Sheep Industry News October 2025

From Cattle to Sheep: The Sperry-Deal Family’s Journey Parand Malekani Graphic Designer

R anching in “The Muddy” The Sperry family has been livestock ranching on “the Muddy,” above Somerset, Colo., since 1928. Renee Deal’s great-grandfather and grandfather started out running cattle, but by the mid-1970s her grandfather and father made the switch to sheep. At the time, the Muddy country was big sheep country, with families of Scottish, Italian and Greek roots making their living with flocks. “One of the neighboring producers told my grandfather, ‘I run sheep and I don’t give a damn what you cattlemen think; I’m laughing all the way to the bank,’” Renee said. Lonnie, Renee’s husband, grew up with cattle and was skeptical of sheep for a while. After the couple married, they moved to Den ver to pursue education and other careers. “If you told me when I was 18 that I would be back on the ranch, I would’ve called you a liar!” Renee said. “I couldn’t get away from the ranch fast enough. But after we had kids, our perspective changed. When my grand father was diagnosed with cancer, we moved back to help my dad and to get back to a lifestyle that we wanted for our kids. We came into a business that was fully established but have added our own mark.” They formed Sperry Livestock Corporation, a partnership between the Deals and Renee’s father, Joe and brother, Vaughn.

Polypays can breed and lamb three times over two years, and some of their seedstock customers follow that model. But because the Deals run their flock on range, they don’t. Even so, their genet ics have traveled across the country. “We’ve sold some of our ewe lambs as seed stock all over the country with customers from Vermont, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Ne braska, Wisconsin, Texas and here in Colorado,” Renee said. “We sell the rest of our lambs for meat. We don’t get much for our wool — most years we’re just hoping to cover the cost to shear.” Innovation on the Range The Deals haven’t been afraid to try new practices. This fall, they will begin solar grazing at Garnet Mesa Solar Farm in Delta. This facility will be the largest irrigated solar farm in the US. “We have partnered with the solar company to design a utility scale agrivoltaics facility that is not just sheep friendly but provides high quality feed and efficient paddock designs for optimal rota tional grazing and management,” Renee explained. “We’re excited to see how this partnership evolves our business model.” Technology has also found its way into their operation. Three years ago, the Deals began using EID tags and the AnimalTrakker® data system, developed locally by Paonia producers Kenyon and Eugenie McGuire. “This data program has enabled us to track birthing records, health and vet records, movements and individual sheep informa tion,” Renee said. “It has already helped us improve our lambing rates. It has also been very helpful tracking the breeding effective ness of our rams and tracking our animal care protocols.” More information on the free software can be found at animal trakker.com Challenges in the High Country For all the innovation and tradition, the realities of ranching in western Colorado bring constant challenges. “The biggest challenges in recent years for us have been around labor, drought and ever-increasing pressure on our ability to do business,” Renee said. “The elephant in the room is the wolf reintroduction in Colorado, but it is really just a symbol of how dif ficult it is to continue to run a range sheep operation.” Predators are an overwhelming concern. “Where we run has been called the best black bear habitat in the state by CPW (Colorado Parks & Wildlife),” Renee said. “We also have a healthy mountain lion population and, of course, coyotes. But here in Colorado, we also face the challenges of voter ballot initiatives that have severely hindered our ability to control these predators.

Renee and Lonnie Deal

Building Their Flock Today, the family runs roughly 1,700 commercial range ewes. In the past, the flock numbered more than 3,000, but they have gradually reduced herd size for a variety of reasons. “Our sheep are purebred Polypays, but we don’t register the ewes,” Renee explained. “We breed all of our stock with NSIP regis tered rams from Uncompahgre Polypays and Klaseen Polypays out of Delta County, CO and have focused on high quality genetics for the last 15 to 20 years. Our ewes have superior mothering abilities and are good producers. Polypays are known for their productivity — we easily lamb out over 200 percent on a good year.”

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