NOTICE FOR ELECTION
Please follow these instructions when casting your ballot for the BOD election: 

Complete one ballot per ADSBS membership. Junior members are not eligible to vote. Ballots with more than three (3) candidates selected will be invalid. Ballots without a members signature or mailed to any address other than the PO Box listed above will be invalid. Any questions should be directed to Karla Blackstock at 210-305-2565 or karla@dorpersheep.org You may select UP TO THREE candidates on this ballot.

East Region (Tennessee, Delaware states) West Region (Missouri, Nebraska, Arkansas states)

UP TO 2 PEOPLE FOR EACH REGION CAN BE ELECTED, BUT YOU MAY VOTE FOR THREE PEOPLE TOTAL.

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The following individuals are running for election to the 2025 Board of Directors for the ADSBS. Please take the time to get to know these individual so that you can cast your vote in October/November. Good luck to each of the candidates. Ballots will be mailed out by Oct.10 and will need to be returned by November 15.

Lance Weaver

I have been blessed to experience many great things in my life, from growing up in and around generations of agriculture to leadership in the Texas FFA, obtaining higher education from multiple universities, and gaining valuable work experience from Washington, D.C. to West Texas. However, my true passions are my family, being an active member of my communities, and raising seedstock Dorpers. I married my best friend, Amanda, after meeting her in graduate school, and we have two children: Ella (9) and Jackson (7). Both children are active members of a local 4-H chapter. I have spent most of my career in agricultural finance but recently transitioned to farm and ranch sales.

I am a business-minded individual who believes my role is to help the Society find new ways to generate revenue for our member farms and grow the Society. Furthermore, I will be an advocate for unity within our Society’s membership.

Over the last couple of years, I have already supported ADSBS through several notable accomplishments. As a member of the Registry Improvement Committee, I drafted the survey sent to the membership to provide clarity on expectations and opinions of the current system hosted by ABRI. I summarized and presented those results to both the membership and the board of directors at the 2023 National Show & Sale in Duncan. I also helped the Marketing Committee draft a survey of members that delved into expectations for the future. In 2024, I was asked to serve on the Finance Committee, where we have streamlined our financial reporting, reducing the general ledger from over 700 entries to a more functional form. We have also developed a proposal for a new investment strategy to align ADSBS’s equity position with inflation. The committee has been actively discussing the development of standard operating procedures to streamline services to members and create transparency. Last but not least, we are in the process of gathering the pertinent information needed to select a new breed registry system central to our organization.

Ben Binkley

My name is Ben Binkley.  I have served on the ADSBS Board for the last three years.  I currently hold the Vice President position for the second year.  I am seeking reelection as a Board member.  My wife Amanda and I, with our three children, operate Binks Family Farm.  We have dorpers, white dorpers, and a few commercial dorper crosses.

My goal on the Board is to respect all aspects of the dorper breed-commercial, breeding stock, and show stock.  I believe each of these are important and it takes all of these working together to move this great breed forward.  If you can appreciate all I have done on the Board the last three years, I would appreciate your vote.  Please feel free to call or email me with any questions or concerns.  Thanks for your consideration.
Ben Binkley
615-585-4430
binksfamilyfarm@gmail.com

Jared Frieze

I am Jared Frieze; and I am from a small town in southwest Missouri right outside Springfield. I grew up in the sheep industry and still have a huge passion for it to this day. Our sheep operation consists of Fullblood/Purebred  flock of Dorper and White Dorper. It is a family run operation between my parents, wife, daughter and myself which we operate under the name JBJ Livestock. We strive to produce very functional real  world Dorper sheep that can be competitive in both the showring and meet the needs of the commercial producer. My goal and primary objective for running for the board is to continue to push the Dorper industry forward by supporting all the different sectors of the Dorper sheep business, and marketing all the attributes this breed has to the sheep industry. I look forward to serving the members of the association and ask for your vote!

Kerry Paul

My name is Kerry Paul, and I am seeking election to the board for a second term.  Thank you, Darroll Grant, for your nomination. I, along with my wife Dawn, and our son, Kevin,  own and operate Missouri Dorpers in Albany, MO.  We have Dorpers and White Dorpers as well as Registered Red Angus cows.  We have owned Dorper Sheep for 14 years. Albany is where I grew up and we moved back after Kevin was born, about 29 years ago.  After graduating from the University of Missouri, I worked in the Farm Equipment, Pharmaceutical, and Seed industries.

Besides serving on the ADSBS Board the last three years, I have served on boards for our local Church, School, University Extension, and Angus Associations.  Our flock contains about 240 head of fullblood ewes and we usually have 40 or more rams for sale at any time.  We lamb three seasons a year, getting three lamb crops per ewe every two years. Spending three years on the board, I have found it both fulfilling and challenging.  I am the Co-Chair of the Data and Research Committee.   Being reelected would allow me to see some projects through that we are working on. The Sire Project with Texas A&M is an opportunity for some valuable data that we can use in a production database.  NSIP has been cumbersome to utilize for Dorper breeders as it doesn’t allow for more than one lamb crop a year, among other things, but it is pretty much all there is out there. Our next system for Breed Registration needs to be easy for breeders to input performance information into. This committee is also trying to acquire data that has already been collected that pushes forth the advantage of Dorper Sheep.  Many of the top sale barns in the country report sheep sales that are split out as Dorper/Dorper Cross, vs non-Dorper.  That data shows a clear advantage for Dorper Sheep and we need to get that kind of information compiled, published, and used in our marketing.  There are a couple of things that drive my thought process when faced with questions or decisions on the board.  First, is the subject good for the breed as a whole.  Second, will it help the breed maintain the breed standard.  I feel strongly about those two things and they guide my voting.  I would appreciate your vote for me on the board.
Respectfully,
Kerry Paul

William Phipps

I’m honored to be nominated for the Board of Directors. My wife, Robina, and I operate Centre Del Farm LLC with our children, Sydney and Liam. We currently run 70 head of Fullblood Dorper brood ewes/embryo recipients along the Delaware-Pennsylvania line.

I grew up on a dairy farm where we milked 60-70 Registered Holsteins. I graduated from Penn State with a B.S. in Dairy and Animal Science and was a member of their Dairy Judging Team. Shortly after graduation my father passed away and we sold most of our property in Delaware to pay the estate tax. Dismayed by our tax situation, I returned to school and earned a B.S. in Accounting. I spent a couple years in public accounting auditing not-for-profit organizations, pursued a master’s degree in taxation, and have spent the past 25 years working for a company that has grown into one of the largest investments companies in the United States.  I’m a licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and investment professional. My current position is as the Director of Information Reporting and Withholding Tax Policy, Advice and Compliance. I also serve on our board of directors for our local Farm Bureau.

We started with Dorpers in 2013 as 4-H projects for our children. We wanted to give them some of the same experiences we had growing up. We could have bought them nice market lambs and won some shows; but we wanted the kids to learn something more. I wanted them to learn how to evaluate an animal and improve a flock. It’s been an education for all of us and we have all learned so much on this journey.  In short, we started our journey to better our children, but we fell in love with the breed along the way. In 2024, my daughter and I both passed the judges exam to become Certified Dorper Judges.

In 2024 I began volunteering my time on the ADSBS Finance Committee to help improve the efficiency, accuracy, and compliance of our financial reporting. While the committee has made significant improvements, more work still needs to be done. A couple of things I’d like to work on include the establishment of a 501(c)(3) organization for our youth activities so breeders that make donations of animals, cash or other noncash property can receive a tax deduction and adding a financial statement section to our website for added financial transparency.

I hope my business experience and passion for the breed will benefit the ADSBS members and I’d appreciate your support. If elected I will do my best to advocate for the breed and all our members.

Randal Kai

My name is Randy Kai, my wife Deb and I live on an acreage in Southeast Nebraska (DeWitt, NE). We have been in the horse, cattle and herding dog arenas over many years. Since February of 2021, it has been our passion and mission to raise high quality Full Blood Dorper sheep - Saddle Creek Dorpers. I would like to 1^st thank Charlie Taylor for his nomination of myself to the ADSBS Board.

I have been in Agriculture my entire life and am currently in my 36th year as an agribusiness professional. My Bachelor’s degree in Business and Marketing would be a major benefit to ADSBS along with my history in agribusiness. The experience that I bring from marketing, leadership, promotion, advertising and program development would be a tremendous asset to ADSBS. As board member of ADSBS, I would like help to continue grow our breed in the most dorper standard way possible. I believe our success as a Society and Breed is to become even more far-reaching with our commercial dorper breeders around the country, providing economic driven services for these members. Focusing on dorper quality, from the sale or show ring to the dinner table.

A dynamic focus on marketing of our brand/product is the future of the dorper breed becoming the premier and preferred breed in the next 20 years, through research in production of high-quality animals and completing the step from quality of lambs in the market to quality of meat on your plate.