The fall sheep drive is one of our biggest events in the year of the sheep. Over the course of the drive, we and our flocks of sheep make the trek overland from our summer grazing grounds high in the mountains back home to our winter pastures in Tierra Amarilla, NM.
As we “move the sheep” - our family’s understated idiom for the significant two-day undertaking - we reenact a seasonal movement of livestock that has been part of the rhythm of life for pastoral peoples around the world for thousands of years. Formally known as transhumance, the practice itself is simpler than its formal-sounding name implies: it’s a type of pastoralism, a way of grazing livestock that involves a seasonal movement of the animals between summer and winter pastures that takes advantage of seasonal variations in feed and temperature within the local region.
During the summer, while temperatures are high and drought threatens here in the valley, our sheep spend their days at the high elevations to the east, enjoying the cooler temperatures and the lush feed available on the mountainsides. While the sheep are absent, our winter pastures get a break from ever-hungry herbivores, allowing the grasses to recover and provide us with a fall hay crop for winter feeding. As days grow shorter and colder and the feed in the mountains dwindles, we prepare for the sheep to return to their winter home for breeding and to pass the snowy months in a (relatively) warmer and milder microclimate.
Here at Shepherd’s Lamb, our fall sheep drive is a happy mix of the traditional and the modern. We and the sheep still make the 30-mile trip on foot with the help of several horses, friends and family members, and more dogs than we can count. Lunch, however, arrives in the pickup truck via access roads along our route, and the local police help us negotiate the highways as we pass through town.
The fall sheep drive is truly a celebration of the land and our animals - and a traditional way of life. It may take effort, but we’re proud that at Shepherd’s Lamb we are able to carry on this heritage: it’s what allows us to provide you with the highest-quality organic lamb and wool products.
