Lambs in the sunshine
Rams in October mean lambs in March. Even though we still have record amounts of snow on the ground, the lambs are arriving right on schedule. We raise our own rams–Rambouillet and Hampshire–and the moms lamb in March at Powder Flat. Our Peruvian crew is doing a great job at getting live lambs on the ground. It is a reminder that spring will actually arrive, someday. We did see birds migrating north. We saw geese in the sky and Sand Hill Cranes on the alfalfa feed line with our ewes.
Alejandro pulling a lamb
Alejandro bringing twin lamb #2 into the world
Pat and Edgar
bum lambs
guard dog on straw, cows on feed
cows on the feedline
Geese heading north
Alejandro supplementing a lamb with milk
Tags: Alejandro, cows, Edgar, lambing, Pat, sheep
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
bringing in the cows and calves
The McCullem Place is part of our Powder Wash ranch west of Baggs. It serves as spring pasture for some of the cows and calves. The homestead era headquarters is mostly gone, so we set up portable corrals, brought in the cows and calves, and processed the calves. These are some of the Akaushi-cross calves so we also had to take a snip of ear to check their bloodlines. We built an old-fashioned fire to heat the branding irons. We had another great crew of family, friends and employees.
Eamon and McCoy
cows and calves in corral
crew getting ready
Karen, Edgar and Eamon
Juan with branding fire
McCoy and Aspen
Tags: branding, calves, cows, Eamon, Edgar, Juan, Karen, McCoy, McCullem Place
Ladder Ranch crew–Rhen, Eamon, Edgar, Leo, Pat
Rhen on the chute after guiding his Dad who was backing up the truck.
Sometimes we have multi-species days. Pat, Eamon, Rhen and Sharon headed to Powder Flat to load heifers on trucks so we could move them to spring country north of Dixon. We are full-on lambing at the Powder Flat headquarters, so there was plenty going on there already.
heifers heading for the truck
Eamon on Aspen, ready to trail up the road
meanwhile back at Powder Flat. . .
guardian dog puppy in training
burning old straw by the lambing shed
Leo and Rhen feeding a bum lamb
Ladder branding iron
Tags: cattle, Cottonwood pasture, Eamon, Edgar, heifers, lambs, Leo, livestock guardian dog puppies, Pat, Powder Flat, Rhen, sheep
Hampshire ewe with comfy lamb
Each March, we lamb our purebred ewes, Hampshire and Rambouillet, in the sheds at Powder Flat. We raise our rams for the commercial range ewes from these two farm flocks. Luckily, we have a good crew and the early weather has been mild.
Pat and Edgar with pen for outdoor dining
guard dog hard at work in a circle of ewes
guard dogs on the job
Hampshire ewe and twins
bum lambs in warm straw
Leo feeding the bum lambs
Meanwhile, Maria is hanging out with the bucks
Tags: bucks, Edgar, ewes, lambing, lambs, Leo, livestock guardian dogs, llama, Pat, Powder Flat
Shadows
As the elk and the deer
head down from summer’s grass
calves and fawns by their side
we gather cows, their calves and
hope for good weather.
We hook up the sheep camps,
move our community of critters—
ewes, lambs, dogs, horses.
The shepherds shift from early mornings,
lazy afternoons, fights with bears
and coyotes—
trying to find a camp spot among
tourists, campers, refugees from Covid.
At home, we stage the sheep, bringing them
bunch by bunch to pastures,
to the corrals
For sorting, for judging who stays,
who goes, some to the desert
some to farmers with soft fields and warm barns.
Lambs climb onto trucks—
first the heavies, born early,
next the lights,
and finally the peewees
headed for corn and lower country.
Now we follow the migration.
ewes trailing down from the Routt Forest
past the Bull Pasture
KIm supervising
Meghan at the sorting gate
lambs
under the sun
Anthony working the chute
ewes after sorting
Meghan loading the truck, with help
lambs loading on truck
Pepe and Oscar bringing them up
Pepe. Edgar and Bubba
Tags: Anthony, Edgar, ewes, lambs, Meghan, Oscar, Pepe, sheep, trailing
bucks relaxing in the meadow
Each fall we test the buck herd. Geri Parsons, Optimal Livestock Services, comes to check our rams for fertility and health. At the same time, we look at their teeth, their feet and their general condition to make sure they are ready to romance the ewes in a couple of months.
ready to test
Geri, Edgar and Rhen
Oscar, Geri and Edgar
Geri in her portable lab
evening dust-up between bucks
Tags: bucks, Edgar, Geri Parsons, Optimal Livestock Services, Oscar, Rhen, Seamus, sheep
ewes trailing into the Sheep Mountain pasture
October 1st is the off-date for our summer grazing permits on the national forests. We spend a lot of time staging the trailing off of both cows and sheep. We consolidate sheep bunches, move them onto private pastures, and bring every ewe and lamb through our corrals and sheep chutes at the Home Ranch. We sort the lambs off the ewes. Some lambs will go to a feedlot to gain more pounds, and some will stay home and become replacement ewe lambs.
The ewes are sorted several way. Ewes with good health and good udders stay with our bunches. The “good old ewes” who are short on teeth but otherwise sound will go to buyers, usually in the Midwest, who can care for them for several more years, in conditions more forgiving than Wyoming’s Red Desert. The “killer ewes” or culls will go to slaughter.
All this involves a lot of moving parts, but when we’re done, we’re ready to move onto other late fall pastures before the long trail to the wintering grounds.
Meghan, Cora and Raul bringing up the sheep
ewes and lambs heading down the chute
Edgar and Cora at the sorting gate
Meghan and Leo
Meghan sorting lambs
ewes lambs in the corral
Pat, contemplating
Cora is a working mother. Puppies for sale!
Tags: Cora, Edgar, Home Ranch, Leo, Meghan, Pat, puppies, Raul, sheep, Sheep Mountain
ready for the shearers
heading up the chute
Alejandro helping ewes up the chute
bucks ready for a fleecing
shearing with skill
down the ramp
Ten pounds lighter!
shorn sheep
Cora with wool packer
wool ready to pack
Oscar and Meghan
Pepe processing ewes
all hands and the cook
Tags: Alejandro, Badwater, Edgar, ewes, German, Meghan, Oscar, Pepe, Powder Flat, rams, ranch cook, sheep shearing, wool
Ladder Ranch
