Lowder Colours Farm
Kate and Michael Lowder have been raising sheep for 17 years as of 2009. They began with Natural Colored Rambouillets and added Karakuls a few years later. Eventually they acquired several 25% and 50% Wensleydales and Teeswaters from Kate’s mother, Barbara Burrows of Ewes in Color. Kate and her mother share a love for colored sheep, and it was with Barbara’s assistance that Kate established her own personal flock in the early 1990s.
After 10 years of providing technical support for Medical Dictation and Transcription services across Oklahoma, Kate was laid off and the decision to stay at home and let the sheep support her for a change was an easy one. This provided the time and opportunity to expand the flock and build a lot of fence.
Two Bond Rams were purchased to help bring a bit more length and fineness, and build up the moorit color genetics with the Rambouillet and crossbred ewes carrying the moorit color gene. In addition to the Bonds, the Lowders added two moorit badger Rambouillet ewe lambs. With Fall came the 68% and 71% Wensleydale ewes, a 75% Wensleydale ram, and a 75% Teeswater ram.
The next spring brought 42 lambs, a good start to the growing farm.
Nor are sheep the only four-legged residents. There is the the prerequisite goat–an Angora doe–and the guardian oversight of two Pyrenees/Kommodor Guard Dogs and two Kommodor Guard Dogs. The farm is rounded out with family pets, which include seven cats, two of which have become sheep guarding cats (a source of constant amusement), Gracie—the house mutt—and the occasional rescue.
Kate and Michael are constantly working to improve the quality of their flock and fleeces through coating or not coating, and selective breeding. The goal to have the highest quality fleeces for hand spinners is one Kate works toward through her breeding program and personal research into hand spinners’ and fiber artists’ desires. Successful completion of two levels of the Master Spinner’s Certification program offered by Olds College in Alberta, Canada and her continued contact with the program, as well as her participation in local hand spinners’ guilds, and her independent studies and hobbies in hand spinning, felting, knitting, crocheting, and weaving have provided tremendous insight into the needs and wants of the hand spinners, fiber artists, yarn shops that buy her fleeces, rovings, and yarns.
Kate’s involvement in the fiber and shepherding communities is not purely a personal journey, but is also a professional one. She joined the Natural Colored Wool Growers Association (NCWGA) a year after she began her own flock and has been an enthusiastic member and supporter ever since.
In 1997, Kate was honored to take over the Tulsa State Fair’s Natural Colored Sheep Show Superintendent position. At the time, Tulsa had a paltry participation of six exhibitors and roughly 40 sheep. Over the past years, however, the exhibition has grown into the largest colored sheep show in the state, with 42 exhibitors and 365 sheep.
During Kate’s 9 years as Superintendent, she organized several Regional Shows and the National Show in 2002 and 2008. She also convinced the Tulsa State Fair to allow her to add a Natural Colored Fleece Show and the Jr Show. In addition to the spinners themselves, the event offered displays and mini classes geared toward processing wool for hand spinning. There was also a special exhibit on British breeds and the U.S. upbreeding program.
She established a silent auction program for fundraising to cover the expenses for a wool judge and prepare for the 2002 National Show, and established a special memorial Award for Glen Eideman: The NCWGA Region 3 Glen Eideman Showmanship Award. The showmanship award is given to the exhibitor displaying the greatest showmanship both in and out of the ring. This award is determined by the exhibitors and given at the show dinner on Friday evening. Exhibitors are judged on personal behavior, cooperation with officials and other exhibitors, promotion of breed and industry activities, and the appearance of their exhibit.
She has organized and presented programs on wool breeds and purposes and a hand spinning demonstration for the local 4H and FFA chapters. The Tulsa HSG received their own presentation on “Fine, Medium, Coarse, and Long Wools. Which is what and what can I make with it?”
Kate’s participation with the Master Spinner’s program with Olds College began in 2006 with her completion of Level 1 of the program. She published her own article about the experience with Fiber Femmes, and was asked to become the assistant to the Director of the U.S. Master Spinner’s Program. She became the U.S. supplier for the Master Spinner’s Program in Oklahoma and North Carolina.
In 2007, the Lowders organized the first “Fiber Christmas in July” at Creek County Fair Grounds, and Kate completed the Natural Fiber Center Canadian Wool Judging Certification for Levels 1 and 2 at Olds College, Canada. Level 2 of the Olds College U.S. Master Spinner’s program was finished and put in the box, and she became Secretary for the American Teeswater Sheep Association.
In 2008, she was elected Secretary of the Natural Colored Wool Growers Association–a position she still holds. The Lowders held their second “Fiber Christmas in July,” and Kate organized the NCWGA National Show at Hutchison, Kansas during the Kansas State Fair.
In 2009, Kate and Michael are busy organizing and sponsoring their third annual “A Fiber Christmas in July,” a fiber festival which celebrates all types of fiber arts and which has grown a bit each year.
Perhaps at the core of things lies not only Kate’s own joy in the animals, fibers, and processes associated with fiber crafts such as spinning, but a firm belief in educating, training and simply enabling those who share her passion. Javier is an outstanding example. At five, this young and very dear friend of the family had been showing sheep for 3 years. A year ago, the Lowders gave him a lamb from a set of quadruplets and Javi took on the responsibility of bottle-raising the ram lamb. Javier and “Tough” went to Tulsa State Fair last year and won the Champion Ram in the Coarse and Long Wool Jr Division.
To contact Lowder Colour Farms:
Kate Lowder
19477 Indian Road
Kellyville, Oklahoma 74039
USA
phone: 918-247-4082
cell: 918-688-3365
e-mail: kmlowder@aol.com
