Over Fifty Years and Still Kicking Up a Storm in Suffolks

Fifty-six years ago Joan’s father bought three Suffolk/Hampshire crossbred lambs for his daughter. As Joan recalls, “They were supposed to be three ewe lambs, but one was a wether. They had a lot of wool on them and the owner just grabbed them.” In 1953 Joan bought her first registered Suffolk ewe lamb for $35.00 with the money she saved from doing chores at home. The ewe lamb was purchased from Mr. Milo Nice. This purchase gave Joan a jump-start in the Suffolk business. Mr. Nice lived twelve miles from her family’s farm and Joan gratefully acknowledges his kindness in allowing her to breed her ewes to his rams for several years.

Raising lambs was a natural for Joan. Born in a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she describes herself as someone whose “pets were always her best friends.” She enjoyed visiting in the country and remembers, “I spent a lot of time following my grandfather around on his dairy farm. A few months after we moved to a place with more property, my dad bought the lambs. Little did he realize he was starting me on a lifelong enterprise.”

Recognizing Joan’s longtime dedication to the Suffolk industry, George Hunter, veteran editor of the Pennsylvania Suffolk Sheep

Association (PSSA) newsletter, crowns her the “Queen Mother.” He continues with these memories, “My earliest memory of the queen is of a small girl showing a couple of Suffolk lambs at the Pennsylvania Farm Show, the name was Joan Niemeyer. As years progressed she became Mrs. Bill MacCauley. Long and short is that Bill married into the Suffolk business.”

In 4-H Joan showed market lambs and breeding sheep. She laughingly recalls one chilly sheep showing trip. Their family farm truck had no racks for hauling sheep. Joan and her brother rode in the back, cold and shivering but still managing to keep those lambs from catapulting out of the vehicle until they reached their destination, a local 4-H Roundup. The date, December third, is frozen in Joan’s memory- not the best day for transporting lambs, especially if the exhibitors are forced to ride in the back of an open truck.

Joan gives her late husband, William MacCauley, credit for “really getting our sheep business off the ground. My husband did most of the heavy work; I made most of the breeding decisions and did the lambing plus the paperwork.” He was really a city boy,” she says, “but became very interested in the sheep.” She cites this family involvement as the main reason for their three children, Billy, Nancy, and Donna, continuing the sheep tradition with their own children. “The children helped with the sheep and the crops. They were born into the business.”

According to George Hunter the MacCauley family were charter members of the original Pennsylvania Suffolk Sheep Association and Bill MacCauley later served as president of the PSSA in the 1990s. Bill and Joan’s son, Billy, has continued with this executive tradition as President of the United Suffolk Sheep Association.

She also stressed to me that the family’s membership in 4-H had given them a great model for cooperative efforts as exhibitors. One year Joan’s father became ill and required surgery. While she was at the hospital her children loaded all the sheep and organized the tack. She returned in time to see they were set to go to the fair. As she and the children pulled out of the driveway Joan asked how many sheep they were hauling since she hadn’t been there for the loading. The children assured her the sheep were all there and that the trailer was ready to roll. Commenting on her children’s maturity, Joan says, “That’s when I realized how much Billy and Nancy had learned and how responsible they had become.”

Breezeview Farm acquired its name in 1977, after the MacCauley family moved to a rural area near Atglen, Pennsylvania. During a family discussion, the farm was christened Breezeview due to the gusty winds that blew through the area. The farm sits atop a hill, its location providing a spectacular vista of the countryside below; hence, the word view became part of the farm name. Alfalfa and corn are the main crops raised at Breezeview. An Amish neighbor who farms with mules does the harvesting for Joan.

Presently Joan is running 10 ewes. However, the Breezeview Suffolk bloodlines are carried on through MacCauley Suffolks, which is the farm registration for her son, Billy, who together with his wife Elizabeth, and their sons Chris and Kyle, raise and show the sheep. Her daughter, Nancy Frey, also showed Suffolks. Nancy and her husband, Fritz, continue to be active in the livestock industry, raising Angus cattle and managing Frey’s Show Supply. Their daughter, Katrina, shows both Suffolks and Angus cattle.

Over the years Breezeview Farm has been the home of 35 to 60 ewes - primarily Suffolks and a few Montadales. Joan’s younger daughter, Donna, showed Cheviots until her older brother

and sister left for college and then she inherited the Suffolk flock. Presently Donna’s daughter, Brooke, is looking forward to her first year of 4- H membership. It’s no surprise that Nana has promised her a Suffolk lamb for her project! Today the majority of the Breezeview Suffolks are sold through Joan’s son, Billy, whose farm is across the road from her. Occasionally, she sells a few Suffolks at home.

Although Joan is not showing anymore, she will have a Suffolk ram lamb in Billy’s show string at the 2006 NAILE. Breezeview Suffolks had their most profitable years at sales in the 21^st century. In 2000 Joan’s Suffolk ram took Grand Champion at the Ohio Suffolk sale. With the championship rosette also comes a traveling trophy that must be returned the following year. This trophy, as Joan describes it, is tall, weighty, and requires a huge packing box plus several people to carry the hefty carton. As he lugged the trophy to the car, her son remarked to her that he hoped this was a one-time win because that type of hardware was too heavy to carry back and forth another year. Billy got a rest in 2001 and 2002 (although Breezeview did have the 2002 Reserve Champion ram). However, Billy was called on again to exercise his muscles because in 2003 Breezeview Farm repeated with Grand Champion Ram.

Joan’s worst Suffolk memory was when there was more than a breeze at the farm, “We had a tornado hit us in Aug. 1992, and it killed the best ram we had ever raised up to that time. Also, many of the ewes did not settle that year as the tornado flattened the main barn and killed several other sheep.” As a Suffolk breeder Joan recalls her “greatest challenge was when my husband passed away in early 1998.” She remembers, “All of a sudden 30+ ewes were going to begin to lamb within a week. It was quite cold and icy that February. The waterers in the back barn kept freezing up. That was never my job before, but I became quite adept at thawing them out.”

Joan’s greatest memory is raising The CEO, a ram sired by one of her most prepotent sires Breezeview 965. CEO came into the sheep world as one of a pair of identical ram lambs weighing about 16 pounds apiece. Unfortunately, CEO’s twin died of pneumonia, which left Joan forever wondering if he would have grown into as great a ram as his brother. As Joan reminisces, “From the time CEO was about three weeks old, I knew he was pretty good. When you walked in the barn he stood out; he was the first lamb you would see.” In 2000, people attending the Ohio Suffolk Sale admired Joan’s Grand Champion ram and remarked that they thought she was saving her best ram for Sedalia. Joan replied that their best was still scheduled for Sedalia; her prediction did come true - CEO was named Supreme Champion ram over all breeds at the 2000 Midwest Ram Sale. From the time CEO was penned at Sedalia prospective buyers constantly brought him out for inspection. According to Joan, he had to be one tired guy by the time bidding began. The rest is Suffolk history with Riverwood Farms purchasing The CEO for $23,500.

In our telephone conversations Joan commented that what she truly enjoys most is being in the background, helping her children and grandchildren with their activities. Recently remarried in June she is now Mrs. Richard Lawrence and as she says, “I acquired a whole new set of grandchildren besides Billy’s Chris and Kyle, Nancy’s Katrina and Freddie plus Donna’s Brooke and Jason.” Joan and Richard originally met through their children’s sheep showing activities. Joan again has a partner; she and Rich work with the sheep together. When Joan, Billy, Elizabeth, and the family go to shows, Richard and Donna prefer to stay at home and keep watch over the sheep. Last summer was an especially busy time for both the show team and the shepherds since the National Suffolk Jr. Show events were held in West Springfield, Massachusetts.

Joan’s philosophy as a Suffolk breeder can be summed up in these closing paragraphs. “When I started, Suffolks were short legged with a lot of meat and bone. Most all Suffolks had beautiful heads with bell ears (I called them).” She continues, “Later the Suffolks became taller and had less bone and meat. A lot of heads had ears that went straight out or up. I didn’t care for those kinds of heads and tried to stay away from them. Milton Morgan, a Pennsylvania breeder (whom I looked up to) told me years earlier that a well-known Suffolk breeder told him you had to have bone to hang meat on. We never gave up on bone, body, and good heads so our sheep weren’t popular for a time.”

Joan reminisces, “In 2000 we sold Breezeview 2006, The CEO. He is my kind of sheep. He was out of a Breezeview ewe and a Breezeview ram. We couldn’t believe the price when he was being auctioned. It was worthwhile to stick to our beliefs, and I am glad to see Suffolks turning around. After all, they are a meat breed. Along with that, I chose Suffolks because I think they are beautiful. Every morning I get up and look out my window to see Billy’s Suffolks making their way down the path to the pasture. What more can one ask for?”