Bringing Family TogetherThrough Farming

Photos by Jamie Plain

Sitting on seventeen acres is the home and farm of Taylor and Kayla Pruitt. With their three young children, Elliott (7), Jack Murphy (5), and Tatum (3), they have built a side business of sheep farming and introduced their children to what hard work looks like. 

Nestled inside their large red barn and roaming their pasture are twenty-two sheep and two sheep dogs, but learning the ropes of what owning a sheep farm looks like didn’t come easy. Having both grown up around farming, Taylor and Kayla were familiar with the agriculture industry but sheep were never part of their farming experiences. Kayla grew up on a produce farm, and Taylor grew up around his grandfather’s cattle and his family’s tobacco farm. This duo never saw themselves with sheep, but their beautiful, open field opened doors for a new opportunity. 

The Pruitts aren’t full-time farmers. Rather, Kayla is a registered nurse at Deaconess where she does infusion – mostly oncology drugs such as chemotherapy. Taylor works full-time at Kimberly-Clark in Owensboro working with recycled fiber. They are both blessed with flexible schedules, which allows them to be able to be with family, work around their children’s schedules and work on their farm as needed. 

The doors opened to discussion about running a sheep farm through Kayla when she and a patient, Kimberly, were talking one day. While chatting, Kayla asked Kimberly what she and her husband do for a living, and her patient stated how they owned a sheep farm. The conversation continued with Kayla sharing how she and her husband lived on a farm, too. Kayla explained how — at the time — they had hay in their field, and the previous owner had a horse farm. It worked to the benefit of the previous owner that the farmer across the street would bail the hay for him and he would use it. They let the farmer across the street do the same thing because they didn’t have the equipment to do anything, but then Kayla thought “Why don’t we do something to benefit from this farm ourselves?” 

Taylor had talked about doing cattle, but Kayla’s fear was they would have a bull, it would get out, and then it’s her and three small kids. She didn’t know how she felt about that. Kimberly told her that she should get her husband, Duane, and Taylor together to talk about farming sheep. She explained how they are low maintenance and have a pretty high dollar. They exchanged numbers and the rest was history. 

Kayla said, “Most people aren’t sheep farmers around here. We do have some here in Henderson but most people do cows and stuff like that. There is more of a different market that will stand out.”

The Pruitts decided to jump in and give sheep farming a try. Kayla stated, “We had planned on getting our farm ready for a year. We will get it all ready and then we will bring it all in.” However, things didn’t go as planned. Someone just happened to post their Great Pyrenees dogs. These dogs can only be away from sheep for a certain period of time, and farmers have to make sure these dogs are used to being around sheep because not all Great Pyrenees are sheep dogs. The dog mom — with a bit of exaggeration — said, “It was a deal you couldn’t pass up, so we got these two dogs and then we were like, ‘We’ve got to get sheep!’ We started putting things together really quick. I feel like when you are around our culture of life you always know somebody that knows somebody that can help get you going. Between Duane and Kimberly Davis — owners of Dogwood Ridge Farm — and our family friends, we started out with six sheep.” 

Taylor explained the importance of starting small to make sure they liked it, especially since neither of them were familiar with sheep farming. Taylor said, “We just kept working with two families trading sheep and buying around to keep reproducing.” Most of their twenty-two sheep are girls right now, and that’s what they want. They now have some registered sheep, too.  

There are people who eat mutton around here, but it’s not near as common here, Kayla said, so all they do right now is raise them and take them to market to sell.

The optimistic farmer’s wife said, “In the long run, I would like to maybe partner more with locals  – like Thomason’s is known for their mutton or Homers. That may not be what we like to eat but other people do and then it’s your local meat and you know where it comes from. And that’s my thing is I eventually want us to grow a little bit.” 

Outside of their sheep, they also have chickens on their farm. Kayla had pigs when she was in high school, so she would love to get some pigs on their farm in the future, too. She explained how she loves seeing her children experience farm life. She noted an example of their family being out of eggs one day. She went out to see if there were any eggs from their chickens. One of her kids said, “How cool is that. You can go in your backyard and get your own food.” 

When it comes to the animals on the farm, their youngest daughter, Tatum (3), is still pretty fearful, but she is beginning to get out there more. Elliott (7) will comb the dogs and Jack Murphy (5) will go in the chicken coup and pick the eggs and go inside the fence with the sheep when Taylor goes out there. “We just want them to be comfortable,” expressed Kayla.  

Farming hours look a little different for the Pruitts since they have other jobs outside of their sheep farm. Taylor will go out in the morning and at night. He will make sure there is food and water, count the sheep, give medicine, trim hooves, etc.  He will then check on the dogs and chickens and clean the coup out. The dogs have their own spot in the barn with the sheep, and they are very protective over the sheep. As the Pruitt Farm has grown, they have had to redo their set-up within the barn and field. Taylor has blocked off 6 acres for the sheep, and put a fence around it to regulate where they can move throughout the pasture.  

Although sheep farming is more low maintenance, it still comes with challenges just as any other type of farming. Predators and diseases are two of the main challenges owning a sheep farm. Taylor noted, “As long as you keep them healthy, it’s manageable. The dogs are a big advantage for us, so I don’t have to worry about predators.”

When it comes to diseases, sheep farmers do what they can to keep their sheep healthy by making sure the pasture stays dry, trimming their hooves and cleaning out the barn to avoid foot rot. If a sheep gets foot rot, farmers must move all the sheep away from the pasture for a certain period of time to allow the disease to get out of the pasture. In some cases, Taylor explained how there are farmers who get rid of their sheep for an entire year. 

Farming doesn’t stop even when the Pruitt family has to go out of town. That has been what has made this farming experience so rich is knowing they have family who are able and willing to help. Taylor trained Kayla’s younger cousin, Hudson, who is a freshman in high school. He brought him over one day, trained him on how to do everything and then watched him handle the farm to make sure he understood and answered questions he might have. 

Sometimes other family members will drive over to help, so Taylor has it set up so people don’t actually have to go in with the sheep. There is a walkway with a homemade feeder. The food and water are already there. This allows them to make their farm convenient and make those who are willing to help comfortable with how they prefer to help. Taylor said, “It’s kind of dynamic because some don’t want to get in with the sheep or with the dogs.”

A coffee pot of grain can be used to bring the sheep back in if they ever get out. Taylor can shake it, and they will come to him. Kayla laughed saying, “When they see Taylor outside it’s like little kids, ‘Oh, daddy!’ They will run. It’s the cutest thing. They are trained. They will follow him around and do whatever.”

Two years into sheep farming, the Pruitts are still learning this way of farming but one area that is constant is lambing season which keeps them pretty busy. They will put the ram in with the sheep and are able to control it by whether the ram is in or out, knowing they will get the babies within a month or so of each other. Their first year they kept the ram in to get turnover. September, October, and November are when they are breeding, and ideally March is when you start getting baby lambs. Gestation is usually five months, but Taylor and Kayla said it’s very difficult to tell if they are pregnant until their milk bag comes in. 

Taylor explained how anyone interested in getting started with sheep farming needs to make sure they have good sheep. Farmers can find registered sheep in classifieds from all over the world. Pruitt Farms currently have registered Katahdin and Katahdin Dorper mix. The sheep farmer explained, “Katahdin are the most popular around here. The heartiest sheep. They stay healthier. Their feet stay better. They can handle the weather conditions. Ideally, we don’t want a wet condition for a sheep.”

Registered sheep are those your 4-H participants are going to want. You start with a registered ram (male) and ewe (female). Once they have a baby, farmers send the registry into the Katahdin website and then that sheep is registered and that lineage keeps going. Taylor noted, “Half of the flock is in your ram. If you have a bad ram, you will produce bad sheep. If you have a good ram, it keeps your genetics going. That’s the whole point of registering. If you have a good ram, you want to register him through Katahdin so you can control your flock. It just keeps track of where they come from.” 

Outside of having good sheep, a good fence is important. They have only had one baby get out, but their dogs stayed right there with it the whole time. During the ice storm, their fence was laid down. That next week, they put up actual fencing. “We could have lost them all but luckily they stayed right there,” said Taylor. Good sheep and a good fence is the first start, the rest you will learn as you go Taylor said. 

The Pruitts love that their children will be growing up on a farm like they did. The proud mother said, “When we grew up, my parents wanted to instill in us what hard work is and I feel like farming is a good way to instill the value of a dollar. We want them to be able to know that and that not everything can be handed to them. I would like to see us grow and instill work ethic and be established by the time they get bigger so they can get involved with it and take it to market. And it’s a way for us to hopefully be able to pay for extra as well.”

Aside from the Pruitt kids being involved in taking care of their family farm, Taylor and Kayla would like to see them be involved in the Henderson County 4-H program, too.

The Pruitts find so much joy being able to all be together on their farm. It gives their kids something to do when they are playing outside while also allowing them to learn important life lessons. Kayla said, “It’s pretty flexible, so even when they get older, they can still do whatever they are involved in while also taking care of sheep.”

Looking ahead, they would like to see their little sheep farm grow. As mentioned, being able to work with local businesses is a goal of theirs, but for now they are sticking with the USDA market because it is easier as they are still learning each year. 

Kayla would also like to get their garden back up. She has even thought about putting a booth by the street to sell produce from their garden. She expressed how it is important to get what you can. Even if it is twenty-five cents a basket, that can go to their kids. It will also help their kids understand what it’s like to grow their own food and how important it is to care for things. 

There are so many possibilities on their beautiful, seventeen acre farm. The Pruitts are grateful for the opportunity to experience this way of life and to introduce and raise their children around it. Their full-time jobs may keep them busy outside of the farming world, but when they come home, it brings their family together. Kayla said, “It’s nice that it is a family affair. It’s a lot of work for a small farm,” but they wouldn’t have it any other way!