can quietly carry the problem forward in a flock for generations.