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
Ladder Ranch
