Why We Should Love Lamb Again

Modern Farmer: How’d you get started raising lamb?

Butch Theos: I’m third generation. My grandfather came from Greece in the late 1800s, then my dad took it over with his brothers. Now I’ve got a 34-year-old son who’s in the business with me. So he’s fourth generation.

MF: So this has been a family concern for a while.

BT: Yeah, he’s partners with me and my wife and we’ve been in the business for a long time. I graduated from Colorado University in 1970 and I’ve been here ever since.

MF: How many acres do you have? Where’s your farm at?

BT: We’re in Meeker, Colorado, about 100 miles from Steamboat and also about 100 miles from Aspen, up in the northwest corner. We run, on our private ground, about 6,000 acres. We’re there about five months out of the year. The other seven months we have a mix of public and private lands that we lease. In the summer we range around the timberline in the national forests, which we lease from the national government. And then in winter we head west of Meeker, about a 60 mile trail we make with our sheep, where we stay from around the 20th of November to the 20th of April. Then we come back to Meeker, lamb our sheep, dock them, prepare them for the summer range and start it all over again.

MF: Do you raise sheep primarily for wool or for meat?

BT: Primarily for meat. We have a dual-purpose animal, most of our breeding is Merino, so we do have a really fine wool clip and the wool brings a premium. But our lambs, we have good production out of ewes for lambs. Probably 60 to 70 percent of our income comes from the lambs.

MF: What’s unique about raising sheep and lambs for livestock, versus, say, raising cattle?

BT: Well, I believe it takes more management to raise sheep. We’re working with a lot more numbers than others are. Compare ourselves to cattle producers — we’re running 3,000 ewes. In a comparable cattle operation it’d be about 500. So you need a lot more labor. All our labor is imported, we get all our men from Peru, they’re on H2A visas and we keep them for three years and rotate them in and out. There’s just a lot more management. And, of course, we have to deal with predators, where cattle don’t have to deal with predators so much.

And we also have two crops, meat and wool. So we have to shear them — you don’t have to worry about shearing a cow. So we have to bring in shearing crews.

MF: How do you protect against against predators?

BT: Well, you know, in the past 20 years the government has taken most of our control work away. So what we do now is we’ve introduced these livestock protection dogs. They’re mostly Anatolian or Akbash and we cross them up a bit. They’re big — I don’t know if you heard of them — but they’re a large, white dog and we raise them with the sheep and their instinct is to protect the sheep. So we have five to six dogs in each one of our herds, mainly to protect from coyotes. They don’t kill the coyotes, just chase ’em away.

We do some flying in the winter — well we don’t, but Animal Damage does that. It’s a government agency and we pay 52 percent of that cost. They fly in the winter and try to eliminate some problem areas and shoot coyotes from a fixed-wing airplane.

MF: So how many sheep do you actually run each year?

BT: We have about 3,000 ewes, and then about 600 to 700 yearlings we raise ourselves to replace our losses and older sheep.

MF: One of the problems facing domestic lamb producers like yourself is that people in America don’t each as much lamb as they used to.

BT: That’s true. I think consumption is not even a pound per person — it’s six-tenths of a pound or something. We adjust our production. It’s a high-end meat. You find it in restaurants and some of the better grocery stores, which is mainly where our product goes. But a lot of lamb goes back east. The Jewish, Muslim, Indian, and Hispanic markets — they’ve grown up eating lamb and that’s really kept us going.

For us, we market our lamb all through the Whole Food grocery chain. Our product is all-natural and locally grown and people appreciate that — there’s no antibiotics or steroids or any of that kind of stuff in them. And the beauty of the whole thing is that we didn’t have to change our operation at all, because we’ve been doing it like this for three or four generations, just raising them on the land with milk and good grass and good breeding.

MF: How has the American Lamb Board helped out with that?

BT: Well, I’ve only been on the board a year, but when I see their advertising — they don’t have a lot of dollars to work with, but they use it very well. They pinpoint certain markets and they have some good leadership on the Lamb Board.

When any of us sell a lamb, part of that goes to the American Lamb Board — but I bet we don’t even have 10 percent of what the cattle or pork or chicken industry has, but we actually have some political power. We’ve had some legislators that have really come through for us — but it’s all different now. It used to be legislators would just fundamentally understand farming and ranching, because so many of them either came from it or came from a family who did. But that’s just not as common any more.

I mean, just explaining what sheep are and what the history of sheep is, that’s really hard. So we invite them to our ranches so they can see what we do, and that’s part of what the Lamb Board does. They’ve just done an amazing job with the amount of resources they’ve had to work with.

MF: What’s the best part of being a shepherd?

BT: You know, it’s a passion with us. It’s kind of bred into us. We just love the animals, obviously, or we wouldn’t be with them. It’s a challenge, you strive to do as good as you can do every year, managing your hired men, managing for predators, managing for the wool and genetic stock. It’s very challenging and it’s something that I grew up with, and my son grew up with, and not that it comes easy — you have to have a sixth sense about it.

I mean, the marginal producers are gone now. We used have over 60 million sheep in the United States. We’re down to 4 to 5 million now. So only the really hardcore sheep people have lasted.

Plus there’s being your own boss and being outside and doing that kind of work. I can’t imagine doing anything else. I’m not qualified to do anything else. I can’t imagine having some office job. But I would say challenge is the word I think of most about why I enjoy this job.

MF: If you had one thing you’d want to tell someone considering buying lamb at the butcher or grocery store, what would you want to tell them?

BT: Well, it’s a really healthy meat. I mean, I love beef, I love pork, I love chicken, I love it all, but lamb, to me, is just a real clean meat. There’s not a lot of cholesterol in it. And you can cut the fat off the lamb, because there’s very little marbling of the meat, which is unique. It’s just a real healthy food to eat.

Also, the sheep is really environmentally friendly. They utilize a lot of property and country that other animals don’t use, and they can turn forage on a big side hill that nothing else will touch, and make it into real fine quality product.

And sheep do a service for the land. Last summer, we had a drought in this area and a forest fire broke out in one of the areas where our sheep had been permitted to graze earlier in the year. And the fire was concentrated in these aspen trees, but as as soon as it got out of the aspen, it would die away, because the sheep ate all around the aspen where the fire was so there wasn’t any fuel for the fire to keep going. I mean, the sheep help repress the fires.

Look at what happens in California, where they used to have livestock but now they don’t. The fuel just grows and it dries up, and nothing eats it. It’s just like a tinderbox.

MF: Final question: what’s your favorite way to cook lamb?

BT: Ha, well, let’s see. I like the roast shank of lamb, leg of lamb. It’s all good. My mother and my wife make a really beautiful lamb stew — it’ll last a couple of days. They even like it better the second day. I mean, lamb chops, you put ’em on the grill. It’s so easy to make. Some people say, “Oh it’s so hard to cook.” So we’ll do tastings in Whole Food, and people are afraid to cook it, and once they see how simple and good it is, that’s helped a lot of people be not so afraid of somehow ruining lamb.

Also, you watch the cooking shows and you see so much lamb on it now. Which may also be the American Lamb Board. There seems to be a new face on lamb right now.

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About the American Lamb Board
The American Lamb Board is an industry-funded research and promotions commodity board that represents all sectors of the American Lamb industry including producers, feeders, seed stock producers and processors. The 13-member Board, appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture, is focused on increasing demand by promoting the freshness, flavor, nutritional benefits and culinary versatility of American Lamb. The work of the American Lamb Board is overseen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the board’s programs are supported and implemented by the staff in Denver, Colorado.

Easy Elegant Holiday Entertaining with American Lamb
Nothing says special celebration like delicious American Lamb. Whether it’s a holiday feast or an intimate family dinner, American Lamb is elegant yet easy to prepare. From the traditional leg roast to the quintessential rack, there’s a lamb dish for every holiday occasion. American Lamb’s unique, rich flavor can make any meal seem special and will make your family and friends feel especially appreciated.

Rack of Lamb: A Show-Stopping Favorite

Rack Lingo:

Lollipops: The rack is cut into individual chops and trimmed of all fat for an appetizer that is simple to make, impressive to present and easy to eat right off the bones.

Frenched: A few inches of meat is removed from the end of the bones, creating an attractive presentation.

Tips: For a holiday party, cook two rack roasts at a time; they will fit side by side in most roasting pans and two rack roasts will feed 8 people. Serve the two racks interlaced with fresh herbs twisted around the bones for a show stopping presentation.

American Lamb Roasts for Holiday Entertaining

Leg of lamb is a popular and traditional roast and is readily available at most grocery stores during the holidays. Shoulder roasts and boneless loin roasts are also great options but may need to be special ordered by your grocery store or butcher.

Tips:

Let lamb roasts rest for 10 to 15 minutes until the internal temperature reaches the ideal temperature.

A cooling period will allow the meat’s juices to settle and make carving easier.

Serve lamb roasts family style with carved, sliced meat arranged on a large platter with fresh herbs and roasted vegetables.

For more recipes and cooking information visit, www.americanlamb.com

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(This article was sponsored by the American Lamb Board. To learn more about the American Lamb Board and their hereitage, click here. To sign up for the American Lamb Board’s mailing list and keep up to date with everything the Lamb Board is doing, click here.)