Pat & Sharon O'Toole

Three amigos, bucks
Home Ranch
photo by Sharon O'Toole

Three amigos, crew
photo by Sharon O'Toole

The buck testers came yesterday and left today. What, you might ask, is a buck tester? Good question, and for us, a good program. Years ago, Colorado State University’s Dr. Cleon Kimberling, veterinarian and teacher extraordinaire, decided that it was time to get rid of a venereal disease of sheep, epididymitis, that seriously affected lamb conception rates. He was aided in this quest by Pat, who was a Wyoming state representative at the time, as well as several other legislators in sheep raising states, who sponsored legislation to make such testing mandatory for sale bucks. (Bucks are fertile male sheep, also known as rams.)

The result of this effort is a traveling crew, who come to the ranches and the sheep, with a mobile laboratory and a crew of veterinarians and students, to collect semen and blood from rams, test it for epididymitis, and advise sheep growers which rams to keep and which to ship.

Dr. Kimberling was a much loved sheep extension vet, famous for his epic bicycle trips. At (more or less) the age of 70, he rode his bike across the United States. He used to bike over the Continental Divide from Fort Collins, Colorado, a distance of about 200 miles, to meet his crew of twenty-something vet students at our ranch. Dr. Kimberling has retired, but the program has been carried on by Dr. Knight and a group of equally enthusiastic students. We are told that these crews are getting harder to recruit as more students opt for small animal training.

This is a minute or so of trauma for the bucks, but all in all, they lead a charmed life. They spend most of the year coddled by us, then put in six weeks or so of “work” as they breed the ewes in December and January.

We appreciate the testing crew and the long days they put in (even if the rams are less enthusiastic). It is truly a valuable service they perform for us.

Dr, Knight and fledgling vet Tyler
Checking semen samples under a teaching microscope
Traveling lab
photo by Sharon O'Toole

Pat and Mike moving the bucks
photo by Sharon O'Toole

Nerio and the one that almost got away
photo by Sharon O'Toole

Passed with flying colors
photo by Sharon O'Toole

Mike and Siobhan
photo by Sharon "O'Toole