Twice a day, every day, from the end of April to the end of May, we saddle up the horses and round up the dogs and ride out to gather the lambs.
They come by ones and twos and sometimes threes, at night as often as by day, sometimes out in the open, but more often in a quiet, secluded corner of sagebrush. The Churro ewes especially like a little privacy. It can be difficult to find their new lambs, hidden carefully away from sight in the grasses.
Ewes and lambs wait in a temporary holding pen as we get ready to load the trailer
But round them up we must and round them up we do. The wide expanses of the birthing pastures are excellent ground for the expectant mothers, with plenty of feed and space. But this open range is too open, too exposed for the little ones, so we round them up morning and night, mothers and lambs together, and move them to the nursery flocks, one for mothers with twins, and another for mothers with one lamb. Each band has its own shepherd and guard dogs to keep them as safe from the coyotes as we can. It takes a practiced eye to note which lambs belong to which ewe and to sort them into groups for transport to the correct nursery flock.
Going for a ride in the trailer
In good weather, gathering can be a joy as we watch the new lambs move across the fields with their mothers in the warm sunshine. But we still gather in the rain and in the cold, when there’s so much mud that the truck gets stuck, and when the wind has been blowing for 100 hours straight, filling every crevice with grit. It’s one of the most important parts of our lambing work, allowing us to monitor the health of our flock and intervene if necessary.
Some days are hard, most days are long, but the effort we put in now sets the stage for another successful year on the ranch.
Did you spot the guard dog hanging out underneath the trailer?