Kalispell sheep farmers talk soil regeneration methods at Free the Seeds

John Steitz and Carol Treadwell Steitz specialize in selling clean, colored merino wool to spinners all over the world.

It’s a sustainable way to make a little extra money in their retirement years, but there’s another project at play that the couple gets equally excited to talk about. Their efforts at soil regeneration using their sheep flock have proven successful, and all kinds of plants, animals and insects have returned to reap the benefits. 

“It's been really exciting to see the change coming so fast. The next thing you know, we’re seeing more earthworms, more blue birds, more deer, more elk,” John Steitz said. 

Carol Treadwell Steitz will be sharing their methods during Saturday’s Free the Seeds, an annual event hosted by Land to Hand Montana that features educational workshops, activities and seed sharing. This year’s theme is ‘Tiny Seeds, Big Impact!’ 

The Steitz’s didn’t always plan for soil regeneration to be such a large part of their operation. John Steitz grew up raising a variety of livestock on his family’s farm and became interested in having a flock of sheep in his retirement years. He linked up with fellow Kalispell sheep farmer Julie Robinson to buy some of her Merino sheep for his own flock.

He felt confident in his choice to work with Merino sheep, as their special wool is niche and marketable. But, the property was pretty beaten down by horses, and because he didn’t start in “regeneration mode,” he said no matter what they did, the plants where the sheep needed to graze just weren’t staying alive.

“I could see that we had dead soil,” he recalled. 

It’s at this point that he started learning about regeneration methods and how his flock could help him restore the health of the soil. It’s an approach that he saw as not only cost-effective, but beneficial all around.

“Here I am, I'm this guy who is pretty conservative, and I can do it with just the sheep. I don't have to pay for any fertilizer. I don't have to pay for any herbicide. I can just do it with the animals ... And so here we are, I saw improvements right away,” John Steitz said. 

The couple started having the sheep graze in smaller sections of pasture. In these small sections there are mobile troughs that they move up-and-down their fields to ensure the sheep are not only eating (and spreading their own natural fertilizer) in one place. Carol Treadwell Steitz said they will let them eat two cuttings of grass before moving them to a different area. 

“As long as you leave 50% of the plant, you have deep roots in the soil. Roots make passageways for the water to soak into the soil. As long as you keep eating the grass, but not too much, the grass will regenerate and grow. And when it grows, it actually leaks carbon into the soil and it feeds the soil community, its microbes,” Carol Treadwell Steitz said. 

The process also creates porosity to soil, allowing water to soak in. Overtime, this helps make the land more drought tolerant. She said because the ground is holding the water, instead of running off and carrying sediment into local streams, means it also helps lead to cleaner watersheds. 

“Regenerative agriculture really is about regenerating your farm and your farm soil, but also the whole ecosystem,” Carol Treadwell Steitz said. 

Carol Treadwell Steitz has a PhD with a specialty in soil geomorphology, or how soil forms over time. Her career has always revolved around nature; she was the former executive director of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation and is currently the finance and grant manager for the Whitefish Lake Institute. 

Although she has a love of nature and its processes, she said when her husband brought up the idea to start a sheep farm, it was something she wasn’t initially into.

“It took me a couple of years to warm up to it … I wrote my dissertation on the role of soils in the global carbon cycle, back when we called it ‘greenhouse warming,’ and we were trying to figure out where all the carbon pools were,” Carol Treadwell Steitz said. “The sun shines, the grass grows, the sheep turn grass into wool, wool is 50% carbon. Their little four legged fertilizers, so they add organic matter to the soil. We shear the fleece and a hand spinner  makes it into a sweater, and the carbon is captured. It's the carbon cycle —  capturing carbon and building soil.” 

John Steitz said it’s simple and it works for them, but it’s not a new concept. 

“Farmers have been putting manure on their fields forever. It's just that it's a little bit of a different business plan, what we're doing and the way we’re doing it, but it’s working quite well. There are so many different ways of doing it.” John Steitz said. 

Their advice for aspiring sheep farmers? Start small. 

Carol Treadwell Steitz said it’s important to ask what the goal of having the sheep is before selecting what breed to buy. There are different breeds of sheep that are specifically for wool harvesting and others that are for meat production. And when it comes to wool sheep, there are differences in the type of fleece they’ll produce — curlier, coarser or a variety of colors. 

Don’t skimp on “good genetics,” according to John Steitz, and because land is so expensive in the area, consider asking neighboring properties if they will let sheep graze on their land. 

“People are moving into this valley and buying 20 acres, but they don't really want to maintain it,  … but they don't mind seeing a few sheep out there as long as they don't have to worry about them,” John Steitz said. 

The couple are multiple first place winners in the Hand Spinning Fleeces category at the Black Sheep Gathering in Albany, Oregon — a competition that celebrates handcrafted fibers.

John Steitz said it’s been fun for the two to tackle these various projects together, from soil regeneration, to sheep farming, to their own garden that provides them food. He loves being a shepherd, and spends every morning drinking coffee and checking on the flock.  

“Walking around with the ewes, walking around with the rams, having your coffee and just observing. Is everybody healthy? Does someone need a coat change? Does someone need a hoof clipping or something like that? And it prevents a lot of the problems that I had the first time around, when I was a young bull,” John Steitz said. 

Even though Carol Treadwell Steitz didn’t grow up on a farm, she said she’s not the only biology driven person to end up in agriculture.

“I'm not in a laboratory analyzing things and doing scientific research, but it's like I'm doing this experiment on the land and I'm getting rewards for that. And then there's the whole relationship with the sheep, and Merino's especially are such lovely animals,” Carol Treadwell Steitz said. 

Free the Seeds takes place at the Flathead Valley Community College Arts and Technology Building on March 2, starting at 9 a.m. Other workshops include making fresh noodles and bread, promoting native mason bees, a garden storytime (hosted with Flathead County Libraries) and seizing opportunities for clean energy transitions, among others. 

To learn more about it, go to landtohandmt.org. To learn more about the Steitz farm, go to steitzhof.com.

Reporter Taylor Inman can be reached at 406-758-4433 or by emailing tinman@dailyinterlake.com.

    Carol Treadwell Steitz holds yarn spun from wool produced by their flock of Merino sheep. (Taylor Inman/Daily Inter Lake)
 

   Rams at Steitzhof Merinos in Kalispell on Feb. 26, 2024. (Taylor Inman/Daily Inter Lake)