
docking lambs
May and June bring us lambs, and lambs mean docking–cutting the tails, castrating the males, eearmarking,vaccinating and paint branding. This requires our crew to gather the ewes and lambs into portable corrals, which we move to the various areas on the lambing grounds. We sort the lambs into a smaller pen, then carry them, one by one, along an assembly line where they are prepared for their future lives without tails. The last stop is a paint brand. This year we have an exceptional multi-national crew, which includes Peruvians, Mexicans, South Africans and Americans, including our grandchildren and employees. We have had fair weather and great lunches. Soon the ewes and lambs will be ready to trail to their summer pastures on the forest.

Rhen, bringing up the lambs

ewes in the pen

Rhen and Aaron with the Dickum Docker

Maeve, Riley and Tiarnan docking

Robyn, Oscar and James

Riley and Seamus

Liza with lamb

Seamus and Riley

ewes and lambs at Cherry Grove

wagon at Cherry Grove
Tags: Aaron, docking, ewes, James, lambs, Liza, Maeve, Oscar, Rhen, Riley, Robyn, Seamus, Tiarnan

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

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

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
Tags: Avencio, Border collie, Edgar, ewes, Livestock Guadian Dog, Oscar, Rhen, sheep

Ladies in waiting for Geri.
We raise our own replacement ewes from the best of our Rambouillet commercial ewes. We select about 1500 of these ewes, checking them for fine consistent wool, good body type, twinning, open faces, and other traits. The rest of the ewes, who are good but not as good, are bred to Hampshire (blackface) rams. We breed the replacement moms to the Rambouillet rams that we also raise.
When these lambs are born in May, they are more vulnerable to harsh weather conditions than the cross-bred lambs, who have hybrid vigor. The twin and triplet lambs are more at risk since their Mom has multiple lambs to care for. We have lambing sheds where we can give the ewes and their multiple lambs extra care and shelter. It is key to know which ewes are carrying the valuable and vulnerable twins and triplets.
Luckily for us, we can call on Optimal Veterinary Services to test our ewes mid-pregnancy. We set up our corrals, and Geri Parsons’ testing tent, on top of Cyclone Rim—a high range on the Red Desert. That’s where Avencio and his sheep are. The winter has been dry, so we have moved up chasing snowdrifts for water for the sheep. Geri, and her partner, Dr. Cleon Kimberling, “have lab, will travel”. Doc didn’t come this time (too far to ride his bike!), but we gathered employees and family members to work as the ground crew. We were lucky to have good weather with almost no wind—not always the case on Cyclone Rim!
Geri set up her tent next to the chute. As each ewe stopped, she checked them with an ultrasound machine, then called “single”, “twin”, “triplet”, and occasionally “open”! We then marked each ewe. The ewes pregnant with multiples will be sorted into a separate bunch when we shear in a few weeks. Then they will head to the lambing sheds for TLC.

Cora and Sadie on the job

view from the back

guard dog on the job

Friends

Siobhan and Tiarnan sorting

Tiarnan in Geri’s chute

Siobhan at the chute

Tiarnan with the sorting flag

Pat and Tiarnan behind the sheep

Meghan and Oscar working the chute, Geri’s tent in place

Brian working the chute

A perfect day on Cyclone Rim

Maeve,Meghan and Tiarnan

Day’s end
Tags: Brian, Cyclone Rim, ewes, Geri Parsons, labor, livestock guardian dogs, Maeve, Meghan, Optimal Livestock Services, Oscar, Pat, pregnancy testing, sheep, Siobhan, Tiarnan

Hampshire ewes with her twin lambs
For us, rain, sleet, snow or shine, March always comes in like a lamb. We raise our own rams, Hampshire and Rambouillet, and the ewes start lambing March 1st. After the winter wait, the long months of lambs growing in the womb, we get to see these babies. With them lies our future. Their future, likewise, depends upon us. It is a long time between lambs on the ground and rams, dusted with iron oxide, jumping out of the horsetrailer to join the ewes, starting the cycle anew.

In the shed

Ladies in waiting, protected by guardian dog puppies

ewes and puppies

Oscar helping a lamb find a mom with a skin graft

Edgar and Oscar conferring

plenty of feed on hand

Oscar with his lambing crew, Tiarnan and Seamus

Babies in a box,
waiting for milk replacer,
or a new mama

Luis feeding a baby lamb
Tags: Edgar, haiku, Hampshires, lambs, livestock guardian dog, Luis, Oscar, Seamus, sheep, Tiarnan

The bucks have finished their winter work.
It’s a buck’s life. These boys only work six weeks a year, but it’s an important six weeks. Without them, we would have no baby lambs in the spring. Of course, it falls to the ewes to be pregnant for five months, and then to spend another five months or so raising lambs.
As for the bucks, they are ready for some rest. In a few weeks, they start looking for something to do, which usually involves trying to escape wherever we want them to be. They were glad to see the ewes on Cyclone Rim in mid-December, but now it’s time for them to leave the ewes and return to their bachelor ways. They go home the same way they left–one horsetrailer at a time.

Guillermo, Tiarnan, McCoy, Rhen and Seamus bringing the bucks up

up the chute

Oscar and Guillermo loading the trailer

Oscar and Guillermo and the loaded trailer

last buck jumping out

Home at last! Here are the bucks with fresh hay in the Mouse Pasture.
Tags: bucks, Cyclone Rim, ewes, Guillermo, McCoy, Oscar, Rhen, Seamus, sheep, Sheep Mountain, Tiarnan