Grazing sheep and goats

I had to make a trip to Roseville yesterday, it's a 100 mile round trip but what a beautiful day for a drive! As I was traveling a major highway I noticed sheep grazing in a large open field. I pulled off the highway and spent awhile trying to get close enough to get some pictures, why my interest? 

It brought back a lot of memories. Growing up in Southern California, in a rural county there were lots of grazing sheep. The flocks numbered in the hundreds, and were tended by Basque shepherds from Spain. These shepherds, along with half a dozen dogs would tend the sheep as they roamed the open hills and gleaned the valley fields after crops were harvested. 

As a 4-H member my sister and I twice bought lambs from one of these large roaming flocks.

These flocks were owned by a local man Nick C. and we contacted him about buying the lambs. The shepherds didn't speak English and of course couldn't sell the lambs as they did not own them.  One year I picked out a speckled face lamb. The Shepherd and his dogs cut it out and brought it in. The lamb had a clouded eye,  the shepherd sat him on his rump and checked it out, plucking out a fox-tail. What he did next was a shock, he pulled a salt shaker from his back pocket and shuck salt in his eye! Nick said the eye would be fine and we took the lamb home. His eye cleared up and I later sold the lamb at the Junior Livestock Auction.

Herding sheep has changed dramatically since the late sixties when I was growing up. Sheep and increasingly more often, goats are being grazed on private and public lands to control brush and grass in sensitive areas and areas that are hard to access. Goats are great for controlling brush and reducing fuel load in fire prone areas.This has become possible due to the advances in fencing. Portable electric fencing has enabled grazing in close quarters, around homes, parks and along roadways. In my local county we have a lot of levees and sheep and goats are used in these areas to control the over growth. These new shepherds are paid well for their services and it's a great way to keep these types of areas maintained.
  
When I was finally able to get close enough to the flock, I realized they were mostly goats, with only a few sheep. Again, a sign of the times and places, there is a big demand for goat meat in our area, not so much lamb. 

I mentioned that grazing sheep has changed, but not everywhere. One of my daughters in-laws still grazed thousands of sheep in Eastern Oregon and they are tended the traditional way with Peruvian Shepherds. Like the Basque when I was growing up, these men come and work here temporarily, earning enough money to support their families back home very well.