bucks in waiting
December rams
bring May lambs
Put me in, Coach!
Maximiliano and Timeteo
Meghan loading bucks in the trailer
Love at last!
Category Archives: Peruvian sheepherders
The last of the lambs to the feedlot
early morning truck ready to load
up to the chute
the last lambs waiting in the corral
Meghan on the job
Oscar, Edgar and Pepe bringing up the lambs
guard dog and horses supervising
Pepe
Sorting Gate Haiku
ewes heading for the sort
Ewes through the dodge gate,
dart left, duck right, straight ahead—
Destiny awaits.
Edgar at the sorting gate
guard dog hard at work
Avencio catching a ewe
in the corrals
Rhen helping Avencio and Oscar to doctor a ewe
crossing the Battle Creek bridge
Fall Gather
Bringing the cows and calves home
In the fall, the cows and calves are gathered into private pastures near the Home Ranch. They have spent the summer months grazing on National Forest permits. It takes several “back rides” to make sure that all the critters have come down from the summering ground, and we collect them into pastures where they can graze and hang out until it is time to sort them. Here are some views of our family, friends and employees moving cows and calves closer to home. Soon it will be time to load the calves onto trucks to their new homes, and the cows onto trucks to go to winter pastures and cornfields where they will ruminate and gestate until spring.
The cows and the sheep have been sharing the Sheep Mountain pasture.
Trailing past the sheep camp.
Avencio and the sheep are staying behind.
Heading past the reservoir
trailing along the ditch
a ewe and lamb came along
crossing the Little Snake River bridge
Will and Micah heading for the gate
Eamon counting cows through the gate
the fishermen were not disturbed
First lambs to the feedlot
Ewes and lambs heading for the corrals
Oscar sorting lambs
This has been one of the driest years on record. Usually our ewes and lambs graze on the Routt and Medicine Bow National Forest allotments until the end of September. This year, with much less rain than usual, we are sorting the feeder lambs off early to send them to the feed lot. Most years, we send the oldest (and heaviest) lambs first and the youngest lambs last. This fall, like many range producers, we are bringing the sheep down to the Home Ranch so the lambs can be sorted. This gives us less mouths to feed at home, and they transition onto a nutritous growth ration. All this is happening several weeks earlier than usual. We are at the mercy of Mother Nature. Each year, we gauge the present and try to predict the future. While our fellow Americans are trying to dry out from Hurricane Florence, we pray for rain, or snow–or both.
the sheep in the newly painted corral
Oscar and Raul’s lambs waiting for the truck
through the corral poles
down the chute
Raul and Edgar bringing up the lambs
a wether lamb with a ewe lamb earmark–marked “capon”
capon in the chute
Eamon counting lambs
They went that-a-way
Trucking the yearling sheep
Ready to unload
Our yearling sheep remain at Badwater after shearing, while the pregnant ewes trail on to the lambing grounds north of Dixon. The yearlings hang out there on the high desert until the bunches are made up and trailed to their summer grazing permits in the National Forests. Most years, we wait until after the Fourth of July and trail the yearling sheep south and east to their summer ground on the Medicine Bow Forest.
This year, due to extremely dry conditions in Badwater and on the trail, we decided to move the yearlings by truck. It took all day and into the night to get them all loaded, transported and unloaded. We were still unloading well after dark. and everyone made it safe and sound. Many thanks to our intrepid crew and neighbors who helped out!
Off the truck at Cottonwood.
Welcome to Cottonwood
unloading after dark
Seamus on the job
Cole and Autumn
Meanwhile (during the day), the boys played in the lambing shed.
Ladder Ranch
