Downsizing Approaches

As I’ve written earlier this year, Flying Mule Sheep Company is planning to downsize this summer. My long-time partner, Roger Ingram, wants to to step back from the day-to-day work of raising sheep so he can travel more. Roger has done most of the fence building and grazing management over the last 4-5 years; I don’t blame him for wanting to retire! Since I work full-time (and then some), I’m thinking about how I can simplify our operation. And on top of this, we’ve lost some of our fall feed - we have grazed the berry vineyards at Amber Oaks Berry Farm for nearly 10 years, but the Boughton’s lost their long-time lease last winter. To borrow an old cliche, we’re learning (again) that the only constant is change.

Roger’s last day as a full partner will be June 30. We’ll wean and sell the lambs on June 25-26. We’ll go through the ewes on weaning day, too - and in the days that follow, I’ll decide which ewes I want to keep and which ones we’ll sell. Among the factors I’ll consider in making my decision are the age of the ewe, her maternal ability (which we track every year), her productivity (measured in pounds of lamb weaned over the last two years), and whether we’ve had to deworm her in the last two years. I’m still working out how to weigh each factor, but I’m glad that we’ve been using electronic ear tags as part of our record-keeping system for the last four years - having these records makes my job much more objective!

In addition to reducing our numbers, I’m looking for ways to simplify our management system. Perhaps we won’t split the ewes into two breeding groups (with different rams). Maybe we’ll look for dry summer forage within walking distance of our irrigated pasture (instead of hauling the ewes 7 miles down the road). We’ll definitely continue to shear earlier, allowing us to eliminate one series of trailer trips in the springtime. And we’ll continue to focus on maternal ability and effective flushing - keeping only the good mothers, and compressing our lambing season as much as possible will keep lambing labor manageable.

I also anticipate that my pasture management system will evolve. While we’ll still focus on taking sheep to feed (rather than feeding hay to sheep), I’m thinking my fence building time will be focused on weekends - which means I’ll try to build 7-day paddocks (or at least build enough paddocks to accommodate 7 days of grazing). This will be especially critical during irrigation season (April 15 - October 15), when my days will continue to start with 45+ minutes of moving water.

All businesses evolve; ours is no different. The next 12 months will be a learning experience, for sure - but we’ll still be in the sheep business! Stay tuned!