by Oogie | Oct 24, 2021 | Black Welsh Mountain Sheep
Our fall sheep sales list is now available. At Desert Weyr we breed Black Welsh Mountain sheep. Our flock is the only performance recorded flock in the world of this breed. Black Welsh Mountain sheep are a small sheep that is ideally suited to small farmsteads. All...
by Oogie | Oct 10, 2021 | Meat Products, Wool Products
We’re moving to a new on-line system for our store. We hope to be back up by Tuesday 12 October. The new site will allow for ordering for meat to be delivered in Paonia or for pickup here at he farm and will still aloow for shipping of wol and other products...
by Oogie | Aug 13, 2020 | Solar Energy
The project to add a grid-tied solar array to the house site up at Juniper Gulch Ranch is almost complete. Final inspections should be today and then swapping the meter for the net meter maybe even as soon as tomorrow. We hadn’t really planed on doing this...
by Oogie | Aug 12, 2020 | Black Welsh Mountain Sheep
Our pastures are now functioning as exercise lots. There is no feed to speak of in them so we are putting hay bales out for the sheep to eat. We’ve done this before during drought and the increased fertilizer from the sheep eating in a concentrated area has...
by Oogie | Aug 10, 2020 | Farming Life
I have a black thumb. I have been known to kill plants easily. However this year my stepdad is staying up here and he always has a garden so we’re doing one too. It’s been a wild success, lots of peppers and tomatoes and even a large batch of peas not to...
by Oogie | Aug 7, 2020 | General Farm
It’s a bad year for hay with the drought so we are getting what we can when we can get it. This is a nice batch of grass/alfalfa mix hay that will be used to flush the ewes for breeding this winter. Our goal is to go into winter with the barn full. We’ve...
by Oogie | Jul 12, 2020 | Black Welsh Mountain Sheep, Livestock Guardian Dogs
Leena and some of the lambs resting in the shade. It’s summer, very hot and back in major drought. We’re getting the weather we normally get in late July and early August in late June and early July. The guard dogs are still on the job though. Leena and...
by Oogie | Jun 29, 2020 | Meat Products
We were honored to provide meat for the celebration of life for Jerry Hatem of Aspen. Our mutton was featured at the BBQ on the back side of Aspen Mountain looking at Mt. Hayden where family and friends gathered to celebrate his life. Take care everyone.
by Oogie | May 30, 2020 | General Farm
The COVID-19 Pandemic has had an immediate affect on our farm. Although Colorado has opened up starting this week we have made the decision that for our own health and safety we will not be opening the farm this year for farm tours or visits. I realize that this is a...
by Oogie | May 30, 2020 | General Farm
OK so posting on the web site is so low on my ToDo list that it almost never gets done. But there Farm and the sheep are doing well in spite of almost no on-line activity. 2020 Lambing has finished successfully. 23 ewes bred 43 live lambs, no stillborns and no...
by Oogie | Jun 8, 2019 | Black Welsh Mountain Sheep
Lambing for 2019 has finished. We bred 36 ewes and every single ewe got pregnant. This is a first for us. Usually at least 1 ewe fails to conceive. Sadly we lost 2 ewes. One to an accident and one to pregnancy toxemia. Our lambing percentages were decent, 57...
by Oogie | May 11, 2019 | Black Welsh Mountain Sheep
We’ve finished our first round of lambing and the AI Class results are in. Total ewes bred via AI was 34. Total ewes lambing to AI was 9 giving a 26% lambing. However, as everyone knows we had some straw failures and other issues where the ewe did...
by Oogie | Dec 17, 2018 | Farming Life
We hosted a class in sheep artificial insemination the first week of December. 10 students from all over the US and even one from Canada came to learn about non-surgical procedure that Dr. Purdy has developed. Students got to practice thawing straws of frozen semen...
by Oogie | Dec 3, 2018 | Farming Life
Thanksgiving is over. For the last several years we haven’t had turkey on Thanksgiving because I was not able to get a locally raised heritage bird. I like the flavor and I want to support rare breeds so if I can’t get a bird raised like I want it we’ll choose...
by Oogie | Oct 15, 2018 | Farming Life, Meat Products
One of the hardest things to manage when you use chest freezers for storing meat for sale is how to handle the depths of the freezer and not lose track of what you have. I’ve discovered a few tricks over the years that are applicable to anyone with a chest freezer. My...
by Oogie | Sep 16, 2018 | Black Welsh Mountain Sheep
So you’re buying sheep from across the country. What’s involved from the time you agree to purchase sheep until your new sheep arrive at your farm? Well the rules vary a lot but here are the basic things you will need to deal with. Paperwork Every...
by Oogie | Sep 12, 2018 | Black Welsh Mountain Sheep
The American Black Welsh Mountain Sheep Association and Desert Weyr, LLC is pleased to announce that we will be hosting an intensive 2-day seminar on non-surgical sheep artificial insemination December 5-6, 2018 Dr. Philip Purdy from the USDA National Animal Germplasm...
by Oogie | Sep 11, 2018 | Black Welsh Mountain Sheep
Black Welsh Mountain sheep in North America are highly inbred. Our founding population was very small so we do not have much variation from which to select. In the USDA’s National Animal Germplasm Program performed a cluster analysis study on the population. This...
by Oogie | Aug 26, 2018 | Paonia Places
We’re getting excited for the first Art and Ag tour in the North Fork Valley next weekend. This event showcases our many artist studios and galleries and also our wonderful agricultural products. Here at our farm the community is invited to help weave a special...
by Oogie | Aug 16, 2018 | Black Welsh Mountain Sheep
One of the tasks every year is to evaluate all the sheep and decide who we are keeping vs who is for sale or will go to slaughter. We try to provide top quality sheep as breeding stock and that only happens because we cull heavily. Today was the evaluations on the...
by Oogie | Jul 2, 2018 | Farming Life
It’s hot, hot, hot! No rain and our temperatures are soaring with the humidity low. I sure don’t want to cook anything and heat up the house but we have severe fire restrictions and no open flames are allowed so outdoor BBQ isn’t an option. Luckily I...
by Oogie | Jun 5, 2018 | Farming Life
Our first batch of hay for the season has arrived. We were expecting to get about 7 tons but the cutting was small so we only got 3.5 tons. At least it’s in the barn now and safe for winter feeding for the sheep.
by Oogie | May 29, 2018 | Black Welsh Mountain Sheep
One of the Wide Load sheep still hasn’t lambed yet. We are both anxiously waiting. I am sure she will be more comfortable once those lambs are outside!
by Oogie | Apr 13, 2018 | Black Welsh Mountain Sheep
Our expected start of lambing is 22 April. Normally by now we are out on pasture but the grass hasn’t grown enough yet so I’m holding the sheep in on hay for longer. These 2 sisters are some of our top producing sheep with great EBVs. They and their other...
by Oogie | Mar 21, 2018 | Black Welsh Mountain Sheep
Got all the sheep shorn over 2 days.
by Oogie | Nov 4, 2016 | Black Welsh Mountain Sheep
Behind as per usual in posting here. We spent a week in October working with the USDA NAGP to collect and freeze semen from our rams. Some will be used later this year in our flock as part of their experiment in fine tuning the timing for insemination of synchronized...
by Oogie | Sep 20, 2016 | Black Welsh Mountain Sheep
Just finished the ewe evaluations for the fall. I’ve updated the sales list to show the dozen yearling we are offering as breeding stock. We are keeping 52 breeding ewes and these yearlings are some great breeding sheep. They are all double registered in the US...
by Oogie | Aug 29, 2016 | Uncategorized
We have heard that our good friend, John Ellenby has passed on. One of the companies he founded was Agilis. This picture has been on our wall for years. And in the archives of old hardware we have these, a Compass and a GRiDPad. Here is a good article about John and...
by Oogie | Aug 18, 2016 | General Farm
We’ve been scraping manure out of the winter feeding corrals and rebuilding them. We hadn’t done a full teardown and rebuild in several years so it was time. Everything is now up and ready for winter.
by Oogie | Jul 2, 2016 | Black Welsh Mountain Sheep
Gretchen finally lambed. The last lamb of 2016. A very large ram lamb by Sterling. He was a bit stuck but is ok now.
by Oogie | May 20, 2016 | Black Welsh Mountain Sheep, Solar Energy
We are now officially in the lambing lull, that break between when the AI lambs and lambs from the AI backup rams are due and the lambs sired by the secondary rams are due. It’s been a busy and somewhat difficult lambing so far. Our AI experiment was a rousing...
by Oogie | Apr 3, 2016 | Black Welsh Mountain Sheep
We got the ewes out onto one of the pastures. There isn’t much grass but we need them to start moving so they are in good shape for lambing. They sure like to go out and find the tasty bits. They are moving in and out a lot and that will help with their...
by Oogie | Apr 3, 2016 | General Farm
The rams spend a lot of time in the front pear orchard pasture. Unfortunately they get bored and tend to bash the trees. So we finally got them protected by some welded wire fencing. I hope that will keep the trees alive.
by Oogie | Mar 30, 2016 | Wildlife
End of March and a large 50+ elk herd moved through the front yard. I think this is the latest we’ve ever seen the elk here.
by Oogie | Mar 29, 2016 | General Farm
Then we started removing the old fences around the Apple Cellar. We are planning to remove it this spring. Got it all down, just in time. Snowing again.
by Oogie | Mar 29, 2016 | Paonia Places
There is a wonderful bronze foundry in our town and today we got a tour. Moving the crucible with hot metal ready to pour into the molds. The Molds are pre-heated so they won’t crack. They are placed ready to be filled. The molten metal is poured into the molds...
by Oogie | Mar 22, 2016 | General Farm
We’ve removed all the old corrals and handling system stuff in preparation for the rebuilding later this summer.
by Oogie | Mar 18, 2016 | Black Welsh Mountain Sheep
Shearing has begun. We’re betting on twins in there. And twins most likely in this one too.
by Oogie | Mar 9, 2016 | Wildlife
Elk at sunset up on the Terror Creek Winery hay fields.
by Oogie | Mar 3, 2016 | General Farm
We’re planning on reconfiguring the sheep sweep handling system when we put it under the other side of the hay barn. But to be sure it will fit and see how the sheep work through it we decided to get it moved up to the main hay barn area before shearing. Here it...
by Oogie | Mar 1, 2016 | Black Welsh Mountain Sheep
Pregnant Ewe The ewes aren’t due to lamb until the last week in April. However, they are really round now. I always tell people that our sheep are wider than they are tall when they are heavily pregnant but most folks don’t believe me. So here is the...
by Oogie | Feb 15, 2016 | General Farm
Now that we’ve made the transition to large square hay bales we no longer need the backstop that the old hay stack wagon used to push the small bales up against. We’ve decided to take it down and see if we can move the sheep handling system under the hay...
by Oogie | Feb 14, 2016 | Mt. Lamborn
Sunrise on Mount Lamborn
by Oogie | Feb 5, 2016 | Weather, Wildlife
Gate into the ram pen is finally dug out. Mostly by hand. Coming home up the hill we saw where the turkey flock is roosting in the trees.
by Oogie | Feb 4, 2016 | Weather
Even more snow. Ken has to plow every day just to keep a path open. This is the gate into the ram pen. We’ll have to shovel it out again to get hay in. Even the yearling ewes are not going out into their corral much at all. Garvin Mesa Road was completely...
by Oogie | Feb 1, 2016 | Weather
This has been one of the snowiest winters in a long time. The aisle way under the hay barn and the ram pens are totally filled with snow. It’s almost up to the eaves in back of the garage. And the red barn is nearly buried too.
by Oogie | Jan 27, 2016 | Farming Life
Passed this range sheep flock outside of Delta grazing the old corn fields.
by Oogie | Jan 22, 2016 | Farming Life, Meat Products
We had some good friends over so I made a special mutton leg roast for dinner. No spices necessary, just cooked properly. It came out wonderful and we had a good time.
by Oogie | Jan 13, 2016 | Wildlife
Driving back from Hotchkiss and this large herd of elk was in the valley.
by Oogie | Jan 1, 2016 | Livestock Guardian Dogs
Winnie got injured. Emergency vet call to come out and stitch her back up. She crawled through the water tank to get to the other pen of sheep. Something was in there. She got caught on an exposed piece of welded wire and ripped her side badly.
