agriculture

The day starts like most days –Working alone not long after sunrise.The work, though,Is different. The ewes, separatedFrom their lambs and held off feed,Voice their opinion at maximum volume.Set up begins.  The shearing board is leveled,The shea...

This wool has a story - it comes from sheep that graze the hillsides, pasturelands and brushfields around my Sierra foothills home.This wool is shorn and skirted and rolled and sacked by the hands of my family and friends.This wool comes from sheep tha...

When I grew vegetables for the farmers' markets, I always looked forward to the day (usually around Christmas) that my seed catalogs would arrive.  Farming at this scale (for me, at least) required a certain amount of amnesia - I found that I had ...

Ewes and lambs returning from their morning escapade!My friend and fellow sheep rancher Lana Rowley once posted on facebook that she was never sorry when she took a dog or a gun with her when she left the house.  While I'm not as much as a gun guy...

I had occasion one morning several weeks ago to drop by Jim and Steph Barrie’s place in Thermalands (just northeast of Lincoln).  Mutual friends from southeastern Oregon who winter their cattle with Jim and Steph had left some “Shepherd’s Sc...

As of this evening, we're just about done lambing - only 3-15 ewes left to lamb.  Within the next week, we'll be entirely done.  All in all, it's been a successful lambing season.  While I would have liked more precipitation during the s...

The smell of livestock wafting down L Street can mean only one thing: It's Agriculture Day at the state Capitol. Festivities get under way at 10:30 a.m., when lawmakers and their staff are invited to explore the booths (and tractors) around the Capit...

When do you call the vet?!Part of raising sheep at a commercial scale is learning when you need to call the vet - and when you need to do things on your own.  This applies (perhaps even more so) even when you're married to your vet - as I am!Last ...

During Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, we experienced our first stormy weather during this year's lambing season.  We received just over a half inch of rain, and we had lots of wind.  I had put the ewes in a paddock which offered lots ...

Zen and the Art of SheepherdingOver the years, I've come to realize that one of the principles of working or moving livestock is that I must move slowly to go fast.  Every time I get in a hurry to get something done - loading sheep in the trailer ...