western SD rancher

Last Wednesday the day started out nice.  It was supposed to get cold and snow a bunch.  We moved pairs of ewes and lambs around to get them out of the barn.  If it did snow a lot it would be ...

http://westernsdrancher.blogspot.com/2020/04/roller-coaster-week.html

Had a beautiful day to lamb some ewes.  It got to 70 degrees, a little windy at times. In two days they think we will have six inches of snow.  We can use the moisture as it has been quite dry,...

http://westernsdrancher.blogspot.com/2020/03/late-march-and-nice-day.html

I have almost quit blogging but, out of boredom maybe I will start again.  We are sort of busy lambing the yearling ewes right now.  Mostly singles and they are lambing slow, five or six lamb ...

http://westernsdrancher.blogspot.com/2020/03/i-have-almost-quit-blogging-but-out-of.html

I haven't blogged in a while.  After two years of drought it was too hard to get motivated to do a blog.  The prospects for the coming year aren't a lot better, but we have gotten six inches of...

http://westernsdrancher.blogspot.com/2018/04/i-havent-blogged-in-while.html

I haven't wrote anything since last spring.  We has less rain in western South Dakota than last year.  Last year we were designated D3 drought by July 4 this year it took till July 27 to get th...

http://westernsdrancher.blogspot.com/2017/09/summer-2017.html

The evening of Christmas Day the wind hit and it started snowing hard.  We lost electricity about 6 PM.  The temperature hovered around 7* degrees above zero.  But wind blew at times about 70 ...

http://westernsdrancher.blogspot.com/2017/03/surviving-winter-of-2017.html

We have been hearing on the weather reports of this impending storm on Christmas day.  Yesterday was pretty nice.  Calm and clear and about 19 degrees.  By afternoon we had the east wind.  Wh...

http://westernsdrancher.blogspot.com/2016/12/christmas-storm.html

It was -20 degrees this morning.  We had the sheep in the corral in case it really stormed, so they wouldn't drift off.  Did end up with maybe four inches of snow that blew some.  The weather ...

http://westernsdrancher.blogspot.com/2016/12/winter-2016.html

I haven't blogged since lambing, so I better try it again.  After all the rain in April it quit.  May and June were extremely dry.  By the end of June water quality and quantity were both beco...

http://westernsdrancher.blogspot.com/2016/09/i-havent-blogged-since-lambing-so-i.html

Well we have been lambing for about two weeks and are about half done.  The first days after shearing was windy and dry.  The dust blew and turned the sheep a dreary black color.  The one day ...

http://westernsdrancher.blogspot.com/2016/04/lambing-in-soggy-spring-of-2016.html

Last week was cold rainy and windy.  We worked in the barn and got things ready so we could shear the sheep.  By Friday the weather cleared off , but was still cool.   We put in two cutting ch...

http://westernsdrancher.blogspot.com/2016/04/shearing-in-2016.html

The weather has been warm and the lambs are growing.  We gave them an overeating shot a week ago.  The heavier lambs weighted almost 50 pounds. The lambs have been eating the ground oats ...

http://westernsdrancher.blogspot.com/2016/03/lambs-growing-and-heifers-calving.html

Tammy and Marshall decided that they wanted to lamb some sheep in January and early February.  We got them sheared and the weather was pretty nice for getting your wool taken off.  It stayed ni...

http://westernsdrancher.blogspot.com/2016/02/tammy-and-marshall-decided-that-they.html

This morning was the first cold weather of this winter.  It was 15 below 0 this morning.  So we were a little slower getting started doing chores this morning as we let it warm up some before w...

http://westernsdrancher.blogspot.com/2015/12/first-cold-snap-of-2015.html

It has been a busy fall.  We got the lambs weaned.  Fed them for a month and sold most of them.  The guard dog "XENA" gets uneasy every time we work lambs and sell off some more lambs.  Her h...

http://westernsdrancher.blogspot.com/2015/11/busy-fall-selling-and-weaning.html

Tammy went to Town and got some parts and sat in the seat of a new tractor and thought it fit her fine. So she wrangled a deal and was raking hay and stacking bales in a few days. Here sh...

http://westernsdrancher.blogspot.com/2015/09/busy-summer.html

We are trying something different with the management of our sheep herd.  Internal parasites or worms are a growing problem with sheep.  There are like two kinds of wormers on the market and ne...

http://westernsdrancher.blogspot.com/2015/06/moving-sheep-for-worms.html

The snow finally got the ground white last night about 9 PM.  The wind never got to the 55 MPH.  and we missed the heavy snow.  This morning it was still snowing and had accumulated  4 inches...

http://westernsdrancher.blogspot.com/2015/05/update-on-snow-storm.html

Just went through one of driest January thru April periods on record.  Then Monday May 4 we received 0.30" of rain.  Then Wednesday morning we got another 0.10".  Then the sun came out about n...

http://westernsdrancher.blogspot.com/2015/05/just-went-through-one-of-driest-january.html

Well lambing has picked up these last few days.  We are at about a 25 ewes a day lambing.  Had to set up more jockey pens.  Set up about eight more pens in addition to the ones we normally wou...

http://westernsdrancher.blogspot.com/2015/04/lambing-has-picked-up.html

The weather continues to be warmer than normal and dryer than normal. The weather service says that January, February and March were the driest on record.  So I decided to disc the field that wa...

http://westernsdrancher.blogspot.com/2015/04/calving-and-lambing.html

The weather for the most part has been warmer than normal.  The ice has thawed off the creek and the dams.  Tammy was out looking at the creek by the house and saw some beaver activity.  They ...

http://westernsdrancher.blogspot.com/2015/03/fencing-and-shearing.html

Two weeks ago we got a new guard dog.  He is three quarters Akbash and one quarter Komador.  He is just a pup about eight months old.  He is getting familiar with his new surroundings and gett...

http://westernsdrancher.blogspot.com/2015/02/khan-new-guard-dog.html

Since Christmas we have had some cold windy weather and some really nice weather.  More like the roller coaster weather you would get in March and April.  We got the barn cleaned out during som...

http://westernsdrancher.blogspot.com/2015/02/mid-winter-on-ranch.html

Well here it is Christmas Day.  Ryan and his family headed to Nebraska for Christmas and will back after Christmas.  So I guess Tammy and I are ones who stay home and take care of the livestock...

http://westernsdrancher.blogspot.com/2014/12/christmas-day.html