We got the sheep herd moved to new range today. We’re in the foothills of the Wind River Mountains, and this private pasture is about seven miles from where a black wolf was seen in another sheep herd the day before. Federal control efforts on this pack of sheep-killing wolves continues. Wolves in Wyoming are …
Author: Cat Urbigkit
Rolling with the changes
Today I was supposed to be residing at a luxury hotel in Cody, Wyoming, scheduled to give a presentation about using livestock protection animals to the Western Association of State Agricultural Directors. Instead, I’m sitting in a pickup truck on the edge of my sheep herd, pounding the keyboard on the laptop and waiting for …
My return
Life got in the way of blogging the last few months, but it’s with a sigh of relief I return to Q. I’ve been busy with hungry sheep in a drought, learning the routine of publishing a magazine every month (The Shepherd), public speaking engagements (mostly touting the use of livestock guardian dogs in large …
Wool harvest
Yesterday was shearing day for our herd. First, we crowd the sheep up the loading chute and into the shearing plant. My lead sheep, named Assistant Sheep, sticks her head over the top of the chute to let me know of her displeasure. As the crew of shearers work, each fleece is kicked out the …
Catalog previews
Both Steve and Cat have new books being released this fall, so our publishers have been busy getting their catalogs ready. Steve’s book will be released in October by Lyons Press, while Cat’s will be released in September by The Countryman Press. As always, click on the image to enlarge.
Prey base decline
We’ve noticed that our western Wyoming jackrabbit population has crashed in the last few years, and that makes us wonder about cohabitating wildlife and livestock species, and what the impact will be to those animals. With so few jacks last winter, our wintering golden eagles didn’t stick around long because there was little for them …
Wyoming
Every spring I try to take one person who has never been to a grouse lek out to see the sage grouse strut. This morning I took Haley out to a lek not far from home. We were driving in about 20 minutes before sunrise, rolling through the lek (which is adjacent to a gravel …
Legal cock fighting
I’ve spent several sunrises this week on local sage grouse leks. It would be a shame to live in such great grouse habitat without going out to witness the activities taking place on these traditional grouse leks (breeding grounds) at this time of year. It’s early in the breeding season, and the cocks are doing …
Spring silliness
Warm temperatures have been welcome, but our snow cover is long gone, and the resulting mud has dried. The animals seem to be enjoying the spring weather. In the photo above, Rena greets Buck, a bum lamb raised by a little girl who recently moved to Oklahoma, so Buck returned to the herd. Rena is …
In support of Daniel Richards
I hate to see the pressure that California Game & Fish Commission President Daniel W. Richards is under for participating in a hunt he had every right to undertake. Although hunting mountain lions is illegal in California, Richards traveled to Idaho for a successful lion hunt. Richards is not only a hunter, but reportedly is …