On August 10, 1920 Henry & Savilla (Long) Wolf purchased a quarter section of land in Gove County, Kansas. At that time, their daughter and son-in-law, Ora Samuel and Kathryn (Wolf) Jarboe, married and moved into the two-story farmhouse that had been built in 1906. In 1946, they purchased the west 80 acres. In 1965, they inherited the east 80 acres. Sam and Kathryn moved to California in 1947, when their son and daughter-in-law, Russel and Velvyn (Lahman) Jarboe married and moved to the farm. Russel and Velvyn purchased in 1967. In 1982, their daughter and son-in-law, Curtis and Debra (Jarboe) Simon purchased the farm. Currently, their son Stephen and his wife Sarah (Taylor) Simon operate the farm. Their children, Oliver and Autumn represent the sixth generation on the land.

Henry & Savilla (Long)
Wolf

Sam & Kathryn (Wolf)
Jarboe

Russell & Velvyn (Lahman)
Jarboe

Curtis & Debra (Jarboe)
Simon

Stephen, Sarah (Taylor),
Oliver & Autumn Simon

Many crops such as wheat, barley, oats, milo, corn, and sudan feed have been raised on the farm. Farming practices have gone from the horse and plow and hand harvesting to large tractors and combines. The farm has withstood dust storms, blizzards, tornadoes, and severe thunderstorms with torrential rain and severe droughts.
The first time sheep were raised on the farm was in 1930, when Sam brought one baby lamb home. The next year he purchased six ewes from Texas, through the county agent. There have been sheep raised on the farm every year since, except for one year. The numbers have varied over the years with sheep being the mainstay of the farm in recent years with about 1,700 ewes that are lambed and their lambs are fed out and sold as market lambs.
In 2012, the farm was given the official name of Simon & Simon Sheep, inc. when Stephen moved home to join the operation. The farm has also been home at time to cows, pigs, horses, donkeys, goats, llamas, turkeys, chickens, and numerous pets of all types over the years, including a skunk!

Original barn with sheep

Russell, 1947, harvesting wheat

Oliver, 2014, harvest time

Currently we run white faced cross bred ewes to Finn-Dorset, and Rambouillet lambs. We lamb in the fall, spring, and do accelerated lambing in May. They are all lambed out on the farm in our barns. We graze the sheep in the summer months on native pasture, wheat and barley stubble. In the fall and winter they graze on milo stacks or are fed in the pens depending on their stager of production. Due to predators (coyotes) we use a guard dog, two donkeys, and Nite-Guard lights. No lambs are ever out in the pastures for grazing because of predators.
The new lambs have access to creep feed until weaning at two months of age. All of our lambs are fed to about 140 pounds and marketed with Superior Farms. We retain, two hundred to three hundred ewe lambs for replacement ewes.

Ewes grazing