Sheep Shearing and the Range Sheep Business

Spring is when all the sheep are shorn in most of the United States Mountain West. The video was taken on February 17, 2018 at a very large sheep operation that have several large bands (a group of 800-1200) ewes.  Their company is operated by multiple generations of a pioneer Nevada family. The sheep are the Merino breed that is known for the fine wool quality that is used to produce very high quality garments. The high grade fleeces have very long soft fibers that are preferred by woolen mills.

The sheep are grazed in Western Nevada and the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Public Lands that are under the jurisdiction of the US Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management are utilized in accordance with grazing management plans developed by these agencies in co-operation with the livestock owners. Wildfires and drought has had various effects on the availability of quality forage for grazing in recent years. Many of the catastrophic wildfires would have been less devastating if the areas would have allowed sheep grazing like was allowed 40-50 years ago. A non-use policy that has been adopted by the agencies to satisfy radical environmental groups desires, has proven to be the demise of millions of acres of forest and rangeland. Livestock is a viable tool in vegetative management and provides for the production of food, fiber, and jobs while providing income to the government and savings in the loss of wildlife and timber resources.

Bands of sheep can be seen in the irrigated fields in the fall and winter in many of the lower valleys of the Intermountain West. They utilize the residual forage from alfalfa and grass hay fields. They also graze the winter wheat fields and other winter grains like triticale. During the early spring, after the ewes have lambed they are put out on irrigated fields to reduce the winter and spring weed growth, especially in fields using organic production and no-till methods of crop management. The sheep are then put on the desert to graze on grasses and brushy native plant species typical at various desert elevations and  in varied rainfall areas.