EWES FOR YOUTH

Honoring the legacy of Larry McGuire – Read more about Larry here

This program will award grant money to be used to purchase a new breeding ewe from a list of participating breeders. The breeder will also serve as a mentor to the participating family.

Goal of program: To help fund and accelerate new junior breeders trying to grow the quality of their breeding program and develop mentorship between the new breeder and an established breeder

Outline: We ask breeders to donate $50 to this program. Any participating breeder will go on a list that kids awarded this grant can choose to purchase a ewe from. The association will match funds with the breeders, and send payment directly to the breeder, up to half of the purchase price of the ewe.

Guidelines:

• Family will be required to pay for half of the purchase price themselves. The purchase price is determined between the recipient and the breeder based on live, online or on-farm sale value
• Money from association to be paid directly to breeder that purchase is made from
• Money to be awarded will fluctuate based on donations from breeders and purchase price. Money to be awarded will not exceed $1200 total to any one applicant. Anything raised from breeders above that amount will roll over into the next year’s program. If enough additional money is raised, we will award a second grant, assuming there are enough applicants
• Committee can choose not to award grant money for any given year if there are no suitable applicants. In that scenario, any money donated for that year will be rolled over into the next year
• Ewe will be required to participate in the futurity program
• Lamb can be purchased off the farm or through a sale, will be eligible for Futurity
• Only one grant to be awarded per family
• Only available your first three years as a junior member, awarded to a member that is in the early stages of building a breeding program
• Breeders to be acknowledged through a banner at Kickoff & Classic and list will be posted on our website and social media pages
• Applicants will fill out an application, write a short essay, and go through an interview process
• Educational component to recipient on futurity, developing mentor relationships

2026 Ewes for Youth Participating Breeders