The snow is melting here and spring is finally coming! This time of year gives us a moment to pause as we come to the end of the hard winter season and anticipate the busy spring ahead: before we know it, it’ll be shearing time for the sheep and the new lambs will begin to arrive in late April. For now, though, things are quiet and we get to take a breath and enjoy the mud and the wind.
The year of the sheep alternates between busy times and brief pauses, hard work and a little rest. In this blog we’ll give you a glimpse into the rhythm that has been the way of life for Shepherd’s Lamb for decades.
Spring
The beginning of spring marks the harvest time for wool! We shear the ewes before they give birth. It’s a two-day affair that takes lots of hands to complete.
Lambing will begin a couple of weeks after shearing. The bulk of the ewes will have their lambs in the first three weeks but there are always a few that have their babies late. Every day we separate out the ewes with new lambs from the rest of the flock, and then separate the ewes with twins and triplets from the ewes with single lambs. Keeping multiple flocks during lambing might sound complicated, but makes it easier for us to ensure that all the little lambs are with their mothers and are receiving the food and care they need.
Once the lambs are a few weeks old, we mark their ears and dock their tails. Completing this job means that summer’s almost here and with it, the time to move to the mountain.
Summer
Once we receive permission from the forest service, we move the sheep to their summer range up in the mountains. They’ll stay here for the next few months with a herder and his horse, and lots of dogs for company.
Even though the sheep aren’t at home, there’s still plenty to do at home. Much of the summer is spent irrigating our fields so that we have a good crop of hay to harvest for winter feed. This is also the big season for outdoor markets and festivals: we attend as many of theses as we can while also taking care of our staff - and students! - at Tierra Wools.
Fall
The cooler weather brings with it the threat of snow in the high country: time for the sheep to come home. The lambs, no longer little, are sorted out into their own flock and moved to their own pasture where they’ll stay until it’s time to harvest them for meat. Hopefully the hay is cut and stored by now - we can’t grow all that the sheep will need over the winter, so we’ll be making a few trips to southern Colorado to buy hay for the cold months.
Winter
Time for all the final sorting and moving around before the big snows come! We’ll choose ewe lambs to join the breeding herd, cull any ewes that aren’t in good shape, and introduce the bucks to the ewes for breeding. The grass is done for the year so we’re already feeding the sheep in the morning - a chore that’s not too bad as long as the truck doesn’t get stuck!
And then we wait, with bated breath, for the snows to finally melt and spring to come again.