SEATTLE — Sheep production has nose dived in the United States over the last century. Recently, the sheep population in America declined from 6.321 million head in 2003 to 6.135 million head in 2005, down from an estimated 8.45 million head on Nov. 1, 1996.

The 2004 lamb crop at 4.10 million head, a record low, was down 1 percent from 2003. The 2004 lambing rate was 113 lambs per 100 ewes one year old and older on January 1, 2004, up 3 percent from 2003.

By way of comparison, there were 70.3 million sheep in New Zealand in 1982 which declined to 43.1 in 2001.

Sheep production in the United States is dominated by the factory farm production method. Al-Masakin found sheep livestock production in general on the two ranches investigated to be humane, but nevertheless dominated by hearsay and folk techniques over scientific method.

Shepherding was a highly personalized affair with each rancher employing slightly different techniques usually based on folk tales and superstition handed down from the days of the original homesteading in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

This led to variances in ranching methods between ranches only a few miles apart with the net result of both ranches employing bad and superstitious techniques. From the perspective of social justice, it is the poor treatment of labor, not of livestock, which should cause concern.

The labor market for the American sheep industry is dominated by coyote labor contractors such as Mountain Plains Agricultural Service of Casper WY and the Western Range Association of Salt Lake City; both of which hire almost exclusively foreign workers from Mexico, Peru and Ecuador. According to a source at the Wyoming Workforce Center in Casper, speaking to Al-Masakin off-the-record, the Mountain Plains Agricultural Service is only a "paper-mill for processing visas" for migrant workers.

Ranchers are hotheads who hire and fire at will and without notice. They should, in general, be considered Kulak elements. Both of the ranches investigated by Al-Masakin used mixed methods. Both were part factory farm and part open range based.

Round Grove Ranch, Townsend, MT At Round Grove Ranch the corral and lambing shed are the ruins of the original homestead built in the early 20th century.

Round Grove Ranch is set on four 160 acre homesteads combined into a 640 acre section spread. Round Grove Ranch breeds approximately 2300 Rambouillet ewes. Lambing season at Round Grove Ranch beings about April 1st and lasts approximately three weeks.

Round Grove Ranch hires a mish-mash of laborers both from God's Love homeless shelter in Helena and from the Helena Job Service They hire mainly Mexican and White labor. The ranch foreman Kelly Ingalls also hires through the Peace Corps "Hotline" classified ads and shows preferential treatment to former members of the Peace Corps.

Round Grove Ranch pays the least of all ranches we know about at $650.00 per month. They treat their laborers worse than the livestock. Accommodations are an old travel trailer or a bunk house. Electricity may be supplied to the travel trailer by an electric extension cord and both the bunk house and the travel trailer are heated by wood burning stove. Laborers are expected to wash their clothes in a bucket and dry them on a close line or near a fire.

Meals are served in the ranch house. Lunch is usually available while dinner is usually the leftovers from lunch and breakfast is self serve. Labor is treated worse than livestock which is generally bad at this cheap outfit.

Livestock afflicted with pregnancy toxemia, round worm, botulism, and pneumonia. Approximately, 50 ewes lost to these diseases during the April 2005 lambing season with more than 100 lambs lost during the same period.

2300 pregnant ewes are fed with 80, 50 to 60 lbs alfalfa idiot cubes, 40 in the morning and 40 in the afternoon--an estimated 4000 lbs of alfalfa hay with an additional .2 gallons of rolled oats fed in the early AM.

Ewes are trailed onto the open range in two bands at 1000+ ewes, with their lambs, in May followed by another 1000+ ewes with their lambs trailed in June. Range includes U.S. Forest Service ranges in the Belt Mountains and a BLM winter range on Canyon Ferry Reservoir.

Miller Ranch, Harlowton, MT Miller Ranch has approximately 2300 Rambouillet ewes. Miller Ranch hires mostly white workers and women and pays better than Round Grove Ranch at $800.00 per month. Accommodations are a sheep wagon near the lambing shed with an electric extension cord, heated by a wood stove.

Workers are expected to wash clothes in a bucket. All meals are self-serve by cooking in the sheep wagon. Food cost is paid by the worker. Both the livestock and the workers are better kept on the Miller Ranch than on the Round Grove Ranch.

The main difference between the two ranches from the perspective of the laborer is that Miller Ranch splits the band into two parts. Settling approximately 1300 followed by another 900 three weeks later, makes their lambing season six weeks long instead of only three weeks; whereas Round Grove Ranch brings the whole band of 2300 ewes to term all at once within a three week period.

Unfortunately, aggressive herding practices by ranch hands on four-wheel ATVs contributed to the deaths of many lambs still inside the womb, which frequently also kills the ewe herself. Miller Ranch lost approximately 30 ewes to 2500 and more than 50 lambs within the same period. 1500 pregnant ewes are fed 4 x 1000lbs alfalfa bails which is supplemented by alfalfa cake in the afternoon and pellets while in the jug. Ewes are trailed in June on 4000 acres leased from the Haymaker Ranch near Two Dot and on U.S. Forest Service Ranges in the Little Belt Mountains. Miller Ranch was by far the better of the two. (To be contd.)