Penner Mini Farms

My wife and I started raising American Blackbelly sheepin June 2022 when we got our first three ewes from a BBSAI breeder in Minnesota. We instantly fell in love with this breed of sheep and knew that we were all in on establishing a small flock of Blackbelly’s in Nebraska and raising awareness of these amazing and beautiful sheep. We became one of the first BBSAI registered breeders for American Blackbelly sheep in Nebraska.  Because of this we had to try and find breeders in neighboring states to help us get established. In 2022, my wife and I traveled to Minnesota and Tennessee to find ewes and an unrelated ram to get started. As our flock is starting to grow, we have connected with another breeder in Oklahoma and plan on getting a 2nd breeding ram in 2024 to introduce another bloodline into our flock and breeding program. We didn’t start our little farm with American Blackbelly sheep. Our little farm(previously Penner Mini Farms, now Shalom Farms), was established in Lincoln Nebraska when my parents gifted us with a miniature donkey in the Spring of 2020.  His name was Alvin and he was the start of the beautiful farming journey for my wife and I. We decided he needed a friend and so we purchased a couple of miniature horses (a mare named Coconut and a stallion named Rebel) that summer.  We really didn’t have much of a plan at that time. We both just love animals and we had decided that we wanted to find an acreage and establish a small farm. My parents have lived on a small acreage of 23 acres just Southwest of Lincoln, Nebraska where they have enjoyed rural life and hobby farming.  My parents are aging and their health is declining.  As we stopped by their farm to visit Alvin, Coconut (“Coco”) and Rebel every day we would always spend time helping my parents with stuff around the farm. Ultimately, we noticed that they appreciated the help as much as we loved helping them.  Then the idea occurred to all of us that we should see if it would be possible to build a house on my parents farm so that we could take care of them and make it possible for them to stay on the farm as long as possible while also allowing us to get a start on our little farm.  My parents agreed and so we started the process of building our new farm and “Penner Mini Farms” was established. We operated under Penner Mini Farmsas a hobby from 2020, until deciding to officially become a business in 2024, operating as Shalom Farms. We operated under Penner Mini Farmsas a hobby from 2020, until deciding to officially become a business in 2024, operating as Shalom Farms. Our desire was to start a miniature farm where we would raise miniature animals of all kinds.  We started with horses and our donkey but we really wanted to add some miniature goats and sheep to our farm as well. By the Summer of 2021 we added a few goats and a few varieties of wool sheep to our farm.  We did not know anything about raising goats and sheep but we are always eager to learn and so we started doing lots of research and just learned as much as we could as we went. Initially we were more interested in goats than sheep and so we focused on increasing our flock of goats.  We decided to raise Nigerian Dwarf,La Manchaand Miniature Lamancha goats. We have a small milking parlor setup in our barn where we love milking our goats.  We sell the raw milk and make goat milk soaps. We love all the fun, social and playful personalities of goats.  They love spending their days climbing, playing, and resting but they really love it when we visit them and spend time with them. Sheep were more of a challenge for us at first as the breeds we had were more flighty and just more difficult for us to manage.  I quickly learned that I do not have the skills required to shear wool sheep (and I can tell you that the sheep would whole-heartedly agree).  My wife and I are quick learners and we are always willing to jump in and try things we have never done before (such as trimming hooves, ear tagging, b