Jeremy Wilhelm is working to reshape the agricultural landscape in Eastern Iowa as the co-owner of Lamb’s Quarter Livestock and Rhubarb Botanicals.
Jeremy shares the story of returning to his family’s land near Springville and Mount Vernon, transforming it from decades of monocrop corn into a regenerative, pasture-based operation focused on lamb, flowers and botanicals. He offers insight into the science and business of rotational grazing, the challenges and rewards of building soil health with livestock, and the importance of community connections in supporting local food systems. Jeremy also discusses the evolution of his farm store, collaborations with local chefs and businesses, and his vision for a more resilient, community-centered approach to agriculture in the Corridor.
I learned a lot and I think you will too.
Sponsored by MidWestOne Bank, this is the latest edition of the CBJ’s Real Success with Nate Kaeding and notable Iowa business and cultural leaders.
Real Success with Nate Kaeding was named Best Business Podcast at the 2024 Iowa Podcast Awards.
Nate Kaeding: Jeremy, let’s start in the present. What’s happening on the farm in the middle of winter?
Jeremy Wilhelm: The sheep are all the way down, huddled in the cold. We breed early, starting around Dec. 7 for May 1 lambing. Right now, it’s really about maintaining hay supplies, busting through drifts, and rolling out round bales. We keep the flock out. We don’t put them in buildings. Sheep are versatile animals. They can handle the cold, grow out a good coat, and we put up wind protection for them. The main thing is keeping water open in the little pasture creek.
Lamb is a bit of a specialty in Iowa. How did you end up raising sheep, and what’s the origin story of Lamb’s Quarter Livestock?
Jeremy: I grew up around Springville, working on other people’s farms — cows, pigs, some poultry — but never sheep. Our family’s land had been monocrop corn for close to 50 years. It’s hard to put beans on hills and you really shouldn’t. Corn cropping destroys the soil. When we decided to take the land off lease and came back to help my folks after the derecho, we knew we needed to rebuild the soil health.
We were still in Minneapolis in 2019, but when we moved down, the conversation was: What do we do with this existing 40, now 80 acres, that had been row crop forever? The fastest way to build soil health is with livestock. That was really interesting to us. We could put animals on, use it as a food crop, make money, but really, we’re rebuilding soil health. That’s exciting.
What does soil rebuilding look like in practice?
Jeremy: After corn is harvested in the fall, you come in the next spring and plant a pasture mix — grasses and legumes that fix nitrogen. Our target was lamb for a few reasons: They use less water than cows, are easier on the land (less soil compaction), and are manageable on a small scale. Our first pasture was just 33 acres, so for best return per pound, lamb made sense. Processing costs are higher, but the entry is more affordable.
It’s a weird thing to tell people: We’re in the livestock business, but it’s really about rebuilding soil health. The soil health gives you good pasture, the pasture feeds the animals, and that’s what ends up in our bodies. Whether you’re planting flowers, herbs, vegetables, or raising animals, you need good soil health, and you can use animals to do that. Now we have grass-fed, grass-finished lamb as a regenerative practice.
How quickly does the pasture come back after planting?
Jeremy: Even within one season, it can take. There’s a practice — common from the 1950s until the farm crisis in the 1980s — where you regenerate pasture using a nurse crop, like oats. You seed grass and legumes, then oats provide shade and protection. You harvest the oats in July, bale the straw, and the pasture comes up through it. By fall, you can turn animals out onto it. We had animals on it in 2022, and it was really fast.
You’ve mentioned the connection between sheep and the land. Can you talk about that relationship?
Jeremy: There’s a symbiotic relationship. Sheep have a history with land management, even outside of agriculture. Think of golf courses in Ireland and Scotland, or Boston Commons. Sheep are manageable, they flock tightly, and don’t do much damage if they get out. That’s part of why they work well for rebuilding pastures.
How did your flock start, and how has it grown?
Jeremy: In 2021, the first flock on the property was about 37 or close to 40. We bought two rams, bred them, and started small. Now we’re up to over 300 lambs this year. We kind of hit our max on that 33-acre pasture within three years, which is incredible.
What determines your maximum flock size?
Jeremy: It’s based on how much grass is growing, how much you can feed. But with sheep, the biggest problem is internal parasites, not predators. We use livestock guardian dogs for coyotes, but parasites are a real challenge if you don’t want to run insecticides (dewormers), which kill beneficial soil microbes and end up in the meat. Managing stocking rates — how many animals per acre — is crucial. You can’t eat the pasture down to golf-course height; we look for six-inch minimums.
We rotate the flock through paddocks — subdivided sections of pasture — with portable fencing. They’re in each paddock for a day or two, eating down to no less than six inches. Then we move them to another. This rotation helps control parasites and allows the grass to recover.
What’s the science behind rotational grazing, and how does it affect the meat?
Jeremy: Rotational grazing does a few things. It manages internal parasites, creates a feeding frenzy — which builds fat and marbling — and helps the pasture recover. Plants grow deeper roots and come back better after being grazed. It’s similar to mowing your lawn, but the clippings are turned into meat.
There’s a longstanding myth that sheep ruin pastures — “range maggots,” they called them out west — but it’s just physiology. Sheep have smaller mouthparts and can graze closer, but if you manage them right, they don’t damage the pasture. Keeping grass above four inches helps avoid parasite problems, too.
Can you talk about the business side? How did you plan and diversify your revenue streams?
Jeremy: I wish we’d been deeper in the spreadsheets from the start! The livestock part was a long game: building infrastructure, fencing, water lines, rotational systems. My partner, Emma, came from flower farming and is an herbalist, so we added cut flowers, herbs for teas and culinary purposes, and value-added products.
We have a greenhouse for seed starts, which is our first revenue stream each season. Early on, we do a CSA (community-supported agriculture) sign-up for flowers, which helps cash flow. People sign up and pay deposits before the season. We do lamb shares that way, too, but later in the summer.
We partner with local businesses as CSA pickup points, like New Pioneer in Cedar Rapids and The Greenhouse Bar in Iowa City. Those relationships often turn into retail outlets for our bouquets. The more products we have, the more fun we can have with these partnerships.
How have you built community and relationships through your business?
Jeremy: It’s all about relationships. Small business is about building community more than anything else. If you have the right relationship and a product that can be used, people find creative ways to partner. Having diversified products like flowers, herbs, lamb, and cocktail bitters means we can connect with more people.
We’ve seen a lot of opportunity, even with land. There are retiring farmers, and that’s how we ended up with our “flower farm” (Rhubarb Botanicals) in Mount Vernon. Donna and Bill Walkover’s Morning Glory Farms had a commercial kitchen, high tunnels, a greenhouse, and an event barn. Emma had already built a relationship with Donna through low-key farmers markets. When Donna retired, we rented the space, moved in, and got our retail food license. Now we can wholesale tea blends, value-added products, and run a farm store.
Tell us more about the farm store and how it fits into your model.
Jeremy: The event barn became our farm store. On Saturday mornings, Emma and I split up — one at Iowa City farmers market, one at the farm store. We bring in other farmers’ vegetables, dairy, and meats. It started as a mini farmers market, but people love coming into the store for curated products. Laura Krause from Abbe Hills brings her veg, and her CSA customers now come to our store, keeping that community together.
It’s a way to connect with the community. That wasn’t in our business plan, but it fits our values. People come because they want vegetables, lamb, and pork, and they want to know where it comes from. We carry organic pork from Dyersville, which mostly gets shipped to San Francisco, Hong Kong, or Japan, but we got in through connections with 99 Counties, a local meat clearinghouse.
What does “community” mean to you in this context?
Jeremy: Community is intentional, but not in a way where you decide who’s in or out. It’s based on need. People self-select. They want these products and share these values. We do a holiday market before Thanksgiving, where people can pick up veg boxes, lamb shares, turkeys from Over the Moon Farm, and bread from local bakers. Someone told me, “You’re building a whole community around these farms coming together.” It wasn’t intentional, but it’s become really important to us.
We’re also part of the Choose Iowa program, which networks local small farms and farm stores. We didn’t realize how much of a thing these small farm stores would become, but they’re popping up in communities all over.
Iowa is known for agriculture, but much of it isn’t directly accessible as food. How do you see your work fitting into the local food system?
Jeremy: It’s a paradox. We’re surrounded by farming, but most of it isn’t food you can eat. It’s fuel or feed. People want local food, and there’s momentum building for diversified, value-added agriculture. It’s a quality-of-life amenity. You can live in Iowa City and go five miles out to buy something you can actually eat or put on your table. That wasn’t the case 15 or 20 years ago.
Row crop farmers are caught in a system that bleeds them dry. They’re farming for less than the cost of production, subsidized by the government, and benefiting only the big companies. They’re no longer farming food. There’s a way to break out of it. We could grow all the protein this country needs on perennial pasture in Iowa. Perennial means it comes back every year; it’s soil and water conservation in itself.
What’s the potential of regenerative agriculture and local food systems here?
Jeremy: Animals on perennial pastures are the most regenerative practice. What they eat makes what they need grow back better. It’s pure regenerative ag. There’s no erosion, no topsoil loss. But there’s no support for it, and farmers are locked into corn and soybeans.
There isn’t even a local food system, really. What do we need to do to make one? It breaks out into housing, health care, child care, public education — all of that needs funding for a viable local food network.
Are there other regions doing this well that we can learn from?
Jeremy: Madison, Wisconsin is incredible. Their farmers markets are awesome, the restaurant scene is deeply connected to local food, and the market moves indoors in winter. The food scene is better than Minneapolis. It’s what Cedar Rapids could be, with more consistency. Restaurant groups play a huge role. They’re consistent buyers, can control cost of production, and buy ahead. That flexibility is critical.
Where can people find your lamb and other products?
Jeremy: Cobble Hill and Big Grove use our lamb on their menus. Watch Instagram for specials, especially after Valentine’s Day. Our farm store reopens mid-April; you can order cuts by email and pick up at the store.
What’s your vision for the next ten years?
Jeremy: Our focus is on growing the flower farm in Mount Vernon. We want a farm store open six days a week, and to do farm-to-table dinners every Saturday night. We want to grow more veg for the store, maybe buy more land. The farm store is what the community wants, and we want to keep connecting farm products and farmers directly to people.
Any final thoughts on what you’ve built and where it’s headed?
Jeremy: It’s impressive how the connectivity keeps growing. It’s bigger than just us. It’s about community, quality of life, water quality, and better food. Being at the farmers market, connecting with people, seeing happy sheep on fresh pasture — it’s all part of it. We’re glad to be here building something meaningful.
