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. 

Wyoming Sheep Wagon

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.