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I received an email from fellow shepherd and industry leader Margaret Magruder tonight.  I, like many others consider Margaret as a pioneer of our industry.  Not so much for her age, as she is rather young, but because she is an innovator and a leader.  Instead of following the trends, she is the one at the front of the path blazing the trail for the rest of us to follow and grow from her efforts.

I personally consider her an amazing leader, not only on our state front, but she is tremendously well-respected and loved by many across the nation.  Serving on almost every major sheep related board in our state during her career, Margaret has also used her talents to represent our fine state on a number of national boards and committees such as the American Lamb Board.  Her legacy on the industry is not only one of being a tremendous shepherd, but also that of being a beloved leader, mentor and an innovator.

As the co-owner of  Oregon Shepherd http://www.oregonshepherd.com/ , Magruder and her partner proudly developed and own an Oregon-based company producing environmentally friendly insulation from wool.  This in its own is enough to focus a whole post on, but it is the next innovative idea that came from this unique business that may come in handy right now for a number of shepherds in the throes of lambing.

It was at the Oregon Sheep Growers Convention this past December that Margaret debuted her latest idea—a lamb warming blanket made from her amazing felted wool products.  You can use this innovative and inexpensive product to keep your newborn lambs and goats warm and dry until they get on their feet.  With so many advantages to many traditional heating methods, this affordable little blanket just may be the key to keeping cash in your pocket in the long run.  For more information about these great blankets, check out the Oregon Sheep Connection “For Sale” Page.

While doing chores this evening I stopped to observe several flocks of geese making their nightly pilgrimage from their daily feeding grounds to the nearby pond.  Although this is not an uncommon winter sight and after years of watching this procession go by at chore time it rarely catches my attention.  However on this gray, blustery evening I had to stop and watch their intriguing behavior.

Maybe it was the wind gusts or maybe it was just indecision on the part of the leadership, but it seemed as if their group was trying to go in different directions and frankly not getting much of anywhere in the process.  As I stood their and pondered this unusual behavior I soon realized that their behavior was not much different than ours.  How you might ask?  Well the answer is actually quite simple.  We will go nowhere in the face of adversity if there is no clear-cut leadership and goals.

So as I watched our downy friends dance through the clouds I saw some amazing things happen.  First the smaller groups flying outside of formation naturally gravitated towards the larger groups in formation.  Once in formation the new additions seemed to rearrange the shape of the geese’s flight pattern into a new blob only to have it level out into a beautiful “v” shape quickly and efficiently.  Then as you could see the geese physically start to struggle with wind gusts the leaders would change altitude to ease the load of their flock.

As I watched these geese fly away towards the butte I realized the simple lessons we can easily apply to our flock.  First and foremost we need to bring our smaller groups/segments together to find a common goal to strengthen our industry.  We need to be one “Oregon Sheep Industry”.   By doing so it will spreadout our workload and give us a great constituency to get our word out.  Secondly our leadership needs to know where they are going and how to effectively absorb all of the different segments by realizing everyone involved brings a value to the industry.  Finally, in the face of adversity we must be flexible enough in our thinking to occasionally change course and still stick together as an industry.

Bottom line, by working together for a common cause we can make great strides!  Maybe it is time to take a lesson from fine feathered friends and get our flock into formation!  Are you game?

Okay Folks,

I am a bit behind and a bit out of creative forces as I make this post.  I have to admit Christmas break which could also be labeled as “Christmas hibernation” has taken its toll on my creative writing.  However I came across a post on our local television station that piqued my interest.

According to the story on the ktvz.com website http://www.ktvz.com/news/30093282/detail.html , hunters can now donate to predator control programs in their counties.

Although this may not particularly affect you personally there are several fellow shepherds that take a great hit to predators every year.  If you need face-to-face testimony or at least phone-to-phone testimony just let me know and I will hook you up with a name and number.

How can you help?  Pass on this story and website through social media!  It is quick, it is simple and best of all it is free!

Do your part and help out your fellow shepherds!   Get the word out to the people in your county that this is an important issue that needs their support.  If we don’t support our local programs we will eventually lose them!

I did my part by sharing it on Facebook.  I challenge you to do your part!

Tis the season to be jolly, Fa La La La…….After a bit of bribery and a whole lot of cajoling on my part I convinced my lovely children to help stack and put in more than 5 cords of wood this past Sunday.  One might ask how I was able to get so much work out my two little cherubs and the answer is simple.  I promised to put the Christmas tree up when we finished our chores .

This would be how I found myself wandering down memory lane with the girls pointing out the history of every little Christmas ornament we have collected over the years.  Surprisingly enough tucked in between fly fishermen, ballerinas, an outhouse with a wreath, and even a fishing creel full of beer were several special sheep ornaments that have been given to me over the years.  My favorite is a funny faced bobble-headed sort of sheep that almost looks as if he is laughing at everyone as he stares out from the tree.  Given to me by a special aunt he reminds me of a few of my old ewes over the years that have occasionally escaped the vaccination pen.

Many of my favorite Christmas decorations have been those that were handmade by someone special in my life or picked up on a wonderful trip.  They are items which help to tell a story of the eras of my life, hence the outhouse and beer reminiscent of a Jeff Foxworthy joke.  It is a story that now spans a few decades and a number of ever-changing fads, but in the end one thing has remained constant….my ever growing family of sheep peeps.

Check out these great ideas for sheep ornaments that you can share with your special sheep peeps.

http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/woolly-sheep-663716/

http://www.ehow.com/how_4626732_make-christmas-ornament-corks-wool.html

http://novapages.com/ideablog/ideas/sheep-ornaments/

As I go about my daily chores and mentally try to summarize the key points of the OSGA meeting this past weekend, one word keeps coming to the forefront of my thoughts:  Protein.  With that said it is a bit reminiscent of when I started teaching straight out of college.  Bright eyed and bushy-tailed, I was ready to conquer the world and fortunately I had been armed with an arsenal of key buzzwords that in turn helped me successfully land my first job quickly and efficiently.

With the word “harvest” now almost obsolete, the word “protein” is now stepping into the limelight.  Why all of the fuss about a new word to describe meat?  Well perhaps it is the public’s limited knowledge of true production agriculture mingled with their tendency for leaning towards political correctness.  Or quite possibly it is a more formal term to describe something a bit more common, but either way the just of the matter is based on many of the speaker’s comments at this weekend’s conference  referred to  “protein production” as the key to our success in the future.

Tie that with a recent report entitled 2012 Proteins Forecasted to Gain, on page 6 of the December 2011 Issue of the Sheep Industry News  ( http://sheepindustrynews.org/ ) and it makes one excited to be a part of the livestock industry.  As this article points out US consumer spending has actually gone down in recent, however the percentage of spending on proteins has actually went up, thus concluding there is more of a lean towards choosing  meats, or might I say proteins over starches and sugars.

Based on the new Oregon State University Department Head of Animal Science and Rangeland Sciences John Killefer’s comments this past weekend, the trend towards adding more proteins into ones diet is not only something catching on in America, but also globally.  With the worldwide population slated to grow significantly in the next twenty years, as well as the increase in worker’s wages in a number of developing countries there is a greater consumption of proteins than ever before.

The National Lamb Feeders’ Association President Don Gnos after a trip to the recent international Tri-Lamb Conference  perhaps summed the changes in the global consumption of “proteins” up best when he noted, “It seems like the first thing a man wants to do when he gets money is eat better.”  To many better is the consumption of more meats or proteins int the diet.

So how does this affect those of us raising sheep in Oregon?  Bottom line greater demand for lamb and other proteins worldwide is helping to drive up the cost of lambs here in the US.  With population numbers hitting an all time high and agricultural land continuing to be in decline, basically farmers are going to have to become more efficient in the production proteins with less resources.

This is one area in which Killefer appeared to think Oregon State University could excel by providing crucial data to help farmer’s and rancher’s meet the rising worldwide nutritional demands.  However one might wonder how he plans to accomplish such a big task of acquiring research data for the sheep industry when the university is already considering cutting a great portion of the sheep enterprise out of the budget.

Killefer’s answers appears to lie in the use of flocks throughout the state to partner with the shepherds and state organizations to lock in funding and resources to gather crucial data.  How that plan looks is yet to be unveiled, but as of now we at least have another buzzword to load into our arsenal of creative conversational topics to market to the public.