There’s long been a calendar connection between March and lambs. For Clifford Porter that connection is seen every day this month by looking from his patio.
Porter has some 450 head of sheep, including those little bouncing, running lambs grazing across his 180 acres south of Henryetta.
Anyone driving along the road should not expect to see fluffy balls of wool however. These sheep are called “Hair Sheep,” and are raised primarily for the dinner table. They have distinctive colors ranging from brown to tan and even black with spots of color spread across the body.
“A lot of the wool sheep look ugly,” Porter said. “These are pretty and have some beautiful colors.” He pointed out the sheep will actually shed some of that hair in summer making them, “as slick as quarter horses.”
Porter got into the sheep business about six years ago. “Ten years before that, I was raising goats. It’s easier to raise sheep.”
He said his operation is the biggest in Okmulgee County and one of the largest in this part of the state. “There are not a lot of people who are raising these sheep as a full-time thing. Most people who raise sheep or goats just raise a few at a time.”
The sheep start lambing in the spring and are ready for sale in the fall. They will be about 70 pounds each and can generate upwards of $175 each. “I didn’t really start in as a business. I just liked to do it,” he said. One of the side benefits is the low maintenance on them. “They get turned out in the pasture and will eat just about anything. I don’t need to put hay out, they eat dry grass and weeds.” That is an advantage at this time of year when many pastures are being seared by wildfires. “They keep the grass down short.”
His biggest problem is keeping the coyotes and stray dogs from killing the stock. “Coyotes really like lambs and they are thick around here. One year I killed 28 in a 12-month period.” To help with that, Porter has a sheep dog that is turned out in the pasture and manages to scare off most of the predators. “He is an old dog, seven years, and starting to suffer from arthritis.” As backup, Porter has two other dogs, one an adult in training, and the other a pup, learning the ropes. he said he doesn’t lose that many, 6 to 8 a year. “Coyotes killed a ram a couple of months ago.”
He says he has five rams and likes to turn one out for each 200 females. That resulted in some 173 ewes giving birth. Some of those newborns included twins that helps with the bottom line. Around 25 to 30 percent of the ewes have twins.
Feeding time sees Porter fill up troughs made from PVC pipes with distiller’s grain. “It’s sour mash left over from the process of making alcohol or ethanol. That’s corn that is a high protein product that really helps the sheep grow. Once the troughs are filled, Porter bellows out across the pasture that the food is on. Within a minute, the stampede starts and young and old sheep head up the hill. “I had one guy said it looks like a stampeding herd of caribou.”
The lambs up to a certain size, get their own dining area through a fence with some of the wire cut out to allow only a certain size to fit.
After about 45 minutes of noisy dining, the sheep start heading back toward the pasture. That’s when the bleating starts as the mothers signal to their lambs to come on. “The momma sheep know their lambs and the lambs know their mothers by the voice,” he said.
When it is time to sell off this year’s stock, he will call a packing house in Chickasha. “They sell them to restaurants and stores all across Oklahoma. I’m told our fresh lamb is better tasting than the imported, frozen lamb that comes from overseas.”
Once he is through getting the food in the troughs, Porter sits back and enjoys the view as the sheep graze along. “In the evening, the lambs get really playful and they will be running and jumping. That’s when it is fun watching.”