This is a production of SDPB Few animals have impacted the lives of humans, and the state of South Dakota, more than the sheep.

Since their domestication, they've lived alongside humans around the globe and provided invaluable meat, fiber, milk, and more.

Today, as one of the leading sheep producers in the United States, South Dakota is home to a population of over 200,000.

[sound of stampeding flock] They have not only help feed and clothe our country, but they've also had a tremendous impact on the people that care for them and the land they live on.

But as both markets and the climate continue to change, these resilient ruminants may not only be intertwined with our past, but they might also be the ideal livestock of our future.

Donors to the Explore South Dakota Fund.

Support the production of local documentaries and other programs of local interest.

Presented by SDPB.

Friends of SDPB appreciates their support of this program.

[...sound of a cold winter wind...] [Narrator] In the heart of the Black Hills, deep in the pines amongst the rocky crags, lives the pinnacle of natural selection.

In this harsh and unforgiving environment, these animals thrive.

But even though they're wild, humans have a profound impact on their survival.

Once plentiful in the hills, overhunting bighorns led to their localized extinction in the early 1900s.

Only through decades of conservation efforts have sizable populations been able to establish footholds in both the Black Hills and the Badlands.

Bighorns are one of seven members of the Ovis genus.

Their relatives around the world include the argali, dall, mouflon, snow, and urial sheep species.

All of them call the mountains home, all except for one.

The domestic sheep, Ovis aries.

11,000 years ago in Southwest Asia, a determined group of humans captured wild mouflon sheep.

Over time, their descendants co-evolved.

Hunter gatherers turned to an agrarian lifestyle, and selective breeding led to calmer sheep that produced secondary products like wool and milk.

Eventually, they became the animals that we know today.

Yet few of us pause to remember that sheep helped shape our history.

Herders with meat, wool and fabric helped grow the first global trade networks.

Eventually, explorers began to bring sheep on expeditions around the world.

And since colonial days, sheep have been an inseparable part of American history.

Colonies like Jamestown had thousands.

While in the White House, George Washington sent letters to England boasting about the quality of wool at Mount Vernon.

Sheep even took up residence at the White House during World War One to mow the grass.

By this time, South Dakota's sheep industry was booming.

Some 50 years earlier, the first large flocks were brought to West River to feed the hungry gold miners of Deadwood.

Some men found working for sheep operations to be more lucrative than mining for gold.

Many turned to homesteading and starting a flock of their own.

Short grass prairies, heavy clay soil, and a semi-arid environment makes South Dakota one of the best places on Earth to produce wool.

Today, you can see this legacy is alive and well at the annual stock show in Rapid City.

[Announcer - "Whoa, whoa, whoa!"]

Here you can get a taste of all aspects of the sheep industry.

One of those aspects is the herding dog trial.

Working together, dogs and their humans usher three sheep in a pattern around the arena and through obstacles that simulate real life herding scenarios.

[Tanya] I think it kind of sets us all back to our roots.

You know, back when the borders of Scotland and England, you know, when the shepherds used dogs to get them out of hills.

And this is a very good representation, I would say.

And it's fun to watch what they've been doing for hundreds of years, you know.

I think that's kind of a kind of a neat thing that we do.

[Narrator] Where else can you see three species competing together in one arena?

[Abbie] The sheep appear to the other people that the sheep are dumb.

They're really not.

They're just smart, but they play dumb a lot.

If they don't want to go, they ain't going to move.

They'll just stand there and look at you.

[Erin] When we work sheep at home, we usually work with, like, around 1000 at a time.

When we're loading barns, it's more like four or five hundred.

So it's a lot different.

And, they have to cover a lot more ground and it's not as technical.

And honestly, they move better.

He's a huge asset to the ranch.

[Narrator] While each job on the ranch is different, here there are very specific rules.

When a dog leaves their handler, their first goal is to herd the flock to the other side of the arena.

And then around their human and back to where they started to complete a figure eight around the barrel.

Once they cross this plane, the handler can leave their circle.

With two obstacles left, humans can use more than just their voice, a clicker, or a whistle.

They can get actively involved in the herding themselves.

[...ambient sound from the audience...] [...applause...] [Announcer] Then up to the bridge.

[Narrator} Each obstacle is worth points.

Judges deduct points if the sheep are moved inefficiently, or if they're harassed or hurried.

The team that completes the course within the time limit and with the fewest point deductions, wins.

[...audience cheers...] Meanwhile, there's another competition going on just behind the arena.

[Announcer] Do I start the countdown?

[Kevin] National Sheep Shearing Competition.

[Announcer] Four, three, two, one.

Go!

[...buzzing sound of shears turning on...] Don't let the fast movements of folks with timers fool you, It's about way more than speed.

[Kuno] It's mostly quality.

So what you want to do is you want to shear the sheep.

Obviously, you don't want to cut it.

That's number one.

[Announcer] Phoebe's just coming on to the last cheek... [Kuno] You want to make the blanket come off very consistently.

Usually pretty much all the same length, that it brings up the wool value.

[Narrator] After all, the value of the wool is the most important part.

Speed is secondary.

[Announcer] John Junior throws off the belly first... [Narrator] The first thing shearers do is remove the lower quality belly wool.

Then wool handlers separate it from the higher quality fleece blanket.

Once separated, it's compacted into bales and ready for sale.

Shearers hold the sheep in specific ways to keep them as calm and as still as possible.

They work their way around each animal in the same pattern every time.

This helps them consistently shear the full length of the fiber in just one cut.

Second, cuts are frowned upon.

[Kuno] You want the sheep to look presentable.

The better your sheep look, you want your sheep to look consistently smooth instead of having lines and streaks all over it.

[Narrator] Judges watch closely on stage as competitors shear.

They're also behind the scenes to inspect each animal in the pen once they're done.

In the end, their scores based on how the wool looks, how the sheep looks, and how quickly they get the job done.

[Corey] So you have the beginners and the intermediate and then the open, which is the pros.

[Narrator] Depending on their skill level, Some competitors hope to move up in class, while others hope to advance to the World Championships by shaving off precious points and seconds.

But if you've never heard about the world of competitive sheep shearing, you're not alone.

[Corey] I'm livestreaming on TikTok today.

I think when I shut down the live in between heats, I think we had probably couple hundred thousand people that came through the live.

It's actually kind of astounding how many people ask me like, why we're doing this?

Literally thousands and thousands of people asking me.

There's 1 billion sheep on this planet, that's like one sheep for every 7 or 8 people.

[Narrator] Despite the public's lack of knowledge, the people who are around sheep every day know it's hard but necessary work.

[Levi] It's a tough occupation on your body.

But we do need young guys that work to do it.

So it's it's, one of them art forms that a machine or robots cannot do.

It's a human and to an animal.

[Kuno] They actually say if you shear 200 sheep in eight hours every day, it's equivalent to running a marathon.

[Narrator] To see one of these marathons in real life, I followed professional shearer Loren Opstedahl to Peters Ranch in Perkins County.

For him, shearing is a business and a way to carry on a family legacy.

[Loren] My dad sheared sheep.

He'd learned how to shear sheep, and he was making a living on the side as he married and ranched as well.

And I just was intrigued as a kid and watched my dad.

So I learned how to shear there at home and I'm pretty proud of that.

And, 35 years later, here I am.

I do this for all across the area.

I also do competitive shearing, which is a lot of fun.

And, you know, it's a competitive sport worldwide.

I've been worldwide competitive, so it makes it a lot more fun, too.

I have been on the machines and hand blades in the past, but I'm really trying to go for the blades again this year.

My great grandfather used to hand blade and I never met him, that was a long time ago, in the late 1800s.

Had some photos of him shearing with the hand blades and I was intrigued.

I said, I want to learn how to do that because it's a thing of the past.

[Narrator] One of the oldest specialized occupations on our planet, shearing with hand blades fell out of favor as access to electricity reached more and more ranches in the early 1900s.

Essentially, two razor sharp knives held together by a spring.

Blade shearing is both an art and a sport.

[Loren] You want to do it as quickly as you can and as good.

I mean, you want to do a good job and quickly.

And that's how they're judged throughout a competition as well.

The next world Championships is in 2026, in Masterson, New Zealand.

So we're all competing to get on to that team.

There's only two people in the hand blades and two people in the machines and two people in the wool handling, and you've seen it all happen here today.

[...ambient sounds around the barn...] [Narrator] Over the next few hours, a few hundred sheep will get their annual cut.

One by one, they travel up this ramp to meet a member of Loren's crew.

A few of whom, Tayler, Tadlee and Tyler, happen to be his sons.

[Loren] I don't know if they really had a choice.

You know, I've been doing it for so long, a lot of them grew up in it.

They didn't know any better.

I guess, but they enjoy it as well.

Yeah, I had four boys.

Two of them are shearing full time and three of them know how to shear.

you know, it's a good it's a good living, I enjoy it.

it's just a unique job that, is there for them.

And they were opportunity, I guess, for them.

[...bahhh...] [Narrator] As the crew works their way through the flock, they need to clear their shears of a strange substance that builds up.

[Loren] Lanolin is is a natural byproduct in the wool.

And, you know, it does happen at times if a sheep get nicked or whatever, they heal so quickly because that natural lanolin in their wool, they do use that in hand lotion and things like that.

Our hands and day to day, they're just soft with that lanolin.

I mean, it's it's good.

Which is almost too good of a good thing.

So it's a good property on the sheep.

if any accidents do happen.

You know, a lot of the uses for wool is, of course, clothing.

socks is a big one.

And quality of wool is what makes the the good feel of wool.

It makes them really nice clothing.

the lower quality might go into carpets and things like that.

The number one use for wool is it's keeping sheep warm.

Of course, you know, so there's a lot of uses for wool, but once you get it off the sheep, it's a really good product.

I mean, 10 million sheep can't go wrong.

They like it.

[laughs] So yeah, we built this trailer.

It's it works efficient for the ranchers.

You know, we pull in back up to their alley and everything is in there that we need.

You know, and it's it's the same every day for the shearer, which works good for them.

We've got the wool press to make the bales, and the bales are ready to go to market as soon as we leave.

[Narrator] While the crew loads the trailer and gets ready to move on to the next ranch, the freshly shorn sheep are put back to pasture.

Meanwhile, we follow their wool to its next destination, the Center of the Nation Wool Warehouse in Belle Fourche.

[Larry] Yeah.

Why Belle Fourche?

You know, why is the wool business in Belle Fourche?

There's a question I've been asked a lot of times.

I think the answer is it has to do with the heavy clay soils and the dry conditions in our immediate region here.

We have good genetics in this area, first of all, and we've got a great environment.

And you need those two things to have a quality wool clip.

The heavy clay soils mean we have less dust blowing in the environment.

We have cleaner wools.

We have similar conditions year round.

And so, you know, the growing conditions are ideal.

We have the some of the best color, cleanest wools across the United States.

And that's been part of Belle Fourche, something we don't talk about, we almost take it for granted.

But right here in Belle Fourche, we handle the best.

We'll handle about half of the what I'm going to call the choice lots that are produced each year in the United States.

[Narrator] While the quality of wool hasn't changed over the years, the mode of delivery has.

From horse and wagon to trucks and trains.

Wool used to be transported in large sacks the size of a full grown man.

But today's bales weigh a little bit more.

[Larry] The bales that come in from the ranches typically weigh 400 to 450 pounds.

The question is always, well, how many sheep is that?

Each sheep and normally is going to shear, 8 or 9 or 10 pounds.

So we just use 10 pounds for, for an easy number.

If the bear weighs 400 pounds, we've got 40 sheep to a bale.

Okay.

as you drive around western South Dakota, it's oftentimes the sheep are not next to the road.

You think?

Well, there's no sheep left.

Well, if you if you get a little further out, there's, there's still, ranches out there that'll bring us 30, 40, 50 bales of wool.

We are the true middlemen.

We are.

We're the link between, you know, the people that that buy will and process wool and and the producers and, our, our role is to make sure that we, we get as much as we can for the ranchers that we supply.

The people we supply, We are their quality control agent.

Once it arrives here, we're going to examine each type of wool.

It's core tested in marketing lots.

The core test tells us how fine it is, percentage of clean wool, the percentage of vegetable matter, which can be an issue for some processes.

And, and then the marketing game starts once we get that done.

Smart Wool is a big name.

Pendleton has always been a major user of wool.

Darn Tough is another one.

And those are the retail names that you're going to see.

We ship it to South Carolina, and in South Carolina it's processed, it scoured, carded and combed.

And it comes out in a product called top, [spells] T-O-P...mmmk?...

So the spinners then buy top and they're going to make yarn.

And then they're going to sell yarn to the weavers who are, who make cloth.

And then it goes on down the chain to cut and sew.

[Narrator] While most wool leaves the state there's a growing market for some to stay right here in South Dakota.

Brenda Anderson is the owner of Busy Ewe Farm in Fiber, proprietor of hand-dyed wool and caretaker of a production crew that consists of a rare-breed of long-wool sheep.

[Brenda] South Dakota is more of a commercial sheep area, and so with the long wool, we don't fit in that little square box.

You're having people that want to do hand spinning, or if they're, wanting the sheen for dyeing or something like that.

You know, if you're doing needle felting.

I've always been fascinated by spinning.

I finally learned how probably about 2008.

And so then I started looking for fiber and I found out I loved spin.

So then I was like, okay, where am I going to get fiber?

So then I bought sheep.

We had never raised sheep, so I didn't know if I'd like it or not.

My grandfather raised cows, and so he was a cattle rancher and he always called them, "pasture maggots."

So we didn't have a very good connotation with sheep.

And so I wanted the wool.

And so I thought, well, I'll get some sheep and see if I like it or not.

And I was just totally amazed when we first got the sheep and discovered it.

I love sheep.

They're my friends.

They're part of the whole business, you know?

So they all have their own names, they all have their own personalities.

[laughs] So then I started learning about the teeswater.

They have the longer staple, but they don't have the thick lanolin that some of the other ones do.

And for hand spinning, because of the longer staple length, I find it easier to spin.

With the teeswater, they tend to grow up to an inch a month.

This is one year of growth.

I just I fell in love with the locks, and then I started dyeing and, people ask me to start doing it for other people, and it just kind of, kept snowballing.

And people kept saying, well, why don't you ever finish products?

And I said, well, I raised the sheep by washed the fiber.

I made the yarn.

I figured you could finish the product.

And so they talked me into finishing some things.

So we do knitting, crocheting, spinning and also some weaving.

We have a small farm less than ten acres, so I couldn't have a lot of animals.

but I thought if I do this, I can help save the genetics.

In England, they are a dual purpose animal, so we also use them as such here.

You know, you can use their fiber.

The meat is wonderful.

And you can even use sheep for milk.

While there's many products that come from sheep in South Dakota, there's one that's far and away the most popular and possibly... the most controversial?

[Senator Nesiba] There seems to be some confusion on the menu about what meat chislic is made out of, whether it should always be lamb, or whether it is beef.

And I'm just wondering if the chief sponsor, uh, the prime sponsor of this... uh..

Prime?...

Choice?...

[...giggles...] sponsor of this, could clarify?

[Narrator] For clarification.

We go to the intersection of Tasty and Delicious, where we meet someone who knows a thing or two about the "official state nosh" of South Dakota.

[Patron] Oh, howdy!

[Abby] I'm Abby Streyle, and I'm the manager of Meridian Corner.

For us here.

It has to be sheep and it has to be on a stick.

Otherwise it's not chislic.

We're in the heart of the chislic circle here.

So we try to keep things as traditional and authentic to what it should be, as much as we can.

The chislic circle is, Freeman, kind of the heart of the circle.

And it goes around 30 miles around Freeman.

So that's kind of the central pocket of where you can get like true authentic chislic.

Here at Meridian, we offer two types of chislic, like we have mutton that comes from the Kaylor Locker, or we have lamb that we cut and stick ourselves.

We get lamb and we cut it.

We stick it.

So that way it's consistently how we want it every time.

Yeah.

So chislic actually comes from the Germans, from Russia comes from the word shashlik.

So shashlik what they would do is they would butcher lamb, they would skewer it on their sword and grill it and then pull it off with, flatbread.

Well, when they settled here around Freeman, the theory is with that thick German accent he was trying to say Shashlik sounded like chislic.

And that's how the name kind of it got switched.

So now, in modern days, now we stick it and then we serve it with crackers instead of flatbread.

The chislic festival started in 2018, and it started as kind of a celebration for chislic, like becoming the state nosh.

[Senators] Chislic.

Chislic.

Chislic.

Agnostic chislic?

I will be supporting this measure.

Thank you, Mr. President.

[Abby] So it was originally planned for like 1500 to 2000 people to be there and around 8000 showed up.

So it was a little overwhelming.

But now, after a few more years of it, the Chislic Festival has really gotten it under control, [laughs] if that makes sense?

I've been very fortunate between managing Meridian Corner and being on the festival board, to be able to talk about something that is weirdly niche for our area.

We were fortunate enough to go to New York City and cook chislic and introduce people to it, which was always a fun experience, getting to spread some of our local culture to other people.

Everyone that tried it really liked it and it was fun.

[Laughs] Okay, so advice for the home cook on how to cook chislic, I would keep it simple.

You could do it in the air fryer.

You could deep fry it, you could grill it, you can smoke it.

Smoked chislic is weirdly really great.

So traditionally chislic like would be served with garlic salt and saltines.

a lot of people do different seasonings on them now.

Here at Meridian, we have our house seasoning that we use on our burgers or fries or steaks, and it's excellent on chislic, we also have the Cavender's Greek Seasoning available.

[Narrator] But what's the real secret behind their award winning chislic?

[Abby] We're going to have to talk about that off camera.

[Narrator] Like chefs trying to perfect their recipe, sheep breeders have been trying to produce the perfect breed of sheep for millennia.

In modern times, Western range managers needed a rugged, dual purpose sheep with breeding, stability and quality wool.

Meet, the Targhee.

[Darrell] Targhee sheep breed is a developed breed here in the United States.

It was developed at Dubois National Research Station, Dubois, Idaho back in 1925.

They use three different breeds the rambouillet, the lincoln, and the corridale.

Lincoln is a long wool breed corriedale is known for very nice, heavy fleeces, and the rambouillet is known for their high quality fine fleeces.

So they combine those, in an effort to make a sheep breed to had a good quality fleece and then very good meat characteristics.

[Narrator] The Targhee is arguably the pinnacle of selective breeding, and one of the most plentiful breeds in South Dakota.

In Meade County, we meet Tammy Basel, a vocal sheep advocate who explains how her flock, and her herd, are vital to the future of prairie management.

[Tammy] I might have a few pets, in both species, but I just really like how they both interact with each other.

But come on, what's cuter than a baby lamb?

Maybe grandkids.

[Narrator] Today, her grandkids help out at the ranch that has been in her family for generations, whose pristine prairie habitats have never seen a plow blade.

[Tammy} Sheep are a desert animal, and when my grandmother started under the Desert Homestead Act, it was called the Desert Homestead Act for a reason.

We have a very brittle environment.

Sheep are much more adaptable species to that brittle environment.

And quite often people say, I don't like sheep and curse the sheep.

But if they look in the history, sheep paid for a lot of property.

Grazing animals make their habitat better.

It's very important to me the importance of protecting the soils, the rangeland for all the generations in the past and to carry on their heritage.

But also when you look at future generations of my grandchildren and my great grandchildren, are they going to be able to produce food and fiber from the land?

Are they going to provide a great habitat for the songbirds and all the amount of wildlife?

Well, I want the future to have what I've been given.

I truly enjoy in the spring when you turn them out to pasture and the momma is got her babies and she's calling them, and she eats like a certain plant, let's say like a celery.

And she's like, "blah..!"

and calls her babies over to eat that certain plant.

Again, it makes me very proud to know that there is that diversity in the prairie grasses where that ewe can teach lamb about the different types of plants to eat.

If climate change is real, the weather can be extreme.

Sheep adapt so well and well managed grasslands, capture carbon and put it back in the soil.

But the world is not the same as when I was a kid.

There's a lot of people that don't want to eat meat, don't want to wear wool.

You know, sometimes we just got to get out there and be that face.

So there's a few different types of advocacy that I've done.

I've gone to D.C. and advocated for policy, but also I spend a lot of time in my own community.

I see the future of the sheep industry alive and well.

I think the culture of the United States cares more and more about conservation every farm bill year, I think sheep and cattle and dual species grazing plays a vital role.

I think people care about pollinators.

They care about the prairies and the vast habitats.

They can provide for multiple full bird species, multiple insects.

So I think the future is bright.