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Hard winter, loading at Chain Lakes

herd of sheep on Chain Lakes allotment

We are experiencing the worst winter in decades. We trailed the ewes to their usual wintering grounds on the Red Desert, north of Wamsutter, Wyoming. We got there in early December, right on schedule.  Most winters, snow falls, then blows into drifts, leaving bare ground where the ewes can graze on dried grasses left from the summer. My Dad used to say that when that country is good, it’s great, and when it’s bad, it’s awful. Well, this year it is awful. It started snowing in mid-December. We were two days late putting the bucks into the ewes because the part of Interstate 80 we need to traverse, between Creston Junction and Wamsutter was closed. We normally just feed some extra corn or cake while the bucks are in, but we have had to purchase and bring in extra feed as the landscape has gotten buried in snow. All our neighbors in the region have been trucking their sheep out of their desert winter pastures to their home ranches. Sometimes in bad winters, it is possible to find a place to take the sheep where they can graze. This year, the bad conditions reach from Nevada to Nebraska. In mid-January, we brought four truckloads of sheep closer to home on the Dixon ranch, where we are already feeding some cattle. These were the thinner ewes. Since then, we have been trying to evacuate the rest of the sheep, but have been unable to line up trucks since they are busy hauling so many sheep. We are grateful to Sweetwater County Road and Bridge, and our neighbors who are plowing in the oilfield.

We were supposed to load the rest of the sheep all last weekend, but a major storm came in and closed all the roads, locally, on the Red Desert, and especially on I80, which has been littered with accidents every time they try to open it. Our sheep truckers are just waiting for the conditions to allow it. As soon as everything is plowed, we will load the rest of the sheep and come to safer grounds. We’ll still have to feed alfalfa and cake, but both the sheep and our herders will be close to home. Here’s some photos of the loading of the sheep in mid-January.

Here’s the semis coming in very early in the morning.

Ewes trailing in to the corrals

Meghan and Leo waiting at the corrals

ewes following truck

Sheep coming in, trucks waiting

getting the corrals ready

ewes on drifts

guard dog with the sheep

Three guard dogs, sheep, drifts

truckers

loading

sheep in corrals, drift behind

setting up the chute

oilfield tanker passing

Modesto, who went with with the sheep to Dixon

Meghan and Modesto

The team of Belgium horses that we’re feeding with at Chain Lakes

Eamon and Chandler

unloading at the Dixon ranch

Marty’s “Sheepman” truck

Fed Ex truck near Dixon

 
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Posted by on January 27, 2023 in Events

 

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North to Cyclone Rim

moonset at Powder Wash

 

The yearling ewes have wintered in the Powder Wash country. We decided to move them some 100 miles or so north, where the running age ewes have spent the winter. We need to have everyone (almost) together for next month’s shearing. We had to start early in the morning to get the trucks loaded and one their way.

loading the trucks at Powder Wash

ewe and lamb near the Bob Terrill corrals

yearling ewes waiting to load

rider keeping an eye on the yearlings

guard dog and yearlings, Powder Mountain

a girl and her dogs

horses and guard dogs, moving too

unloading at Cyclone Rim

yearling exiting the truck

making themselves at home at the Cyclone Rim base camp

the guard dogs are happy!

 
 

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Heifers to the high country

Chandler on Cora, waiting for the trucks to unload

 

We plan to run heifers this coming summer (I have faith that summer is coming). We have hay on hand so decided to bring the heifers in now. They are from South Dakota, and are used to cold and snow. I was happy to see their fuzzy coats.

backing the truck up to the chute

Mc Coy ready with his rope

Welcome home!

heading for the hay pile

 

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There’s no place like home

Home at last!

 

We brought the ewe lambs (coming yearlings) home this week from their winter quarters on the frozen beet fields of Wyoming’s Big Horn Basin. You can see their dirty faces from rooting sugar beets out of the ground. The white-faced Rambouillets look like smut-faced cross-breds with the dirt on their noses. We unloaded them at the Chivington Place, where the snow has finally melted enough to bring them home and allow them to graze. We hope to bring the rest of our ewes back to our country soon. We are still waiting for snow to melt on their BLM grazing allotments.

Off the truck and onto the Chivington Place

unloading

Looking for grass, not beets

Jesus keeping the lambs together

Jesus and the lambs

 

 
 

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North to better pastures

ready to leave LaClede

Our decision to move most of the ewes north was not an easy one. We have never not kept them (relatively) close to home on desert sagebrush steppe grazing permits. Last February, our sheep were trapped by bad weather and roads. When this winter started early and hard, we bought extra feed and hauled it to them daily, hoping for a thaw. We did not have back-to-back blizzards like last February, but it has just kept snowing and getting colder. Eamon found sugar beets which had frozen in the ground in the Big Horn Basin. After lots of phone calls and planning, we started loading ewes, and rams, on trucks and moving them to beet fields and crop aftermath in the north part of the state. Most of them had never seen a truck.

morning wagons

Meghan bringing them up

loading

Guillermo

northward bound

Pat and Pepe at Cyclone Rim

unloading the trucks in the dark

the next day

where’s the beets?

the first day of the rest of the winter

 

 
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Posted by on January 16, 2020 in Animals, Dogs, Family, Folks, Peruvian sheepherders, Sheep

 

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Another tough winter (continued)

Ready for the trucks

 

Here’s more photos from sorting the sheep, Who will head north for the winter and who will stay at Powder Flat? The ewe lambs and the younger ewes go to sugar beets and crop aftermath near Burlington. The older ewes and peewee lambs will receive special care at our Powder Flat ranch.

 

bravely guarding the sheep

Here’s the truck!

heading up the alleyway

Eamon and Ned, the brand inspector

Seamus in the chute

Seamus and Oscar

horses, sheep and cows, oh my!

 

 

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Corn and sheep getting ready for romance

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!

 
 

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Cows: on the road to Laramie

DSC_0630 We raise a lot of hay, and we use it all. We make big rounds for the cows who stay home and winter on those same meadows where the hay is raised. We make small squares for the sheep camps. AND we send some cows to Laramie to eat hay raised by a friend there. Now while most people don’t think of Laramie first when they are looking for a place to spend the winter, our cows like it just fine and come home fat and happy–and very pregnant.

Siobhan acting as a panel

Siobhan acting as a panel

heading down the chute

heading down the chute

Siobhan, Pat and Sadie

Siobhan, Pat and Sadie

 
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Posted by on November 16, 2013 in Animals, Cattle, Family

 

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