We raise sheep in the eastern Sierra Nevadas at an elevation of about 5,000 feet. It’s dry up here. Summers are hot and winters are cold. Seventy percent of our annual precipitation comes in the form of snow. Due to the climate and historical overgrazing, there’s not a lot of grass. But there is plenty of sagebrush and coyotes—coyotes who would like to think that lamb is on the menu! Oh, and did I mention the occasional mountain lion? This may not sound like the ideal place to raise sheep. But if you are willing to work at it, it can be done, quite successfully.
First, let’s talk about the climate. While not conducive to thick, tall, green pastures, our climate is also not conducive to the internal parasites that plague sheep in less arid regions. Larval stages of parasitic worms need moist grass to hatch from eggs and pass from one sheep to another. Not a problem here! We practice a method called FAMACHA, which involves examining the inner eyelids of the sheep to determine the level of anemia caused by the parasite load, to determine if and when a sheep needs treatment. While flocks in milder, more humid climates must be dewormed as often as monthly, many of our sheep are able to go years without being treated.
Cold winters (frequently well below freezing) certainly present some challenges. Ice covered water troughs must be broken free several times a day to allow animals to drink. Hoses must be drained to prevent them from freezing solid. Newborn lambs must be watched closely to prevent them from freezing to death. And there are many mornings and evenings spent tromping through snow to feed. However, the long cold winters do also help reduce parasite problems by breaking their life cycle.
If we don’t have much grass, then what do our sheep eat? Unlike cattle, sheep are browsers and well as grazers. This means that they will readily eat brush as well as grass. Our sheep will consume the small amount of annual grass that comes up each spring, but they will also browse on sagebrush and bitterbrush. During the fall and early winter, this brush makes up a major portion of their diet. In this way, the sheep form a symbiotic relationship with our land. The brush feeds the sheep, but the sheep also help control the brush that compete with the more desirable grasses. Over time and with proper management, we are able to use the sheep to actually improve our pastures.
During the worst part of the winter, the sheep are kept penned with access to a barn. During this time, feed must be brought to them. We provide them with locally grown hay and we’ve also recently begun feeding spent brewers grain. This high quality feed is what’s left over after making beer. While low in carbohydrates, brewers grain is an excellent source of high quality protein and fat, perfect for ewes raising lambs. Many breweries simply send tons of this spent grain to the landfill each week. By us feeding this grain, we are not only providing our sheep with high quality feed, but are also keeping it out the landfill. It is ultimately recycled back into our soil as composted manure.
Now, what about those pesky coyotes? We’ve got lots and lots of them here. Every dusk and every dawn, we can their yelping from literally every direction. And we see them plenty often too. I’m a little odd from a shepherd standpoint. I actually like coyotes. I appreciate their beauty and intelligence. Plus there are the mountain lions. We haven’t ever seen them but we know they’re there. We’ve seen their tracks and our neighbor had a colt taken by one a couple years ago. I can’t help but admire these predators; however, I do NOT appreciate them trying to eat my sheep. So this could leave me in a bit of a quandary. Enter Luke. Luke is a two year old Great Pyrenees/Anatolian Shepherd cross livestock guardian dog. These special dogs, of various breeds, have been bred for centuries to bond with and protect sheep from predators. It’s not something they’re trained to do. It’s something they do instinctively. They are gentle as a lamb (no pun intended) with their sheep, but absolutely fierce when a predator threatens their charges. We’ve never lost a sheep to a predator with Luke on duty and have actually witnessed him chasing coyotes out of the pasture. We will very soon be adding a female Maremma puppy to guardian team as well.
Autumn tranquility in the eastern Sierra Nevada
Raising sheep up here really isn’t for the faint of heart. We’ve been snowed in for days at a time in the winter and we’ve evacuated more than once when wildfires got too close for comfort in the summer. But this is home and we love our animals. Sleepless nights tending to newborn lambs, aching muscles from hauling feed through knee deep snow, it’s all worth it when you see these gentle animals safely, peacefully grazing at the foot of towering mountains.
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