Sunday, September 13, 2015

Generations of sheep herders...







The first photo is of Grandpa, Hubby, NumberOneSon, and Lil Boy Blue -- four generations of sheep herders.  Kinda cool, I think.  Great Grandpa was a sheep herder before all of these fellas.  That's all they had back then -- sheep and maybe a milk cow and a couple horses.  The ranch in its Sheep Hayday ran 1400 head of ewes.  It required people to stay with the sheep all the time and herd them, take them to water, move them to good pasture for feed, and watch for predators.  Grandpa remembers the days of sheep wagons and taking supplies to the herders every few weeks. 


The open prairie is really most suited for sheep.  But Grandpa decided there was a place for cattle too, so against his father's wishes, he bought a few Hereford cows and the cows have made their home here alongside the sheep.  When I came to the ranch, there were about 100 head of cows and 900 head of ewes.  Now we have 250 ewes and 400 cows.

Yesterday we worked the ewe lambs.  We sorted them for replacement ewes, and out of our 170 head of ewe lambs, we picked 50 head that will be incorporated into our sheep herd.  The rest of the ewe lambs will be sold at a Special Ewe Lamb Sale next week.  It was fun picking and choosing the best of the crop and giving them a yellow ear button to identify their age.  Each year the ewe lambs get a different colored ear button so we know how old or young the ewes are and what year they were born.  It's all written down in the little red book.

I'm hoping we might be able to keep the 50 head of ewe lambs around the house for a week or so and let them graze down the grass and weeds that grow around the buildings and low spots.  It would be fun to herd them and watch them all day long as they graze close to home.  It's a little tricky having them close to yards and gardens and trees though.  The dogs would love to keep an eye on a little flock of ewes. 

12 comments:

  1. I am enamored with the history of life. How neat to be able to trace your family back to the beginning of the ranch.n the photos are great. I would love to have a sheep wagon for our property on the Belle Fouche River.

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  2. Wonderful sheep photos today! The four generation picture is really cool!
    Can I have the one with the sheep in the knot hole?

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  3. I love reading about this, I also love seeing the four generations of sheep herders. That is awesome.
    I would love that too, having them around to eat the stuff growing up, I could use them in my flowerbeds about now. :)
    I love the picture of the girls too. Such wonderful pictures.

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  4. I like very much your post, in my family we love the sheep, my father was in Arizona nearly 50 years as foreman rancho.un a hug from Spain, stop by my blog to see if you like and you are in it.

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  5. Love, Love your photos Jody! The first one is priceless, and that last one of the sheep through the knothole is just too cute!

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  6. That 4 generation shot is very cool. What a great heritage.

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  7. Love these photographs! What a family tradition. I wonder how many families can say they've spent four generations doing the same thing? Very cool!

    xofrances

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  8. What a family of shepherds! It's quite a heritage you have. I'd love to have a sheep wagon. The original tiny home! :)

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  9. I bet your dogs would enjoy having those ewes close to chase and herd :) And it's nice to have living lawn mowers. I hope your flowers are safe! That's a fine heritage of livestock keeping, Jody. Nice to see.

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  10. That's quite a heritage! very interesting to learn the history of your ranch. You wouldn't want to lose that little red book would you? ;)

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    1. No, losing the little red book is very bad. I have washed it twice in my 34 years of living with Hubby. Sad days those were.

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    2. Now he backs up some of that info on the computer -- especially calf records.

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