A year in the life of a sheep rancher

Sheep ranching is an Idaho tradition that dates back to the 1880s. Scottish emigrants like Andy Little, who was known as the “Idaho Sheep King,” brought sheep ranching know-how to Idaho and established the industry in a state with lots of open range. Basque sheep herders played a major role as well, finding jobs tending to sheep flocks in Idaho as they had done in the Basque region of Spain. At it’s peak in the 1930s, there were hundreds of sheep ranching outfits in Idaho, running more than 2.7 million sheep statewide. Nowadays, there are fewer than 40 sheep ranchers and 180,000 sheep overall. Frank Shirts is one of the last sheep ranchers standing. He runs 12 bands, or about 28,000 ewes and lambs, from the low country in Wilder to the high country in the Boise and Payette National Forests every year. Lambing begins at the Shirts ranch in Wilder in January. This is when the ewes give birth to the lambs in the first three months of the year. It’s a busy time. “As they lamb, or their water breaks, we take them into the shed and take care of them all night long,” Shirts said. “With the cold weather, it’s vital to get them out of here fast.” During January, the temperatures can drop to near zero or single digits Fahrenheit. The lambing sheds provide crucial cover for the ewes as they give birth, and for the lambs, who are susceptible to freezing when covered with afterbirth fluids...Shirts employs 25 Peruvian sheep herders year-round to take care of his sheep. The men who work during the lambing process are the same guys who herd the sheep through the mountains in the summer. Most of the herders come from Peru, and a few are from Mexico. Shirts covers their health insurance, room and board and salary. Lambing takes about 3-4 months to complete. Once they’re done, the crews clean up the corrals and get their gear ready for spring turnout...Each band of sheep is cared for by two herders. The herders carry a wall tent and camp supplies on pack mules and horses, moving the camp every day or so as the sheep move through the country. “I run pack strings in the mountains,” Shirts said. “About 80 or 90 percent of the sheep outfits run one guy per camp, but I run two because I’m in this rough, wolf-inhabited country.” Each band also is accompanied by two Great Pyrenees guard dogs to help keep predators at bay...more