REGION
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, January 23, 2019
A7
Shearing season on an Oregon sheep farm
By Jayati Ramakrishnan
EO Media Group
As a sheep flips from its
back to its front legs and
scrambles out the small
door of a trailer, it’s as
much as 20 pounds lighter
than when it entered a few
minutes before.
“Just like everyone gets
a haircut,” said Kip Krebs,
ranch manager of Krebs
Sheep Company.
It’s sheep-shearing sea-
son, and in about two days,
workers will shear about
2,800 sheep at the Krebs
Sheep Company before
moving on to another oper-
ation to repeat the process.
The company will then send
about 100 bales of wool to
Pendleton Woolen Mills,
as they’ve been doing for
more than 70 years.
Krebs Sheep Com-
pany is one of a few large
operations in Eastern Ore-
gon. They raise Targhee
and Rambouillet sheep,
and Suffolk-cross rams.
The business has been in
the family for four gener-
ations. Kip Krebs, 28, was
busy on Tuesday, moving
bales of wool and load-
ing a truck, and supervis-
ing the workers as they
herded and sheared sheep.
His father, Skye, was out-
side helping with herding,
and his mother and wife do
the books. The family lives
on a ranch tucked in the
hills of northeast Gilliam
County, just down the road
from the pens where they
shear sheep.
But the rest of those
working at Krebs during
shearing season live a more
nomadic lifestyle.
“In another month I’ll
have three of these crews
on the road,” said Bernie
Fairchild.
Fairchild travels from
his home in Buhl, Idaho,
each year with a crew
of employees comprised
mostly of men from Uru-
guay, in the U.S. on work
visas. The crew does every-
Staff photo by Kathy Aney/East Oregonian
Cody Gowdry (foreground) and John Balderson, of Balderson Shearing, shear sheep Tuesday at the Krebs sheep ranch near Ione.
Staff photo by Kathy Aney/East Oregonian
Niere Quispealaya, one of three Peruvian brothers working at the Krebs sheep ranch, watched
sheep progressing through a long chute to the shearing trailer on Wednesday. If one stopped,
he nudged it along.
thing, including shearing,
grading, and packing the
wool. They work for about
eight hours a day for two
or three days at each ranch
— and then move onto the
next one.
The workers spend Jan-
uary through June in the
U.S., covering seven west-
ern states — Oregon,
Washington,
California,
Idaho, Nevada, Utah and
Wyoming. In a 12-month
period, Fairchild said the
crew will shear about
310,000 head of sheep. He
said it’s hard to find Amer-
ican workers who will take
that job.
“No Americans want to
do it anymore,” he said.
“It’s too hard of work.”
He said in the states he
works in, there are likely
less than 10 crews that
work shearing season. He
said it’s been difficult to get
government approval for
workers to come to the U.S.
“Thank God they let
us (bring workers in),”
he said. “Otherwise we
wouldn’t have a job.”
Bryann Gonzalez has
been working as a sheep
shearer for nine years.
“I started when I was 16
years old, with a friend,” he
said in Spanish. “It’s diffi-
cult, especially if the ani-
mal is not calm.”
Gonzalez said he works
in the U.S. and Uruguay,
although he worked as a
shearer in Spain for one
year.
Krebs also employs
four full-time employees
as sheep herders. The four
men, all brothers, are Peru-
vian. They have worked
for Krebs for more than
a decade, and live in the
U.S. on work visas, stay-
ing in trailers on the Krebs
property.
John Balderson, an
Idaho resident who runs
Balderson Shearing Com-
pany, has been traveling
around to sheep ranches
with his trailer for decades.
“This trailer has one
million, 30 thousand miles
on it,” he said.
The workers aren’t
the only ones who move
around. Krebs said the
sheep get trucked to several
different places throughout
the year. They start the year
on the ranch in Gilliam
County, where they lamb.
In late April or May, they’ll
be trucked to Wallowa
County. In July or August,
the lambs will be sold to a
livestock company in Colo-
rado, and the adults will be
brought to irrigated grass or
alfalfa circles in Umatilla
and Morrow County.
The sheep were relaxed
as workers turned them
from side to side, reach-
ing their undersides with
a razor. Shearer Hank Lit-
tle said there’s a standard
pattern that all shearers
use, but they sometimes get
anxious when shearers get
to the sensitive areas.
“The most difficult
part? What he’s doing right
there,” Little said, pointing
to the worker next to him,
who was shearing the sheep
around its udder.
They leave about a
quarter-inch of fleece on
the sheep, but shearing
removes the sheep’s natu-
ral lanolin, a greasy sub-
stance that sheep secrete.
It protects the sheep, and
for a few days after they’re
sheared, they are more sus-
ceptible to getting sick if
they’re exposed to freez-
ing rain.
“It’s kind of a shock to
the system,” Krebs said.
Wallowa County Ducks Unlimited
Annual Banquet & Auction
Saturday, February 9, 2019
Cloverleaf Hall
668 NW First Street
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Greenwings under 10 years old eat free,
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includes Stangel buffalo, chicken and
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For more information or
to buy tickets online, visit
-Wallowa County Ducks Unlimited
Dinner Banquet
Contact Gene Bieraugel
541-828-7795