Story Telling Time

December 2005/January 2006

By Donna Mays

The year was 1950- long before duallys, diesel pickups, goose neck trailers, Shearmasters for sheep, Listers and blocking stands. I was in my first year of 4-H showing a steer and saw some of the most beautiful sheep being shown. I was drawn to their beautiful heads and how gentle they were. I had seen lots of sheep at the auction yards that my father and grandfather owned and had access to sheep all my life, but these were different; they took my eye and also my heart. A little gray haired lady came up and introduced herself to us as Marion Coble of Winters, CA, and told us about her sheep and I was hooked. My dad made a date for us to go and see their flock and maybe buy some older bred ewes. When we arrived, the first thing that she did was to show us her home and a room filled with ribbons, trophies and banners from all over. The state fairs and Chicago banners and trophies were awesome. We met Fred, her husband, and then had a tour of their ranch. First we went to the stud barn, filled with maybe ten rams, and Fred began telling us about how this one and that one were from Canada, and they had raised this one, and this one had won at Chicago. There were Suffolks everywhere. We left with three older bred ewes and paid one hundred twenty five dollars a head. They all lambed and from then on I had a solid foundation to start my Suffolk flock. My dad had told me that my sheep and cattle projects had to be paid for in some way, so I started working penning cattle with a horse back at the auction yards on sale day at a dollar an hour. I also cleaned the hog and sheep shed after every sale for fifty cents an hour- maybe that was because I was better on a horse than with a shovel. One of the most horrifying experiences I had was when I was about ten and some bummer lambs were put in a pen next to some big pigs and the pigs ate the lambs.

The Cobles helped me with all the questions I needed answered, and as I entered into high school they started picking me and my show sheep up to go to some northern California fairs for competition. This is when I learned more about fitting sheep. My grandfather had made me one of my first blocking stands made of plywood and a pipe that screwed into a base and some kind of yoke from a car that you used a rope over the sheep’s neck. Then in a couple of years that blocking stand got legs and four pipes that screwed into the bottom of the plywood. I can remember old Fred would tie up his sheep to the fence and have a cigarette in his mouth, one hand on his hip, a beer in his other hand and always wore kaki pants and shirt. When Marion came around he would tuck the beer into the straw and laugh and say “Here comes the boss!” and start working on fitting. Fred taught me how to trim and a lot of carding and packing. You got down on your hands and knees to pull the wool down on the belly and trimmed the sheep to look like a box and you did not wash sheep then. You would wet the sheep down with milk oil with creosote in it and every one knew that you had sheep at the fair.

Marion was like a second mother to me, or should I say mother hen or drill sergeant. Up at day light, feed and exercise the sheep and of course, get them ready for the show. I can remember staying with her on the top deck of a two ton truck at the fairs. It was cool because we could see everything that was going on until it rained, and then you tossed everything to the bottom deck. At the old California State Fair Grounds the livestock barns were all brick and I was able to stay with Marion instead of staying in the 4-H dorm. We would crawl up on top of the sheep barn and sit on the roof and watch the fire works every night. As I look back, we had more time at fairs then than we do now. I was treated very well by my peers. They all took the time to help you learn whether they had your breed of sheep or not. As kids we all looked up to the older breeders like the Cobles, Spellman Collins, Godfrey Pretty, Ervin Vassar, Mel Preston and Glen Maddax. As a 4-H member I showed against Harry and Terry Maddax at the state fair and Cow Palace, along with Donna Waddington. All of us are still in the purebred sheep business and the Cobles had a great part of being a mentor. In those days there was not all of the back stabbing that goes on today. There was one class of ram lambs and one for ewe lambs. A pen of ewe lambs or ram lambs contained three head. The lambs were supposed to be born after January first. It took me years to learn that there was cheating going on even then with aging, but not near as much as we have today. I often wondered how they could have lambs twice as big as mine at the spring fairs only to have the same size as they did at the Cow Palace show in the fall. Aging is one of the downfalls of most all breeds; it is not fair to the buyer and you can be held liable if sued for misrepresentation.

The Cobles were an inspiration to me but most of all they were mentors. If we all took a little time after selling an animal to a new buyer to explain feeding, care and breeding we might have more people staying with sheep. The younger kids want to learn and we should be the ones that give them that helping hand. Don’t just sell an animal, sell the warranty with free advice too, like call me if you do not understand or need help. You will find more repeat buyers and happier customers. We have a hard time keeping new breeders in the business. It seems that they are here today and gone tomorrow. Part of that is the art of fitting that no one wants to take the time to demonstrate how it is done, or the buyer gives up trying to learn on his or her own. The expense of having a fitter groom your animal is very costly. I am for the slick sheared. It is better for the animal, user friendly and sure would fix a lot of the problems that the Suffolk breed has. Look what it has done to the Southdowns and Shropshires; they have more level backs, hips and docks and more correctness. There would be a Suffolk that would be an easy keeper and not require all the feed that some sheep need to look good. An easy keeping sheep milks better and lives longer. We all would have more time to visit because it cuts down on the time needed for getting your animals ready for a show and sale.

It touches my heart when I have someone say, “Thank you for helping me learn and for taking the time to do so.” What does hurt is when one of those kids you helped years ago is now about to have grandkids.

I called upon Sean and Rosalynd Eldridge of Winters, California for some information on the later years of Fred and Marion. Sean supplied the following information - the story of Fred and Marion Coble. Fred was from the Boonville, CA area where he sheared sheep and tended range flocks. Marion’s maiden name was Moore. Her father was a farmer in Winters where he and his daughter Marion and brother Bobby raised turkeys, ducks and row crops. One day Fred came to the ranch looking for work and the rest is history. They got married, had no children and imported some sheep from the Phil Rock CPR flock of Canada by the train car. Marion told me that Fred could always pick the best ones because he had a keen eye. She was right. We spent many hours looking at the sheep and he could pick out the lamb that was related to a ewe just by its head. I started with a group of ewes from the Cobles and I was lucky enough to be able to work and keep my sheep there for ten years of my youth until I went to college. I lived there during the 70’s and worked for them after school and at night lambing. I learned a lot about sheep from the Cobles and learned a lot about hard work which, goes without saying, has helped me to this day. I guess I could talk all day, but I can say this, I learned a great deal about sheep from the Cobles. They were always honest in their dealings and they always treated everyone with respect.

Rosalynd wrote with the following information. “I grew up in Winters and knew Marion quite well. When I was born she gave me a blanket from her Suffolk wool made at Utah Woolen Mills. Marion would tell stories of riding with the sheep (really Fred) in the rail cars to get to Chicago. I remember going into the office where there were thousands of ribbons. Fred would raise his range rams in range conditions. He believed that they needed to live on grass or they would never survive the range. Fred and Marion worked hard to shorten legs, put on good heads, be deep barreled or ribbed; a short necked sheep that could survive in the harsh conditions found on the western range. Marion in her latter years could not understand why breeders of Suffolks spent so much time changing the breed back to what she and her husband had spent so much time fixing. Marion died from complications of Alzheimer’s. The housekeeper’s daughter, Ann Willis, who had shown the Coble sheep in 4-H, inherited the ranch and sold it to developers. The barn still stands at this time.”