Transhumance in Miniature

Transhumance (trans-hyoo-muhns) - noun: The seasonal migration of livestock, and the people who tend them, between lowlands and adjacent mountains.

Since humans domesticated livestock many thousands of years ago, we've followed the green. I suspect the very first shepherds knew instinctively that green, growing forage was more nutritious that dead, dry forage - whether the shepherds knew, the sheep surely did! These seasonal migrations probably mimicked those of wild ruminants - deer, bison, elk, antelope; these species followed (and still follow, where they can) the cyclical changes in forage nutrition.

Ten millennia (or so) later, stock people in many parts of the world still practice transhumance systems of grazing their livestock. Shepherds on the British Isles, in the Alps, in the Pyrenees, in Eurasia, in Africa - and even here in North America - still migrate from winter grazing in the lowlands to summer grazing at high elevations. And in many parts of the world, this migration still occurs largely on foot - sheep, shepherds, and their dogs walk their way through their annual grazing cycle.

Several generations ago, Auburn, California (where we live and raise sheep) was a waypoint on this annual cycle. My friend Bob Wiswell can remember riding a mule through Auburn behind his family's sheep on their way to their summer range east of Foresthill in the early summer - and back to the family ranch in Lincoln in the fall. One of my grazing landlords, the late Pat Shanley, could remember hearing sheep bells on the flocks being walked up Baxter Grade from the Sutter Buttes each spring - he had great stories about the Basque sheepherders giving him a bummer lamb to raise while they were summering in the mountains, and expecting him to return the lamb has they migrated back to their winter range in the fall.

Busy highways and modern life have changed this migration for some. My friend Emilio Huarte, who manages Talbott Sheep Company, lambs their ewes on alfalfa near Los Banos, California, in October and November. Once the annual rangelands in the lower Coast Range have germinated, he moves the pairs into the hills. As this forage dries in the spring, the lambs are weaned and shipped, and the ewes are trucked to the desert near Virginia City, Nevada. In early July, as the high desert forage dries, the ewes are trucked to high Sierra range north of Truckee. And as fall (and lambing) approach in late September, the ewes travel back to Los Banos.

Our modern lives can sometimes feel rigid when it comes to our calendars. The beauty of these transhumance systems, in many ways, is that they follow an ecological rather than chronological schedule. Shepherds - the good ones, at least - are deeply attuned to the changing seasons and to annual changes in these cycles. A wet spring can mean more summer forage in the high country. A dry year can mean an early trip home (which can be challenging). Following the forage requires flexibility.

Our small, part-time sheep outfit practices a similarly small-scale seasonal migration. Our ewes spend the winter and early spring on annual rangeland west of Auburn. We move the ewes and lambs back to our irrigated pasture (at a slightly higher elevation) in early April. Once we wean the lambs in late June, the ewes go back to rangeland, while the lambs we haven't sold continue to graze on irrigated pasture. In September, as we're preparing the ewes for another breeding season, we bring them back to the irrigated pasture to improve their nutrition. And we hope for a germinating rain and consistent grass growth in mid- to late October. After breeding, the ewes will go back to our winter rangelands sometime between late November and mid-December.

Our grazing areas are only about four miles apart, but the winter range is perhaps 500-600 feet lower in elevation than the summer pasture. This modest separation does make a difference, though - the winter place is usually 8 to 10 degrees warmer during lambing season, which can make a difference between happy lambs and hypothermia.

Yesterday, we hauled the ewes from our summer place to our winter rangeland. This year, because of the great rain we had in October, we had enough forage at our summer pastures to keep the sheep grazing through the first third of December. Last year, we were out of forage on our summer place by Thanksgiving. The dry fall meant that our winter forage hadn't really started yet - we fed alfalfa through Christmas to give the ewes enough protein to digest the dry grass we'd saved from the previous spring. I much prefer years like this one! I love watching the ewes jump off the trailer and immediately begin grazing in green grass.

Someday, I hope we can walk from summer pasture to winter forage. The four-mile walk is entirely doable for sheep and shepherd; the complicating factor is the amount of traffic on the county road that connects the two locations. We find that most of our neighbors enjoy seeing sheep being moved on the road, but a single impatient driver can definitely ruin my day (and endanger the sheep and my dogs). Perhaps we can take a page from modern shepherds in other parts of the world - places that still celebrate this annual migration. Maybe we can make the 2-hour walk from summer pasture to winter feed an event! Who's in?!