On to the Next Phase

The sheep year, for me, is a circle - we start at the bottom with breeding (October and half of November). Following a 5-month gestation, we arrive at the top of the cycle - lambing is like six weeks of Christmas in late February and March. As we start working our way back down the circular calendar, the mileposts include shipping back to our summer pasture (in early April), the onset of irrigation season (which lasts from mid-April through mid-October), and shearing (which nearly always falls on Mother's Day weekend). And after shearing, we move on to the denouement of the sheep year - weaning, summer grazing, and preparing the ewes for breeding. Starting the cycle again.

Shearing day, for us, is usually our version of a community branding. Over the last half-decade or more, we've offered workshops for other small-scale sheep producers centered around shearing - we've covered things like shearing site set-up, as well as wool handling and marketing. And we usually have a number of friends - often with their kids - who show up to help. This year, in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, we limited the number of people who were here, which was somewhat disappointing. But the process of getting the wool off - one of the ways we grade ourselves is on the quality of our wool clip - was still immensely satisfying. And a lot of hard work.

This year, our shearing preparations began with a call to Derrick Adamache, who has sheared our sheep for 15 years. Derrick's abilities are unique in my experience - he's sheared with large crew in Wyoming and New Zealand, and yet he's willing to take on small-scale commercial outfits like ours. With our "bull-pen" style set-up, Derrick can shear 18-20 sheep per hour (provided we're organized enough to keep the sheep flowing to him). We're too small for a crew; too big for someone who specializes in backyard flocks. We're lucky to know Derrick!

The next step involved setting up our corrals last Wednesday evening. Loading ewes and lambs is always an adventure; we use a "Bud box" corral design that capitalizes on sheep behavior (see this Ranching in the Sierra Foothills blog post for details). First thing Thursday morning, we gathered the sheep into our corrals and began loading them into the stock trailer. Five trips later, every sheep we own (except for the rams, which we sheared a month ago) were at our home place - along with all three livestock guardian dogs. I'm sure the neighbors always look forward to shearing week like we do - it's pretty noisy here for a couple of days!

On Friday morning, we brought the ewes into a holding pen without grass - we keep them off feed and water for 24 hours to empty their digestive and urinary tracts. Much like fasting before a medical procedure, this keeps the sheep comfortable on the shearing board (without full rumens and bladders) and keeps the shearer safe (since he's not slipping on manure and urine). After re-building our portable corrals here at home, we sorted the first 24 ewes into a covered holding pen and waited for morning.

Saturday morning started with the last steps of set-up. We hung a wool pack from our sacking stand. We spread canvas under our skirting table - a skirting table allows us to prepare each fleece as it comes off the sheep. And we placed the shearing board in the pen where Derrick would shear. Derrick arrived around 8:15, and by 8:45, we were in business!

We always provide lunch for our crew - this year, our youngest daughter, Emma, picked up sandwiches from a local deli. We usually serve pizza, but decided that a common dish wouldn't be appropriate in our current situation. We broke for lunch at noon (after Derrick had sheared 58 ewes) and started shearing again at 1 p.m.

Just before 3:30 p.m., I ran the last group of 9 ewes into the holding pen. Around 4 p.m., Derrick caught the last ewe and I said, "There's the one we've been looking for" - as I do every year. And then clean-up began. We put the canvas tarps away and stored the 5 full wool packs in the barn. I moved the sheep to a small pasture at the neighbors (we like to help them clean up their weeds in exchange for putting up with our noisy sheep for a couple of nights). And we cracked open beers!

But shearing isn't really over until the sheep are back at the ranch. On Sunday morning, we sorted off a handful of cull ewes (mostly ewes that hadn't had lambs this year or that lost the lambs they had). The rest of the sheep were hauled back to our irrigated pasture.

Now we're on to the next phase. Most of our work for the next 5 weeks will involve moving sprinklers, building fence, and moving sheep. Sometime around Father's Day weekend (which is only fair to my wife Samia, since we shear on her big day), we'll wean the lambs and sell most of them. And we'll begin working our way back to another breeding season and a brand new cycle.

One of the things I enjoy most about raising livestock on pasture and rangeland is that the work is largely the same, but every year is different. I enjoy measuring our success by the quality of our lambs and wool. I enjoy knowing that I'll have another chance to get better at this next year. And I enjoy knowing that we're helping to feed and clothe others. Now I need to go check the sheep....