Sheep Industry News June 2022

I t's easy to joke that Allen Olsen hasn't gone very far in the sheep industry given the fact that he was born just 150 feet from where he sits at the kitchen table in the home he shares with his wife, Brenda, and youngest son, Pete. But there's so much more to the story for this fourth-generation rancher. He took over the family operation in Fountain Green, Utah, from his father. Along the way, he introduced the inclusion of foreign labor via the H-2A program and purchased a permit to graze the family's flock on the state's western desert each winter. But he never lost sight of the ultimate goal: continuing an operation that allowed the family to live and work together on a daily basis. With more than a half century of life experience under his belt, he's transition ing the operation to two of his four children. "They aren't really working for me these days, it's more like I'm working for them. Kelton and Pete have been training for this their whole lives. We've got pictures of them in the lambing barn when they were this high," says Allen, gesturing about a foot off the ground. "They are already very involved in the day-to-day decisions about the operation. They have the ability to make decisions, and they're learning that they have to live with the consequences – good or bad – of those decisions. "Going into the fifth generation now, we've kind of refined what works for us. It's provided a good life and we've been able to raise a close family that always worked together. All the kids still live in state and we get to see the grand kids." Allen and Brenda's lone daughter married a cattle rancher and settled in northern Utah, while their oldest son is a pilot for South west Airlines. He's based in Dallas, but maintains a home with his wife and children in Utah. All four can be counted on to lend a hand when needed. Family operations are common in this valley that sits just 20 min utes West of Nephi, Utah. Most are shed lambing operations – as are the Olsens – and several have lambing sheds adjacent to each other right off Highway 132 just south of town. Lambing began in earnest in late April.

can catch anything that's going on right off the bat. I don't know how people range lamb. There have been times when we've had to range lamb a small group and we've always had dead lambs. We just don't have the heart for that. Every lamb counts on our operation. We dock at 175 percent around here and do everything we can to keep those lambs alive until the fall." "There's really no place around here to range lamb," says Allen, who is a past president of the Utah Wool Growers Association and a former member of ASI's Lamb Council. "You have to get out in some space to do that where you can keep those ewes moving. We have a lot of small, 20-acre fields in this valley, and we're sitting between these mountains." Most of the family's lambs go into the Manti-La Sal Lamb Pool, which Allen started with a half dozen other producers years ago. "It's been a great thing for the lamb buyers," Allen said. "They know they can come into this valley and buy a lot of lambs. We've sold to virtually every lamb buyer in the United States at some point through the years. It's not like we're selling 50,000 lambs (it's ranged from 10,000 down to about 5,400 in 2021), but nobody in this area gets a price on their lambs until the pool sells. Once the pool sells, they start working off of that price. I think the pool probably carries a little more weight than it should, but it has been a good deal for our operation. Almost all of our lambs go through the pool." Some late lambs and any that don't fit the pool's needs have sold through video auctions in recent years. THE FLOCK Rambouillet-Columbia crosses were once the majority of the flock, but recent breeding has taken the flock in a definitive Ram bouillet direction. The Olsens also use Suffolk terminal sires to produce their market lambs. "When I was young, we were pretty heavily involved in the Columbias because they are good, solid sheep," recalls Kelton. "But the genetics have improved so much with the Rambouillets, so we

"For most people in this world, the new year begins in January," says Kelton. "For us, it starts in April. We're not finished with our cycle until the wool comes off in early April. Two weeks later we start lambing and that's our new year." And it's rare that even a single lamb is born without a pair of Olsen eyes on it. Kelton and Pete work 12 hour shifts throughout the pro cess – Kelton on days and Pete on nights – to make sure it runs efficiently with the help of their H-2A herders. "Our operation is horrendously labor inten sive," Allen admits. "We touch every ewe and lamb, but that's what works for us." "It's a lot easier to keep an eye on everything in a shed lamb operation," Kelton adds. "We

June 2022 • Sheep Industry News • 19