Executive Board
Margaret Soulen Hinson - President
Idaho
Phone: (208) 549-0922
Fax: (208) 549-83259
E-mail: msoulen@ruralnetwork.net
Background: Soulen Hinson is a third-generation livestock producer. Along with her father, Phil Soulen, and brother, Harry Soulen, she runs a range sheep and cattle operation. Soulen Livestock runs approximately 8,000 head of ewes and 800 cows. They have been in business since the early 1920s. The business is headquartered in Weiser and operates in eight Idaho counties. Soulen Livestock's base property is comprised of approximately 50,000 acres that is used in conjunction with various state, Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service and private land leases. Soulen Hinson attended the University of Idaho from 1974 to 1979 majoring in special education and elementary education. After graduation, she came back to the family livestock business and has been actively involved in various industry associations. Soulen Hinson is past chairman of the Idaho Rangeland Resource Commission. She currently is a member of the University of Idaho’s Citizen’s Advisory Board for the Policy Analysis Group, is on the board of directors for the Associated Taxpayers of Idaho and serves on the Third Judicial Magistrate Commission. She chairs the Weiser Memorial Hospital Board and has co-chaired the ASI Prescribed Grazing Committee and chairs the ASI Resolutions Committee.
Clint Krebs - Vice President
Oregon
Phone: (541) 422-7548
Fax: (541) 422-7135
E-mail: eatlamb@wildblue.net
Background: Clint Krebs of Ione, Ore., is a fourth-generation sheep producer and has been running sheep his entire life. He currently runs range ewes as well as operates a lamb feedlot. His only break from sheep was to get his bachelor's degree in agriculture economics from Oregon State University. Before being elected to an ASI office, Krebs represented Washington, Oregon, California and Hawaii on the ASI Executive Board. He has served as co-chair of the ASI Resource Management Council, has been a director for the National Lamb Feeders Association and currently serves as the chair of ASI’s Re-Build the Sheep Inventory Committee. In addition, Krebs has served as past president of the Oregon Sheep Growers Association and has served as past chairman of the Oregon Sheep Commission. Krebs and his wife, Maureen, have two daughters, Jessica Langley and Shelby, and a son, Cameron.
Burton Pfliger - Secretary/Treasurer
North Dakota
Phone: 701-222-8770
E-mail: bppfarm@hotmail.com
Background: Pfliger is a third-generation sheep rancher who was born into the business. He earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Animal Science from North Dakota State University in 1985. Currently, Pfliger and his wife Pattie run approximately 400 ewes, which make up a purebred Hampshire flock, a purebred Suffolk flock and a flock of Rambouillet/Dorset cross commercial ewes. The Hampshire and Suffolk flocks are used to produce range and terminal sires. Prior to election to secretary/treasurer, Pfliger served as the Region IV representative and is currently chairman of the ASI Wool Council. Pfliger previously served as the chairman of the Production, Education and Research Council, and additionally he served on the Legislative Action Council and the Predator Management Committee. He was elected to four terms as president of the North Dakota Lamb and Wool Producers. In addition, Pfliger served as vice chairman on the executive board of the Ag Coalition in North Dakota, and has served as the chairman of North Dakota State University’s (NDSU) Board of Ag Research, Livestock Granting Committee. He currently serves as the chairman of the Missouri Slope Wool Pool in Bismarck, N.D. Pfliger was nominated to NDSU’s Agriculturist of the Year and was presented the North Dakota Master Sheep Producer award in 2005.
Executive Board Members
Tom Colyer – Region I
Massechusetts
Phone: 978-928-5175
Fax: 978-928-4151
E-mail: tcolyer@aol.com
Region I = Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont.
Background: Colyer and wife, Andrea, have a Merino sheep operation, raising both natural colored and black Merinos for high-end Merino yarns sold off the farm. Colyer has been in the sheep business for 23 years. Colyer served on the ASI Wool Council and has served as president of the Massachusetts Federation of Sheep Associations for 15 years.
Will Getz, Ph.D. – Region II
Georgia
Phone: 478-825-2551
Fax: 478-825-6299
E-mail: getzw@fvsu.edu
Region II = Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.
Background: Getz has been in the sheep industry his whole life. Currently, he is the manager and shepherd of a 150-head flock of commercial ewes of both wool and hair sheep genetics as a part of the Georgia Small Ruminant Research and Extension Center on the campus of Fort Valley State University. Getz has been a supporter of the sheep industry at all levels, serving on the ASI Goat Committee, the Production, Education and Research Council and, recently, the Nominating Committee. In addition, he is past president of the Georgia Sheep and Wool Growers Association.
Bob Benson – Region III
Indiana
Phone: 317-896-2213
E-mail: rlbenosu@frontier.com
Region III = Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.
Background: Benson has been in the sheep industry for 36 years. Currently, Benson has a farm flock of Shropshire breeding ewes at his home in the suburban area north of Indianapolis, Ind. A longtime supporter of the sheep industry at the county, state and national levels, Benson has served on the ASI Legislative Action Council, the By-Laws Committee, Financial Review Committee and Nominating Committee. He is also active in the Indiana Sheep Association.
Marsha Spykerman - Region IV
Iowa
Phone: 712-736-2472
E-mail: spyke@dishmail.net
Region IV = Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota
Background: Spykerman and husband, Vernon, began raising sheep when they moved back to the family farm in 1980 and today have a commercial Midwest operation, running about 450 ewes in an intensive lambing setting. The couple shed lambs their ewes and moves the later lambing group out to farm ground that has been converted to pasture when the lambs are about one-week old. The Spykermans lamb approximately 100 ewes in late February and early March to produce replacement ewes for their flock. The remaining ewes lamb later in the season, producing commercial lambs that are finished on the farm and marketed by the couple. In addition, the Spykermans also raise corn, hay and have put acreage into grass, which is in a rotational grazing system. The majority of the hay and corn go back into the ewes and lambs on the farm. Spykerman has served as treasurer of the Iowa Sheep Industry Association and most recently, retired last year from serving six years as the association’s executive director where she was instrumental in helping the association rejoin ASI. She has also served on the ASI Lamb Council, was active in the Iowa Farm Bureau and has served on both the Iowa and American Sheep and Goat Advisory Committees.
Gary McGehee - Region V
Texas
Phone: 325-650-0248
E-mail: mcgehee_ranch@yahoo.com
Region V = Texas
Background: McGehee and wife, Carolyn, currently run a diversified ranch running 300 Rambouillet ewes, Spanish goats, black Angus cattle and a hunting operation on 4,000 acres. McGehee has previously served on the ASI Legislative Action Council. He is also past president of the Texas Sheep and Goat Raisers' Association.
Lee Jarvis – Region VI
Utah
Phone: 801-798-6678
E-mail: leejarvisutah@yahoo.com
Region VI = Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona and Nevada
Background: Jarvis, a seedstock producer, is a first-generation sheep man starting his operation 63 years ago as an FFA project with three ewes. He now runs a flock of more than 700 purebred Columbia and purebred Suffolk ewes. Jarvis runs his sheep in Utah in the winter and heads to Soda Springs, Idaho, to raise his sheep during the summer months. Jarvis and his son have a strictly family run operation which markets 450 to 500 rams a year to commercial sheep producers in the West and a few select rams are sold to other seedstock producers. Jarvis is a past president of the Utah Wool Growers Association and the National Columbia Sheep Breeders Association. In addition, he has served on ASI’s Production, Education and Research Council for the past seven years and was a previous board member of the National Wool Growers Association.
Larry Pilster – Region VII
Montana
Phone: 402-828-4473
Fax: 406-828-4544
E-mail: mt.sheepherders@rangeweb.net
Region VII = Montana, Idaho and Wyoming
Background: Pilster’s sheep and cattle operation lambs around 1,700 head of mainly Targhee/Columbia cross ewes. Pilster is a second generation sheep man, with his father starting the operation in Montana in 1940, having previously raised sheep in Nebraska. Each year, Pilster keeps from 350-400 replacement ewe lambs for his flock and uses Suffolk rams to breed the two-year olds as well as the courser-wooled ewes. White face rams are bred to the finer wool ewes to maintain the wool quality of the flock. In addition, the operation runs around 240 head of cows. Pilster earned a bachelor’s degree in agriculture production from Montana State University, with a focus in agriculture economics and a minor in ranch management. Pilster was on the board of directors for the Montana Sheep Growers Association and served as president of the organization for two terms. He has been active in ASI’s Resource Management Council, serving as co-chair of the Predator Management Committee and as a member on the Public Lands Committee. In addition, he is involved with the Montana Stock Growers Association, National Cattlemen Beef Association, national and state public lands councils and various county-level committees.
Art Swannack - Region VIII
Washington
Phone: 509-257-2683
Fax: 509-257-2974
E-mail: artswannack@ritzcom.net
Region VIII = Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington
Background: Swannack, wife Jill and children Carmen, Leah and Owen operate a wheat, hay and sheep operation, running about 1,000 head of mainly Polypay ewes. Swannack has been the ASI director for the Washington State Sheep Producers for six years and has served on the ASI Lamb Council and, most recently, the ASI Legislative Action Council.
Mike Lippert – Lamb Feeder Representative
Minnesota
Phone: 320-523-2849
E-mail: lippertlamb@yahoo.com
Background: Lippert, a second-generation lamb feeder, continues to run part of an operation established by his father in 1957. Lippert mainly purchases lambs from North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and Minnesota, at 80 to 100 pounds, feeds them out to market weight at 135 to 150 pounds and ships them to major packers. In addition, he farms corn, soybeans, alfalfa and vegetables with his brother Dan. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business management from St. Cloud State University and has used that knowledge in his feeding and farming operation. Lippert served on the NLFA Executive Board from 1980-1992, served as vice president for the organization from 2005-2007 and, most recently, ended his two-year term as NLFA president.
Glen Fisher - Past President
Texas
Phone: 325-387-3242
Fax: 325-387-5262
E-mail: fisher@sonoratx.net
Background: Fisher is the major partner and manager of Askew-Fisher Ranch, located on 18,000 acres of land in Sutton County, Texas. He runs approximately 1,800 head of sheep and 400 cows, as well as offers a hunting enterprise on his ranch. Before being elected to the office of president, Fisher served as vice president and secretary/treasurer of ASI. He has served on the ASI Executive Board and is a past chairman of the American Wool Council. In addition to ASI, he has served as past president of the Texas Sheep and Goat Raisers' Association, past director of the National Sheep Industry Improvement Center and past director of the Texas Polled Hereford Association. Fisher managed the Sonora Wool and Mohair Co. for 16 years and has also been involved in numerous civic and local organizations. Currently, Fisher serves as chair of ASI's Nominating Committe and was elected chair of the newly seated National Sheep Industry Improvement Center. Fisher is married to wife, Linda, and has two children, daughter, Tammy, and son, David.