Why did Mary have a little lamb?

Mary had a little lamb. She bought it with intent to capitalize on it. The lamb was a registered Dorset. Dorsets were reputed to be fecund. Mary had done her math. Two lambs per drop. Hopefully. they would both be ewe lambs. If not, that would still be OK. There would be profit from male lambs, too. The crucial necessity about lambs was to “Keep Them Alive”. Lambs grow wool. So Mary could sell wool, meat, or even the critters themselves. But they had to survive until she marketed them,

Lambs are almost defenseless. Wolves prey on lambs. So do dogs, coyotes, mountain lions, eagles and even large hawks. (I say so, because I’ve raised lambs myself. “Experts” may deny this.) Sometimes a Dorset ewe will drop three lambs. She only has two nipples. Do you see that someone must “bottle feed” one of the trio? Lambs need a sheepherder, then. Here comes Mary’s first overhead cost. If you spot a sheepherder’s wagon out near the Rockies; it may well be the dwelling and workshop of a Basque, who knows sheep-tending like few other men (or women).

Wool can harbor parasites that not only lessen the quality of their wool, but cause them bodily illnesses. Sheepdip? Yes, and that’s one more cost. But Mary means to fleece these sheep (The ones she envisions ensuing from that single progenitress.) As her lambs grow in number the fleecing will demand skilled shearers in sizable crews. New Zealanders are excellent shearers. Their reputation is well-earned, and their wages reflect their skill. Another cost for Mary.

What will Mary feed her little lamb and her progeny? For the most part, grass. Sometimes, she may let them relish root crops. Would you believe onions, or beets and so forth. Now, Mary may not have had much money at the start. But grass grows in abundance and sheep literally eat it roots and all. So she will have to buy or rent spacious acres of it. I wonder where she grazes them. For sure, if it’s around the Ten Sleep area, one glance would let me know. The soil thereabouts is red-dish. The wind seems nearly constant. So, around the sales barn, one may hear the murmur, “Pink sheep;Ten Sleep.”

Before the White Man came, the Sheep-eaters were probably living on the flesh, and using the hides and bones of Rocky Mountain Sheep. They are the ancestors of the Shoshone Indians, who have their own reservation in Wind River country. Mary might know of them, By now, she may even have band after band of her own sheep; and all from that one little lamb. Oh yes, and one ram.