ewes and lambs on Cherry Grove
We’re almost done lambing and it’s time for docking the lambs and getting everyone ready for trailing and summer’s grazing on the Routt and Medicine Bow National Forests. Sheep are naturally long-tailed, and if those tails are not cut short early in life, they can have problems later with manure and flies. The assembly line process also includes earmarking, castrating the males, vaccinating for diseases and a stamp with a paint brand. The ewes also receive a fresh brand and everyone is counted. We usually run two docking lines with all hands on deck, and bring up a hot lunch and plenty of cold drinks.
ewes and lambs ready to go
docking crew working two lines
Seamus vaccinating
hats and lunch
after docking
Tags: Cherry Grove, docking, ewes, lambs, Seamus, sheep
McCoy bringing in a calf
It’s that time of year again. We have lots of baby calves who need vaccines, brands and earmarks before they head up to the Forest with their mothers. We have a great crew this year. Everyone knows how to work together to minimize stress on both cattle and people.
calves gathered in the Elephant Corral
Bubba, Tiarnan and McCoy bringing in the calves
Siobhan at the ready
Rhen on the water tank
Bubba and McCoy
branding crew
McCoy and Eamon
Tags: branding, Bubba, calves, cows, Eamon, McCoy, Rhen, Siobhan, Tiarnan
wooly ewes waiting for the shearers
It’s that time of year again. The shearers have shown up and shearing is underway. Each year it takes a lot of moving parts for fleeces to roll off the sheep and into the big bales. Our shearing crew are contractors who come out of California. We are their last client of the season. This is good because they are not under pressure to move on to the next producer, but nerve-wracking because we want to have the ewes shorn in time to trail to the lambing grounds north of Dixon. Lambing starts around May 10th.
We were fortunate with the weather this year. We had a snowstorm right before we were ready to start. The weather cleared and was warmish and nice for most of the week, allowing us to get through the “main line,” as the wool buyers call the running age ewes. The yearlings were next, followed by a brief, but not killer storm–always a worry for freshly shorn sheep.
Our crew packed up their portable shed–the shearing equivalant of a food truck–and moved to Powder Flat. The early lambers and the rams were there, and soon they too had given up their winter coats. Beulan and Maria the llamas were also shorn, much to their spitting disgust, but they are ready for summer.
wooly ewes with wagons
waiting in the corral
shorn ewes, ready to lamb
Frank and Gramps, son and father, on the job
Modesto and Eamon counting sheep
shorn ewes with birds
Edgar with unshorn llamas at Powder Flat
shearer at work
Meghan and Maria
Megan with Beulah
Beulah, freshly shorn
the wool packer baling the fleeces
bales of wool
fleeces in line
Tags: Border collies, Eamon, Edgar, llamas, Megan, Meghan, Modesto, shearing, sheep, wool
moonset at Powder Wash
The yearling ewes have wintered in the Powder Wash country. We decided to move them some 100 miles or so north, where the running age ewes have spent the winter. We need to have everyone (almost) together for next month’s shearing. We had to start early in the morning to get the trucks loaded and one their way.
loading the trucks at Powder Wash
ewe and lamb near the Bob Terrill corrals
yearling ewes waiting to load
rider keeping an eye on the yearlings
guard dog and yearlings, Powder Mountain
a girl and her dogs
horses and guard dogs, moving too
unloading at Cyclone Rim
yearling exiting the truck
making themselves at home at the Cyclone Rim base camp
the guard dogs are happy!
Tags: Cyclone Rim, guard dogs, Powder Mountain, Powder Wash, trucks, yearling ewes
Hampshire ewe and lamb
It’s March, so it must be lambing season at Powder Flat. We raise our own rams, and have a farm flock of Hampshire and Rambouillets–known as the “early lambers.”
Here’s a look at this busy time. We are glad that our intrepid Peruvian crew is on the job. Several of them just came back from a few months at home.
It’s also time for the cows who have spent the winter in balmy Laramie to come home.
Ladies in waiting
Hampshire and Rambouillet ewes
twins!
Tiarnan practicing child labor
whiteface ewe with crossbred lambs
bring in the cows
cows at Powder Flat
lambs, lambs, lambs!
Tags: cows, ews, Hampshire, lambs, Powder Flat, Rambouillet, Tiarnan
Chief and Commander
Today would be my Dad’s 101st birthday, He’s surely smiling down as Eamon and the boys harnessedup this team to feed the heifers. We have a lot of snow, but it’s been warm, making the snow “boggy.” We got tired of stuck tractors, so Eamon found this beautiful team of Percherons, Chief and Commander. We still have harnesses from the days when we used to feed with Fran and Chub. Eamon, Bubba, Chandler, Tiarnan and Rhen harnessed them, hooked them up to the sled, and fed the heifers, just like in the old days. They didn’t get stuck! Happy birthday, Dad!
Chandler and Bubba harnessing, Rhen supervising.
Commander
getting ready to go to work
Chief
Eamon driving across the Battle Creek bridge
heifers following the sled
outriders Chandler, Rhen and Bubba
Rhen
Tags: Battle Creek, Bubba, Chandler, Eamon, heifers, Percheron horses, Rhen
Cowboy crew (Chandler, McCoy, Tiarnan and Rhen) waiting to unload
More heifers came in and we were there to unload. Since it was a Saturday, McCoy, Tiarnan and Rhen were mounted and ready to help.
off the truck and heading for groceries
Tiarnan, Meghan and Chandler counting the heifers off the truck
one heifer headed the wrong way, of course
Rhen and Jake on the job
Tags: cattle, Chandler, heifers, McCoy, Meghan, Rhen, Tiarnan
Chandler on Cora, waiting for the trucks to unload
We plan to run heifers this coming summer (I have faith that summer is coming). We have hay on hand so decided to bring the heifers in now. They are from South Dakota, and are used to cold and snow. I was happy to see their fuzzy coats.
backing the truck up to the chute
Mc Coy ready with his rope
Welcome home!
heading for the hay pile
Tags: cattle, Chandler, heifers, McCoy, trucks
Laramie cows
There’s a reason recent blog posts have been mostly of sheep. In the winter, the sheep stay relatively near (100 miles) to the Home Ranch. Most of the cows go to spend the winter eating hay at the Spiegelberg Ranch near Laramie. A couple of days ago, granddaughter Siobhan, a student at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, went to visit the cows, including our summer nurse cow, Loralie. Here’s Siobhan’s photos of the winter cows.
coming through the gate
on the Laramie Plains
Loralie
Tags: cows, Laramie, Loralie, Siobhan, University of Wyoming
ewes grazing on Cyclone Rim allotment
Today was a Goldilocks Day–not too hot, not too cold, and not windy at all. I took our banker, Kim Brown, from the Yampa Valley Bank in Craig, Colorado out to the Red Desert to take a look a the sheep. Conditions were perfect, with enough snow for the ewes to water on, but not so deep that they couldn’t access the dried grasses which we count on for winter feed. Everyone looked happy–the ewes, the bucks, the dogs, and Pepe, Leo and Guillermo.
Pepe unloading dog food–we buy a pallet a week
guard dog checking us out
a curious Hampshire ram lamb, also checking us out
the last of the corn
sheep on the skyline at Chain Lakes
guard dogs on the job
Guillermo, Kim and Pepe in Cyclone Rim
Tags: Chain Lakes, Cyclone Rim, Guillermo, Kim, Leo, livestock guardian dogs, Pepe, Red Desert, sheep
Ladder Ranch
