Raising, counting sheep a family affair in Oregon

GLIDE, Ore. (AP) — Five-year-old Hannah Quimby turns the bummer lambs lose in the barn for their morning romp and run. She calls them by name — Blackie, Sparkles, Rose — names that she's given them.

Brother Ian, 12, helps his mother, Julie Quimby, feed and water the mother ewes who are with their newborn lambs in individual pens in the barns.

Father John Quimby and his dad, Butch Quimby, ride their four-wheelers around the sheep pastures of the French Creek Ranch just east of Glide in search of ewes with new babies or ewes having trouble giving birth.

On Friday and weekend mornings, when there's no school, from about Jan. 20 through February, this is the routine for the Quimby family. The family lives, works, eats and breathes at the lambing barn, not only through the day, but also for most of the night.

During the present lambing season, the Quimbys have 1,100 ewes that will give birth to lambs over a four- to five-week period. That's an average of 36 ewes giving birth daily over 30 days, but on several days at the peak of lambing season, 60 to 100 ewes will have their lambs. Many of the ewes drop twins and a handful will have triplets, so the flock can easily triple in number by the hour, if not by the minute.

Every lamb is a future paycheck for the ranching family, so it's important to provide any care needed after their births. There's hardly a dull moment or even a restful one as it can be pretty hectic providing that care to the mothers and the babies.

The Quimbys enjoy seeing new life spring forth, but are also pleased when the four-week surge is over.

"I love lambing season," Julie said on a recent morning while facing the reality of pulling two dead lambs from a troubled ewe and feeding a pen of about eight bummer lambs (lambs whose mothers weren't able to care for them).

"I like working the sheep, I like being around them. I just thoroughly enjoy it, especially when the outcome is good (live lamb) rather than bad."

Like many families involved in farming or ranching, all members are involved. John and Julie Quimby like the experiences their children are getting. Although there are times of impatience on all parts, the parents enjoy having their kids with them through the days they're not in school.

"This is the best thing for them instead of sitting at home," said Julie. "This is how Ian works off the cost of his market lamb (4-H project)."

"We ask them to do a lot, but we're not really hard on them, I guess," said John. "Ian sometimes brings friends over."

Last year, with the guidance of his dad, Ian pulled a lamb from a ewe who was having trouble giving birth.

"This year I've pulled three lambs, at least, and they've all been alive," the Glide Elementary School sixth-grader said.

"We're all one big family with a system," Butch said. "Everybody knows it, everybody works side by side."

On a table to the side of the barn, sitting among snacks such as cookies, crackers, grapes and candy, is a well-used white notepad that is used to communicate information about a ewe or lamb to somebody who is working the next shift.

To watch the flock 24/7 during the peak of lambing, John works a 14-hour shift beginning at 3 a.m. Julie joins him at the barn at 8 a.m. and works through to 6 p.m. Butch works from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and returns later for a night shift. Butch's brother-in-law, Glenn Lewis, helps with cleaning out pens during the middle of the day.

At about noon each day, Arlene, who is Butch's wife and John's mother, drives in with a trunk full of hot food for the family crew. The workers try to break from their duties together to enjoy the lunch.

Phil Strader, owner of the French Creek Ranch and a sheep business partner with the Quimbys, pulls a 6 to 10 p.m. shift and then turns the flock back over to Butch, who keeps watch until John arrives at 3 a.m. Strader pulls a short shift because he has cows that are calving at the same time and need his attention.

Having their family together on the job is nothing new for John and Julie Quimby, who have been married for 13 years. Before getting into the ewe and lambing business on a large scale, John sheared sheep full time. For many years, he traveled and sheared sheep in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, California and Nevada. He worked on shearing crews that worked through flocks of 5,000 to 6,000 sheep on the larger ranches.

After their marriage, Julie joined John on those road trips and then after his birth, Ian also made the trips.

Knowing that traveling from ranch to ranch for several months of the year wasn't the best way to raise a family, the couple decided to stay at home and raise their own lambs. About the same time, Strader was looking to deal less with sheep and more with cattle, so the partnership between the two longtime Glide area families was easily reached. The Quimbys would tend to the sheep on the Strader ranch and the profits from the lamb sales would be split.

In 2001, the Quimbys purchased 125 ewes, Butch brought the 125 ewes that he was running elsewhere and those were combined with the 250 ewes Strader already had on the ranch. By keeping back some ewe lambs over the years, the flock grew to 1,200 ewes, with 300 replacement ewe lambs being kept each year to replace older or problem ewes whose value had lessened.

"After all those years of shearing and seeing ranches make it with their own flocks, we figured why not us," John said with a laugh.

"This enabled us to stay at home and make the same amount of money," Julie said.

Julie was raised on a ranch in the Metz Hill area north of Oakland and she had bummer lambs for 4-H projects, but for the 20 years prior to meeting John, she said she "had nothing to do with animals." During that time she was working an 8 to 5 job in retail sales.

After meeting John in a hunting camp, she learned a lot more about sheep from her husband and his dad, Butch.

"I don't want to say I know it all, but I've learned a lot," Julie said. "Every day something totally different that has never happened before seems to happen."

"We wouldn't make it if she wasn't here," Butch said with a laugh. "She does all the stuff we don't want to do."

Once the lambing season is over, the work isn't quite as hectic and long. But the Quimbys, with the help of a trapper, have to be on the lookout for predators such as coyotes and cougars. The sheep also have to be gathered for shearing, worming and vaccinating.

In June or July, when the lambs average 80 to 85 pounds, they are sold.

The Quimbys buy some of the lambs themselves and put them on pasture in the Willamette Valley for a couple more months until the animals gain up to 125 to 130 pounds. Then it's time to go to the meat market.

That leaves the ranchers a couple months to get the barn ready and to gear up for another lambing season.

"I look forward to lambing season," Julie said. "It's fun."

This Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2010 picture shows John and Julie Quimby with their sheep and lambs in a barn on the French Creek Ranch near Glide, Ore. From about Jan. 20 through February, the Quimby family lives, works, eats and breathes at the lambing barn, not only through the day, but also for most of the night.