Counting on
Savery Stock Driveway
Medicine Bow National Forest, Carbon County, Wyoming
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Saddling up
photo by Sharon O'Toole
The ewes and lambs are settled on their summer grazing permits. In the past few weeks, we have trailed off of our lambing grounds north of Dixon and on to their summer pasture in the Routt and Medicine Bow National Forests. During this time, we go each day and move the sheep camps along to the next day’s camp site. All of us--sheep, herder, dogs, horses--must leave at first light to make the day’s trail before it gets hot at 8 or 9 a.m. The camp mover tries to move the sheep camp to catch up with the herder in time for his lunch. Some days we have to move six camps, and the guys know they are wise to pack a sandwich.
Each bunch is “counted on” as they pass into the National Forest. Until a few years ago, this was a big event, with the neighbors, the brand inspector and a Forest Service employee showing up to make sure that all was right. Now it is just our crew. We give our “on numbers” to the Forest Service, who believe us—a consequence of long experience.
It takes about five people to do the count: one to count the ewes, one to count the lambs, one to dodge out the marker ewes, and two to keep them coming. We can get by with four, if two of them are really experienced.
Ewes and lambs in the Government Corrals
Medicine Bow National Forest
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Waiting for the count
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Meghan & Seamus counting the ewes
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Guard dog checking the count
photo by Sharon O'Toole
We usually count on at the Government corrals, which were built by the Forest Service for this annual ritual. We take some time to do some final management before the ewes and their lambs go into the trees for the summer. We will always have a few undocked lambs which have been born since the last docking, so we catch them and lop off their tails, and other parts. We will usually find one or two “bum” lambs that don’t have a mother for one reason or another. These we take home to become bottle babies.
We dodge out about twenty ewes, put bells on them, and paint big numbers on their sides. These are the “markers.” Each bunch will have about one black and about four “numbers” for every 100 ewes. Morning and night the herder will “get the count” and make sure he has all his markers. Since sheep are herd animals, if all the markers are accounted for, he probably has all his sheep. If one or more markers are missing, it’s a good sign that twenty or more ewes and their lambs are gone.
One these chores are done, the sheep are ready to make the final trek to the high country for the summer, where they graze on fresh grass every day and sleep on a new bedground almost every night. They will graze and bed in same places year after year, but only for a short time each year. It is the ultimate in rotational grazing.
Siobhan in the chute
photo by Sharon O'Toole
After the count
Battle Mountain in the background
photo by Sharon O'Toole
