“Hello everyone! My name is Oliver Dies from Ames, Iowa and I operate Stagecoach Livestock with my wife, Hallie, and my parents, Marsha, Darren, and my sister Abigail.”

Stagecoach Livestock began in 2009 with ten ewes in a renovated four-stall horse barn. Oliver started Stagecoach with his family, and it has remained a family-run operation ever since. 

Oliver began showing when he was 10 and continued to until he turned 21, when his show career came to an end. He and his family started out placing last in their class at the Story County Fair. By the end of his career, through hard work and dedication, Oliver earned several incredible wins at both the state fair and national shows.

“I loved the showmanship aspect of showing and enjoyed getting to teach younger kids.”

Oliver’s dad, Darrens, former business partner, Marv Walter, wanted to grow the sheep industry in Iowa. So, in 2009, Marv donated 10 sale-barn ewes to Stagecoach. He let Oliver and his family use his old horse barn to get their start. His place was called Stagecoach Stables. 

“To honor him, we went with the farm name Stagecoach Club Lambs-now Stagecoach Livestock. “

“Ever since that first year, Stagecoach has slowly grown.”

In 2019, is when Oliver really felt like they were taking ownership-not just of what they were building, but of every ewe in the flock. 

“We’ve been blessed with a lot of success over the last couple of years, and we feel like we’re just really getting going.”

In 2021, Oliver bought land and moved across town, where they built a new barn. 

“Many of our friends told us to build the barn as big as we could. We didn’t build it quite big enough, and now we’re maximizing the space that we have.”

 Stagecoach now runs 30 AI ewes, 5 donors, and keeps 40-50 polypay receipts on hand, depending on the time of year.  

When breeding, Oliver always relies on phenotype over genetics.

“I’ve bought too many ewes over the years that are a ‘maternal sib to this champion’ or ‘dam was a flush sib to this champion’  that turned out to be duds or average producers. Bottom line: even within similar genetics lines, every sheep is different, and you can’t rely on the wins of their pedigree as the deciding factor. If you can get the genetic backing on top of one you really like, that’s just the cherry on top.”

For the first time this year, Oliver went on a buck run with a good friend across the country. 

“Anymore, everyone is so good at getting pictures of their bucks that you really need to get out and go see them. You learn so much more about a sheep in person and getting to see them move. I’d also say, ‘I talk to a lot of my friends that I trust in the industry to get their thoughts and get a second opinion to make sure I’m seeing it correctly.’

What is the first thing you look for in the babies as they start developing to tell each lamb’s potential? 

“Tough one! I try not to form a concrete opinion on lambs because they change so much and the maturity patterns of different genetic lines vary widely. I’d say, “I like to sort on the ones that have some presence to them when you turn them out in group housing and also evaluate on skeletal quality before anything else.”

2025 was an incredible year for Stagecoach, but when big wins come, they also go. It’s always on to the next thing. Even in the midst of being grateful and happy people are always waiting to see-what do you do next?

“When you hit those mountaintop moments, those ones you’ve been working for years and years for… It’s really fulfilling, for maybe a day or so. But like with any goal-whether it’s winning your county fair or a class at a state fair-it’s on to the next big and better. Don’t get me wrong, we are incredibly grateful for all the success and it doesn’t come easy. But the only thing in this world that is completely fulfilling, is knowing our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Otherwise, you’ll keep going on to the next thing, only to be left unsatisfied.”

Stagecoach is working through expansion ideas and discussing how to expand the donor pool. 

“It’s really hard from a numbers perspective only flushing four ewes, because if one bombs, that really messes up your lambing season.”

Oliver feels that in the last couple years, the females at Stagecoach have gotten really good, and now they have 2-3 genetic lines identified that can produce some elite stock.

“I couldn’t be more excited to keep making sheep better here and we hope to be known as somewhere you can get your next donor female or elite show ewe-one that could lay down to make high end wethers and bucks.”

“Always remember where you got your start and where you came from. Remember your roots. We started off bottom of class at a county fair and there’s a lot of people who started there. I want our family to be people that will support others, no matter what their goals are-big or small.”