(March 1, 2013) As your new president I would like to introduce myself to all the sheep producers who I have not had the opportunity of meeting.  It is my goal to get to know as many producers as possible, so if I am attending one of your meetings, or you are attending one of the American Sheep Industry Association meetings, please take the time to introduce yourself and tell me about your operation.  It is impossible for me to represent people if I do not know their issues or concerns.

I am based in eastern Oregon, not the part of Oregon with the big trees and the ocean, about 70 miles west of the town of Pendleton.  Some people call it desert.  Yes, it is where Pendleton Woolen Mills started in 1909. Pendleton Woolen Mills has become an international leader in woolen blankets, apparel and home furnishings, using a lot of the eastern Oregon wools in their products. The original mill is still running today with state-of-the-art equipment, providing American jobs and a market for American wool. My wife of 33 years, Maureen, believes ALL of our wool check should be spent in the Pendleton stores so it is a very nice relationship for both of them, but it does not do a lot for the ranch.

Our livestock (yes, we keep a few cows around just to give ourselves a daily reminder of the differences between cowboys and sheepmen) are wintered on a low-elevation, desert sage pasture from November to May near the very small town of Ione. In May, they are moved about 200 miles by truck to our summer, high-elevation pasture in the very northeast part of Oregon near the town of Enterprise to stay through the fall.

Maureen and I are blessed to have our son Cameron and his wife Erin as partners in Krebs Livestock. We employ four very talented young people, both domestic and guest workers from Peru, who agreed to let me take the time off from the ranch to represent all of the sheep industry.  In fact they said, “You don’t do anything when you are home anyway, so you might as well be gone.”

Krebs Livestock runs two bands of 800 western white-face ewes each, plus 250 Polypay/Sulfolk cross ewes, which are in an accelerated lambing program. I would like to say we are in the middle of lambing, which we are this year, but we have actually had lambs born in 13 of the last 15 months and it just so happens the Polypays are on the cycle with our white-faces this time around. We also operate a lamb feedlot, primarily to finish the mountain lambs in our area from August to January. In addition to the 250 cows, we grow dryland wheat and irrigate about 450 acres, primarily alfalfa. You can see why I choose to be gone as much as possible.

I know I have a lot to learn about the sheep industry, and maybe just about life in general, so as I learn things I will try to pass them on to my fellow producers, hopefully every month. This month, I learned from an old Montana sheepman that on the east slope of the Rockies in the fall of the year, it is important to wear two sets of long underwear.  Apparently, the wind can blow so hard there it is necessary to take your coat off and put it over the tail end of your horse to keep from blowing the bit out of his mouth.