Mendenhall Wool Ranch

Mendenhall Wool Ranch was started in 1980 when wool became the focus of our farm, by adding 3 colored ewes to our small flock, in addition to the horses, cows, chickens, ducks, turkeys and, of course, children. Since then we have evolved into a specialty operation raising registered Romneys, Merinos, and Natural Colored sheep. Almost from the beginning, our goal was to produce clean wool for the hand spinner. We were so successful the first few years; all I had left to spin was the skirtings. In 1994 we began covering our ewes with blankets and saw an immediate improvement in our fleeces. We now have over 150 sheep covered with blankets throughout the year. We have lived in the small community of Loma Rica since 1978. It is situated 60 miles northeast of Sacramento, CA, and 20 miles northeast of Marysville. We are located in the lower Sierra foothills and the sheep spend most of their time on our 30+ acres of irrigated pasture. The sheep are supplemented with hay in the winter and grain at lambing time. We do have barn cover for everybody during the winter storms and are continuing to plant more trees for shade in the summer. The sheep are protected by a 9-wire predator electric fence, and pastures are cross-fenced with 4 to 7 electric wires. Intensive grazing is used to manage the grass