La Plata Farms
La Plata Farms was born on the proverbial dark and stormy night back in the early 80's. A neighboring ranch with several thousand sheep called to asked if we wanted a couple of bummer lambs (orphans). Not knowing any better we offered to give the set of twin ewe lambs a home. When we ran over in the rain, Marguerite explained that after 60 years of bottle feeding bummers, she was getting tired of the whole kit and kaboodle. So "Kit" and "Kaboodle" went home with us and we were in the sheep business. They grew into a pair of nice Columbia ewes with beautiful fleeces. Some lost spinners happened to show up when we were shearing the following spring and fussed over their creamy wool! An idea was born and grew over the last 25 years to our current sheep and fiber operation.
The Sheep
Not long after Kit and Kaboodle had grown, Doug
was doing some soil's research above timberline in the
San Juan Mountains where thousands of ewes and lambs
spend their summers grazing in the cool clear sunshine.
Watching the black "marker" ewes in the flocks, he thought of black
wool to spin. As the sheep were headed down the mountains that
fall, he asked the herder if he would sell a couple of the old black
ewes. Kit and Kaboodle soon had a couple new friends.
Over the years we have raised several breeds
of sheep and they all have had their special traits. These
have included Columbia, Karakul, Corriedale, Ramboillet, and
Lincoln. In the mid 90's, Dr. Lyle McNeil from Utah State
University brought the Navajo-Churro Sheep Project to the San Juan
Basin Research Station next to our farm.
Our kids, Cassie and
Travis helped over the summer and Dr. McNeil gave them a young lamb
with a broken leg that would not survive out in the pasture for the
summer. "Gidget" was put in with a blind calf that the kids
were also caring for in a pen in front of the house. Gidget
grew and her leg healed (though a bit crooked) until she was put out
with the flock. Over the years she gave us many wonderful
lambs and was the start of our adventure into the Navajo-Churro
sheep.
Over the next ten years, our appreciation for the
hardy Navajo-Churro sheep grew and a few years ago we cleaned house
and now raise only these hardy historic sheep. (Learn more about
Navajo-Churro Sheep) We now have about 20 Navajo-Churro ewes
and two rams.
The flock is shorn each spring and the lambs are shorn in early fall by Doug. After 25 years of shearing he does not move as fast, but does a wonderful job removing these long and intriguing fleeces. Daughter Cassie, learned shearing as well, and helps out in the Spring. Our fall shearing of the lambs gives us some of our softest and cleanest fleeces.
The Farm
La Plata Farms is located on the Colorado Plateau in Southwest Colorado at an elevation of 7,500 feet. We receive about 18 inches of precipitation a year with half coming as snow. A good year we have snow on the ground from Thanksgiving until March. We feed the sheep our hay for about 5 months when the snow is on the ground until the grass is tall enough to support their grazing (about the first of May).
La Plata Farms is a small farm on the edge of the high deserts of the Four Corners Area (where Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah come together) and depends on high mountain snow melt for our irrigation water to grow our hay and pasture. We use sprinklers that are moved twice a day to get the most effective use of our limited irrigation water that may only last until about the first of July in a good year. We use rotational grazing and have 9 pastures on 26 acres. With the decreased precipitation of the last few years, we are limited to about 20 to 25 ewes.
A
key part of the operation is Bess, the guardian of the flock.
Sarah is a 110 pound protector, a 5 yr old Great Pyrenees guard dog
that lives with the sheep fulltime, keeping the coyotes, mountain
lions and bears from invading the flock. She is efficient in
her duties and kept a bear out of the flock this last year even when
it visited the fruit trees by the house for two months that fall. She is a wonderful friend to the lambs and
spends much of the spring washing faces and acting like an aunt
while the ewes graze nearby.
Visit La Plata Farms
We always enjoy visitors to the farm. Please call or email before you visit so we will be sure to be able to greet you. The most enjoyable time to visit is the spring and early summer when the lambs are full of life and running around the pasture.