RSS

Tag Archives: Red Desert

Optimal Veterinary Services works its pregnancy testing magic

18 Mar
Geri getting her gear ready

Geri getting her gear ready

Banjo ewes waiting their turn

Banjo ewes waiting their turn

It’s the time of year when we pregnancy test and vaccinate the ewes in order to get everything organized for lambing. Gerri Parsons from Optimal Veterinary Services came with all her gear and informed us with her cries of “Single”, “Twins”, “Triplets” or the dreaded “Open”. Gerri’s magic with the ultrasound allows us to manage the ewes with mulitple lambs with more feed. We plan to lamb most of these through our new lambing sheds near Dixon. Last year, we were able to save extra lambs when a big spring storm hit, since it is often the twins who are lost to bad weather. The preg testing must be done mid-gestation, so Gerri, Meghan and our crew spent an intense several days studying, marking and handling the ewes.

Geri's office (behind the water barrels)

Geri’s office (behind the water barrels)

Avencio bringing up the sheep

Avencio bringing up the sheep

Brittaney and Cassie bringing up the ewes

Brittany and Cassie on the Red Desert

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on March 18, 2015 in Animals, Folks, Folks who help us out, Peruvian sheepherders, Sheep

 

Tags: , , , ,

More Romance on the Red Desert

15 Dec
Apolinario bringing in the ewes on Eagle's Nest

Apolinario bringing in the ewes on Eagle’s Nest

Today we put the bucks into the ewes on the Red Desert. Bucks in on December 15th means that we can look for the first lambs to arrive on about May 10th. The bucks have waited for many months to be reunited with their lady loves. The ewes seemed glad to see them too, although for them, a brief–very brief–dalliance means that they spend five months pregnant and five months raising lambs. Of course, it guarantees the ewes a good living, and a whole lot less boredom than the rams face the rest of the year. We were blessed to receive a badly needed snow the day before, ensuring winter water for the sheep. It was a Goldlilocks snow–not too little and not too much, and the 15th dawned bright and sunny.

A leap of faith

A leap of faith

Bucks on the run

Bucks on the run

 

Love at first sight

Love at first sight

Guard dogs on the job

Guard dogs on the job

Apolinario

Apolinario with his dog and horse

Pat, Apolinario, and the reason we buy dog food by the palate

Pat, Apolinario, and the reason we buy dog food by the pallet

 

 
1 Comment

Posted by on December 15, 2014 in Animals, Events, Family, Folks, Horses, Peruvian sheepherders, Sheep

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Hasta la vista, bucks

10 Feb

Time flies when you’re having fun. It seems like only yesterday that we were hauling the rams out to the ewes, in order to expedite the birth of lambs in spring. After seven weeks with the ewes, it is time for the bucks to go back to a long stretch of bachelorhood. As Pepe told them as we loaded them into the trailer, “Hasta la vista…See you next year!”

Pepe and Avencio catching the buck who didn't want to leave the ladies.

Pepe and Avencio catching the buck who didn’t want to leave the ladies.

Bucks loading up.

Bucks loading up.

Pat and the crew loading the bucks

Pat and the crew loading the bucks

Which one of these is not like the others?

Which one of these is not like the others?

Tiarnan, Pat loading bucks

Tiarnan and Pat bringing up the bucks in Chain Lakes

Eagle's Nest sign

So, which way would you go?

Sadie and lamb

Sadie had to share the floor of the pickup with this early lamb.

Oscar, Siobhan, Tim ready to unload

Siobhan helping Oscar and Tim unload the rams at Powder Flat.

Siobhan feeding colts

Siobhan feeds the colts.

 
2 Comments

Posted by on February 10, 2014 in Animals, Events, Family, Folks, Horses, Peruvian sheepherders, Sheep

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Image

Working crew on Chain Lakes

05 Jan

Tiarnan, Pepe, McCoy and Christian at Christian’s camp on Chain Lakes.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on January 5, 2014 in Family, Folks, Horses, Peruvian sheepherders

 

Tags: , , , , ,

Corn and sheep getting ready for romance

10 Dec
plenty of snow

plenty of snow

The bucks will join the ewes on December 15th so that they will start lambing on May 10th. We want both the ewes and rams to be fat and happy for this occasion. We need snow (but not too much snow) because the sheep depend on it for winter water. They can survive by eating snow, and there’s not much live water on the Red Desert, especially during the frozen winter months. We also depend on feeding corn during the bucking season, which will last until the beginning of February–two heat cycles for the ewes. The government-mandated corn ethanol program has been devastating to the livestock sector, as it drove prices to new highs in 2013. Corn prices are down some, due to a bumper crop. In any case, there is no substitute for corn as a nutrition-packed supplement to support the ewes as they survive often harsh conditions, conceive lambs, and grow next year’s wool crop. It is amazing that they can convert desert grass to food and fiber for people!

I80 behind, winter pasture ahead

I80 behind, winter pasture ahead

Guard dog on the move

Guard dog on the move

Where ARE those bucks?

Where ARE those bucks?

Al the trucker opens the pot

Al the trucker opens the pot

Corn ready to bag and feed

Corn ready to bag and feed

Tri-State delivers!

Tri-State delivers!

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on December 10, 2013 in Animals, Folks, Folks who help us out, Musings, Sheep

 

Tags: , , , ,

Winter trailing

04 Dec
Trailing sheep on the Red Desert

Trailing sheep on the Red Desert

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on December 4, 2013 in Animals, Folks, Nature and Wildlife, Peruvian sheepherders, Sheep

 

Tags: , ,

April: lion or lamb?

14 Apr

We have been praying for moisture, after yet another dry winter (this on the heels of two hard winters).  We are getting intermittent rainy and snowy days, which usually we are grateful for.  Last week, we got a snow storm which came with high winds which made it unfit for man and beast.

At Powder Wash, we lost several calves, lambs and ewes, in spite of sheds and shelter.  On the Red Desert, the ewes “blew out”, which means that in sheep just walked in front of the howling winds.  In these conditions, we tell the sheepherders just to stay in their camps.  Since there are few fences, the sheep are usually miles away from where they started, but they are OK, and we have to find them and put the herd back together.

Still, the moisture brings promise of green grass.

Baldie cow with black calf

Baldie cow with black calf

Squaw Mountain with fog at sunset

Squaw Mountain with fog at sunset

Red Desert wild horse shares the range with cattle

Red Desert wild horse shares the range with cattle

 
1 Comment

Posted by on April 14, 2013 in Animals, Cattle, Sheep

 

Tags: , , , , , ,

Optimal Livestock Services and the pregnant ewes

04 Apr
Geri Parsons, Optimal Livestock Services

Geri Parsons, Optimal Livestock Services

Pregnancy testing is one of the veterinary services offered by Optimal Livestock Services–Dr. Cleon Kimberling, veterinarian, and Geri Parsons, vet technician, proprietors.  We ask them to pregnancy test our ewes who are expecting white-faced lambs.  When we know which ewes are carrying twins, we can manage them separately so that they can get extra nutrition and care.  At lambing time, we can make sure they have better shelter because the white-faced lambs are more vulnerable at birth than the cross-bred lambs which have black-faced Hampshire fathers.  You old ag majors remember the lessons about “highbred vigor” which results when different types of sheep, or cows or whatever, are mixed.  The purebreds are less hardy, but they are the lambs which grow into our replacement ewes (or at least the females do).  We need both.

Geri recently showed up to check our ewes, who currently reside on the Red Desert, north of Wamsutter, Wyoming.

Meghan and Pepe bringing in the ewes

Salomon, Meghan, Pepe and Eamon bringing in the ewes

Pepe and Maeve, at work

Pepe and Maeve, at work

Siobhan and Sadie, corral help

Siobhan and Sadie, corral help

Eamon and Tweed, bringing up the ewes

Eamon and Tweed, lending encouragement

preg testing crew: Richar, Salomon, Pepe, Eamon Geri and Meghan (and Sharon behind the camera!)

preg testing crew: Richar, Salomon, Pepe, Eamon Geri and Meghan (and Sharon behind the camera!)

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on April 4, 2013 in Animals, Events, Family, Folks, Folks who help us out, Peruvian sheepherders, Sheep

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Sheep camp supplies

29 Dec
Richar, ready to unload hay

Richar, ready to unload hay

As the year grows ever shorter, and the days wax with the passage of the winter solstice, the sheep are on their wintering grounds.  Three bands are north of I80, where the ewes are keeping company with the bucks.  This brings the promise of spring lambs, and gives particular meaning to the phrase “animal husbandry”.

The sheep are under the constant care of our Peruvian sheepherders, who make sure that they have fresh pasture (grasses left over from the summer), water, protection from the constant predators, and that they remain within the allotment boundaries set by the Bureau of Land Management.

Border collies on the Red Desert

Border collies on the Red Desert

We have been blessed, finally, with winter snow, which solves the water problem.  We have mortgaged our future in order to buy corn to keep the sheep strong during the breeding season, and for the cold weather, present and future.  As my Dad always said, “You can’t starve production out of an animal”–(not that I can imagine why one would consider it).

Today, Pat, McCoy (2) and I took supplies out the the sheepherders, and to Richar, the camptender who is responsible for feeding corn each day and making sure the herders have all they need.  We took hay, firewood, coal, dog food, groceries, mail and new calenders.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on December 29, 2012 in Animals, Folks, Peruvian sheepherders, Sheep

 

Tags: , , ,

On to the Red Desert

08 Dec
On to the Red Desert

December 1st is the on date for our winter sheep grazing allotments on the Red Desert, north of I80 and Wamsutter, Wyoming.  The sheep walk a five-day trail from our late fall pasture, Badwater, to the checkerboard Chain Lakes allotment,  with the private owned by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.  It also serves as critical winter habitat for antelope.  We maintain the water and the fences, and provide “boots on the ground.”  One band of sheep winters in Chain Lakes and two move on to the aptly named Cyclone Rim allotment.  A few weeks ago, this blog showed photos of our search for water holes on Cyclone Rim.

We are still thirsty for snow and watering spots.  For almost the first time ever, the sheep had dry days on the trail, although not back-to-back. Normally by this time of year, we have enough snow for the sheep to eat for water.  They are very hardy, and most years go much of the winter surviving on snow and without access to fresh water.  The sheepherders are asking us for snow, as if we could bring it like firewood and dog food.  We tell them, “Do what we do, pray!”

Richar, Afrenio, Timeteo and Christian bringing up the sheep

Richar, Afrenio, Timeteo and Christian bringing up the sheep

waiting their turn

waiting their turn

The bucks will be turned in with the ewes in a few days, in order to bring those spring lambs. To make sure the ewes are in optimal condition, we decided to worm them in advance of bucking.  On this day, it was coldish and windyish, but certainly a relatively pleasant day.

looking forward

looking forward

two noses: yearling ewe and Edgar

two noses: yearling ewe and Edgar

done and done

done and done

guard dog with supply wagon

guard dog supervising

evening grazing

evening grazing

a day off

a day off

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on December 8, 2012 in Animals, Events, Folks, Peruvian sheepherders, Sheep

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

← Older posts
Newer posts →