Spotted cow
Pregnancy testing the spotted cow
Home Ranch
photo by Sharon O'Toole
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Pregnancy testing the spotted cow
Home Ranch
photo by Sharon O'Toole
We didn't ask
Badwater
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Our days have been filled with the fall harvest. For us, that mostly means shipping our calves and lambs. As always, we adjust to changing conditions. For the past several years we have sold most of our calves to the same feeder in Oklahoma. This year’s drought meant that he did not have the wheat pastures to feed out the calves. We listed them on the Superior Livestock Auction, a reputable on-line cattle auction. The steer and heifer calves went to two separate buyers in Kansas, where timely rains provided winter pasture.
Meghan and Seamus bringing the cows and calves up to sort
Home Ranch
photo by Sharon O'Toole
R.C. Buckley, Superior rep
working calves with Pat
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Putting the calves onto the scales
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Eamon moving the calves
Home Ranch
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Ed Buchanan, brand inspector
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Ed and R.C. figuring
photo by Sharon O'Toole
For years, we have retained ownership on our lambs. We usually send them to Dakota Feeders in Hurley, South Dakota where our friend Bill Aeschlimann feeds them to slaughter weight. The lambs are then distributed through the Mountain States Lamb Cooperative to fine restaurants and markets mostly on the East Coast.
This year, we are nervous about the high corn prices (due to the ethanol demand) and have partnered with another gentleman who also does business with Bill. We have feeders closer to home, but our experience with the low death loss at Dakota Feeders compensates for the higher fuel costs to transport the lambs.
Oscar holding up the ewes
(on a relatively warm day)
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Lambs onto the truck
Badwater
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Shifting the chute to another level
Badwater
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Our job is to get this year’s calf and lamb crops onto the trucks in as healthful and stress-free manner as possible. We are lucky to work with some fine truckers who make our job a lot easier.
Ewes headed back to the pasture
Badwater
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Free at last
photo by Sharon O'Toole
November sunrise
Home Ranch
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Grazing in front of Castle Rock
Powder Flat, Moffat County, Colorado (foreground)
Powder Rim, Sweetwater County, Wyoming (background)
photo by Sharon O'Toole
We are crazy busy right now with both cattle and sheep work. The sheep and cows came off their National Forest grazing permits in late September. We have some fall pasture around the Home Ranch, which allows us to work all the animals in an orderly manner. By the time we are done, we will have individually examined several thousand sheep and several hundred cows.
Most years, we keep the lambs until mid-November or so, then send them to the feedlot in South Dakota. The lambs are fed a natural corn-based ration until they reach slaughter weight at about 150 pounds, and then are marketed through the Mountain States Lamb Cooperative, which Pat helped form. We are mighty nervous about corn prices, which have been driven up by the demand from ethanol plants. The boon for corn farmers has been disastrous for those who feed livestock, from feeder lambs and cattle to dairies to hog farms. All this translates into higher consumer food prices and more risk and uncertainty for livestock producers.
Still, it is a fine day when we sort the lambs off and view the summer's crop. These guys have grown from their birth weight of about eight pounds to their weaning weight somewhat over 100 pounds in a period of five months. They have survived storms, coyotes, crows and bears. They have stuck with their mothers, who tended them and brought them safely in. It is animal husbandry in its truest sense.
The feeder lambs are now loading onto semis and heading for Dakota Lamb feeders. Everyone from the herders to the truckers to the feeder agreed that they are as fine a lot of lambs as they have ever seen.
Sheep sorting crew
Home Ranch
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Newly weaned lambs
Home Ranch
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Jose on Coco
Cottonwood pasture, Carbon County, Wyoming
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Working sheep in the Cottonwood corral
North of Dixon, Wyoming
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Pat and Nerio at the sorting gate
Cottonwood corral
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Siobhan and Pepe
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Grandpa George and Seamus at the gate
Cottonwood corrals
photo by Sharon O'Toole
2007 replacement ewe lambs
photo by Sharon O'Toole
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