During the recent cold snap, Elzan McMurry bundled up enough to stay warm and dry while she crossed the yard to the milking shed - a place where she has spent years working around the warm flanks of dairy cows. She clicked on the little heater perched in a high corner of the shed while her shoes left tracks of melting snow on the concrete and her gloved hand gripped a mug of hot tea.

It is how her workdays have begun this winter, but these days the clatter of the milking machine has been replaced by the rhythmic whirring of a Dobby loom with its shuttle flying across handspun threads. "I did a lot of the milking," McMurry said. "So, when I come out here to weave, I'm really thankful."

With the help of a Value Added grant and a Missouri Alternative Loan - both from the Missouri Department of Agriculture - the McMurry's bought the loom and Elzan McMurry has had to learn words like weft and harness and treadle.

After six months, the foot treadles have been worn smooth and the long, narrow bench is stained with tea rings. These days, she is weaving intricate, elegant scarves and afghans and shawls, all from the wool of the Romney sheep that now dot the landscape at the McMurry's southern Howard County farm.

Elzan McMurry, her husband, Roger, their son Andy, and his wife, Desiree, have transformed their once-conventional dairy farm into a small, sustainable agricultural operation. For years, they've sold raw wool to fiber artists, but in June they decided to expand their production. They've named their new business Genopalette - wool in a palette of colors produced genetically.

The family raises 290 head of sheep on their farm near Franklin. But this year, they've been keeping part of the wool they've collected in the spring. The raw wool is woven into garments they are selling in a La Campagne and Will B Free in C olumbia, the Les Bourgeois gift shop in Rocheport and the Wind Up Cafe in Fayette. They have also produced a catalog, a limited mail order business and a web site that can be accessed at www.genopalette.com. The items range in price from $46 to $298. 

"It seems like a lot until you make one," Andy McMurry said.

The McMurry's have experience raising sheep. When Andy McMurry was a high school student they had a small herd of commercial, meat-producing sheep along with their main herd of dairy cattle. And it was during high school that Andy McMurry participated in an FFA program called Work Experience Abroad. He spent nine months working on a New Zealand ranch where the average family farm, he said, runs 2,000 head of sheep. "It was a life-changing experience."

It was there that he become fascinated with the "colored" sheep. The Romneys and Merinos, with their walnut- and silver-colored coats, are bred for their distinctive colors and not their meat.

Then 10 years ago, Andy McMurry bought seven Romney and Merino sheep from a New Zealand breeder. The animals were shipped to Canada, quarantined, then transported to Missouri. Those original seven sheep became the breeding stock that he has used to improve and maintain his herd - strengthening the bloodlines of the colored wool-producing sheep he raises.

And for the past two years, he has raised those sheep on what he calls a "grass-based system." He feeds no hay and no grain - except during occasional, exceptionally severe winter - and instead grazes the sheep on high-protein annual grasses.

"It's the natural model" he said. "Deer do it, the buffalo did it. I manage the grass, make sure the sheep are healthy and wormed and they do the rest."

He manages the grass by planting annual rye, winter, wheat and triticale - a genetic combination of rye and wheat. He then moves the sheep from small grassy paddock to grassy paddock, sometimes as often as every 12 hours.

Using an electric, woven-wire fence, Andy McMurry gives the lambs just enough room to graze efficiently without damaging the tender green grass by stepping on it. Little by little, he moves the fence forward, creating a long narrow feeding trough of fresh grass. As the sheep move forward, the grass behind them is fenced off and given the chance to rest and replenish.

Another benefit to management-intensive grazing is that last year Andy McMurry had only one vet call for his entire herd.

"They're a lot more self-managed," he said. "They require a lot less fuss. By managing grass and feeding grass, the last two years I've been able to graze all year round."

The method also helps keep the wool clean, an important quality to the folks who spin. Free of hay and burs, the raw wool doesn't need the harsh chemicals that are often required to clean it.

The idea of sustainable agriculture has become widespread enough that last March Andy McMurry became a founding member of a group called the Sustaining People Through Agriculture Network.

"Sustainable agriculture has three parts to it," said Joan Benjamin, who works with SPAN members through the University Extension and state agriculture department. "It's ecologically sound, economically viable and socially responsible. It focuses on what you can do with what's on your farm. And an important part of sustainable agriculture is that you have to be able to make a living at it. If it's not economically viable it doesn't matter what you're doing., you won't survive as a farmer."

Other small farmers are learning to survive by adding value to their crop, taking advantage of the Missouri Department of Agriculture's Value Added grant.

"In other words, take the next step in the process of those products," said Tony Stafford, a program manager with the Missouri Agricultural and Small Business Development Authority. "It would put more money in the farmers' pockets if they would, instead of selling steers, sell steaks. Instead of selling blueberries, sell blueberry syrup and jam and jelly. Instead of selling whole pecans, sell pecan pies."

It's taken Andy McMurry 10 years to establish his herd, supplementing his income as an interior-finishes contractor, nurturing the farm until it can once again support the family that works it.

"When you take on purebred sheep it is a long-term project, and I'm talking decades, not years. Starting small is really important, I think," he said. "The only way to learn this kind of stuff is by doing it.

"I really do think there is an opportunity for small farms again...but totally different from what small farms used to be."

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