Farm flocks, Judas sheep and surprise of ovine intelligence

For many years it was traditional for almost every ranch to run 100 – 200 head of sheep. "Farm flocks" they were called. That lasted until to the mid 1970's when the coyotes and prices both got so bad, most ranchers just gave up and sold the ewes.

Our father always had a small bunch around the house and corrals. They provided an extra income for our family. I don't know about the present, but in the 1950's and 60's the sheep provided four paychecks a year. We got paid for the actual sale of the lambs and the wool, and the government always sent a "wool incentive" check after the wool was sold in order to bring the price up to parity. And then there was a small check from Uncle Sam for the unshorn wool that was still on the feeder lambs when we shipped them. It was needed for a family which made $250 - $300 a month and had five or six kids to feed and clothe.

People who have never been around sheep always say the animal is stupid, but my father always said that if sheep were any dumber or any smarter, they'd be impossible to manage. He was right. Many cowboys and yahoos disparage sheep, but that is only an opinion they got from old John Wayne movies.

Sheep are far from stupid, but they have certain instincts which make them appear so. If a person is willing to learn from an animal, the ovine instincts can be used to his or her benefit.

Unlike a cow, you can't force a sheep to go someplace it doesn't want to go. The instinct to be with the flock will make them run between a person's legs to get back to the rest. A good dog can do a lot with sheep, but that is using the animals' fear of predators to get them to do what is wanted. Sheep have to be handled in accordance with their instincts or they're impossible and will bring mature adults to tears.

A "Judas sheep" is used to get a flock into places they normally wouldn't enter – such as shearing pens or trucks. The Judas sheep is usually a tame animal from the bunch that has been broke to lead, so to get a bunch of lambs into a truck, a person leads the Judas into the truck and the others follow.

After all the animals are loaded, the person takes the Judas out while another man keeps the the rest of the flock where they belong. On a shearing ramp the Judas is any sheep which has been caught, haltered and tied at the end of the walkway the sheep have to follow for the shearer to catch them by a leg.

Sheep are good teachers for children. Kids can work with them without much danger of getting hurt, plus they'll receive some lessons on animal behavior. They'll also learn to deal with frustration. If they don't pay attention they'll grow up hating sheep and considering them stupid.

Lambing is the best time for children to learn. They can work closely with the ewes and young lambs, plus get the pleasure of watching a weak lamb that was pulled half dead from a snow drift grow into a healthy creature.

The ewes enter their fertile period after the first frosts in the fall, and if the rams haven't been pulled from the flock, lambs will be born during the storms of February. Our father was quite relaxed in his management, so we would often get a lot of early lambs.

One year, when the weather was especially severe, our dad put four kitchen chairs in front of the electric oven and took naps there during the worst times. Another time, when the wind was especially vicious, I looked out the window to see and old ewe trying to lick two newborns dry.

I threw on a coat and walked the 300 yards to the sheep, expecting to find two dead lambs. Luckily they were still alive, plus the old ewe was tame and didn't run off.

I picked the lambs up, let the ewe smell them, then headed for the barn where we had heat lamps. The old girl was already tired from the birth process, so it was a slow trip. She would follow for a short distance, then when her legs got tired, move around to my front and lie down.

This happened a number of times, but I still had two live lambs when I put them under the heat lamps, If I had tried to force the ewe to do it my way, I'd have lost the lambs, and she never would have seen the inside of the barn.

The most evocative behavior sheep have is the sounds a new mother makes to her babies when she's licks them dry. Her vocalizations express more care and concern than anything a human can manifest.

I was lucky to experience that.