Each October, the residents of Brigham City, Utah (population 20,000), get a special treat. They eagerly follow local news outlets for the annual announcement. On a Friday or Saturday morning, people gather their children, set up the lawn chairs, and line the streets. The excitement builds as they peer down the road for a first glimpse.
Is it a parade? Not exactly. It’s the annual movement of more than 2,000 sheep from their summer range in the Wasatch Mountains to their winter range near Bear River City—a distance of more than 20 miles.
This year marks the 97th annual Trailing of the Sheep for Eph Jensen Livestock Company, a fourth-generation family ranch. The historic sheep trails have largely been turned into roads and highways, so Lane Jensen coordinates with local police, county sheriffs, and the state highway patrol to ensure safe passage for his sheep along the traditional route.
Jensen is proud of the ranch his grandfather Ephraim Jensen founded in the 1920s and is a fierce guardian of its traditions. Despite encroaching residential development, he preserves the sheep trails by continuing to follow the same route every autumn.
Panama Sheep
About a third of Jensen’s flock are Panama sheep. This breed originated in Idaho in 1912, the result of efforts by James Laidlaw, a Scottish immigrant, to develop a breed that would produce fast-growing lambs and dense fleece on dry western rangeland. The cross was established using Rambouillet rams and Lincoln Longwool ewes. Laidlaw’s new breed earned its name when three lambs were exhibited to great acclaim at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco.
Panama fleeces are nearly always white and have a fiber-diameter range of about 25 to 30 microns. A typical ewe fleece weighs 12 to 15 pounds in the grease, has a 60 percent yield, and has a staple length of 3 to 5 inches (7.6 to 12.7 cm). Mature Panama rams average 250 to 280 pounds (113 to 127 kg), and ewes average 180 to 210 pounds (82 to 95 kg).
Panama sheep never spread much beyond Idaho and Montana. Most ranchers preferred the Panama’s larger ovine cousin, the Columbia, which is the result of crossing Lincoln rams with Rambouillet ewes. A Panama breed registry was formed in 1951, but it is now inactive. The total number of Panama sheep in the United States is unknown.
A Panama ewe with her twin lambs.
Panamas on the Jensen Ranch
Eph Jensen and his son, Karl, began buying Panama ewes from an Idaho rancher named Rupert Rich in the mid-1970s. Rich was a neighbor of the Laidlaws, the family who originally developed the Panama breed.
The Jensens found that the Panama’s relatively smaller stature, strong maternal instincts, and consistent fleece quality were well suited to their land and ranching practices. From the late 1970s until the mid-2000s, all of the Jensens’ flock were Panamas.
In 2007, the Idaho ranch from which the Jensens had previously bought new Panama stock ceased operations and dispersed its flock. Lane Jensen found he could not produce enough Panama ewe lambs on his own to maintain the size of his flock, and he began purchasing Rambouillet-cross ewes. These ewes are bred to Suffolk rams, and the resulting lambs are sold for meat.
However, Lane Jensen does not crossbreed his Panamas. All Panama ewes are bred to Panama rams to maintain and increase the size of his purebred flock.
Lane Jensen and his crew sorting ewes in autumn.
A Year on the Ranch
The Jensen sheep are shorn in mid-March, before lambing. A shearing contractor from Wyoming arrives with his shearing trailer and a crew of seasoned shearers. With good weather and an experienced team both inside and outside the trailer, the shearing is completed in three days.
Lambing occurs in April. By July, the new lambs are strong enough to make the journey with the ewes to summer grazing in northeastern Utah’s Wasatch Mountain range. The late October trailing through Brigham City marks the beginning of winter grazing on fields of alfalfa and fall wheat leased from the farmers in Bear River Valley. The sheep spend January, February, and March on the native grass and sagebrush hills west of the valley. They are trailed down county roads for each of these moves.
While sheep are the focus of the Jensen family operation, they also have horses, which are used in herding the sheep. And dogs. Lots of dogs. Border collies are used for herding, and Akbash and Great Pyrenees serve as livestock guardians. An Old English sheepdog and a Saint Bernard keep things interesting at home.
In addition to the range sheep, the Jensens maintain a small flock of registered Lincoln Longwool sheep. The Lincolns live year-round on pastures near the family homestead.
Marketing the Wool
The bulk of the Jensens’ annual clip is sold to a wool broker. But Lane’s sister, Ann Jensen, is making some of the fleece available to handspinners and small-batch yarn producers.
Ann opened an Etsy shop, Eph Jensen Woolworks, to sell clean roving and combed top from the small Lincoln flock. In 2023, she decided to find out if there was any demand for Panama fleece. She was hesitant because this is range wool. The level of vegetable matter and dirt contamination is higher than what you’d find in wool from a small “spinner’s flock.”
Fleeces from the 2023 clip were sold to Fossil Fibers, who sells washed Panama fleece, and to Knudsen Knits, who had the fleece processed and spun into a worsted-weight yarn, which she then handdyed. Knudsen Knits also purchased fleeces from the 2024 clip.
Ann Jensen is planning to sell both raw wool and carded roving from the 2024 clip in the Eph Jensen Woolworks Etsy shop. (See Resources to find links for all of these businesses.)
Trailing the flock to fresh winter grazing.
Will the Tradition Continue?
The centennial celebration of Eph Jensen Livestock is just a few years away, and Lane feels the weight of that heritage. Lane and Angie Jensen have raised their four children on the ranch. Of the four, three have not yet chosen a career path. Lane is hopeful that at least one of the three will remain rooted on the ranch and that yet another generation will continue to tend Ephraim Jensen’s legacy of sheep ranching in Utah.
Resources
- Ekarius, Carol, and Deborah Robson. The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook. North Adams, MA: Storey Publishing, 2011.
- Eph Jensen Woolworks
- Fossil Fibers
- Knudsen Knits
- Torell, Clark R. “A Brief History of the Panama Sheep.” University of Idaho, January 1, 1952.
- Wheeler, Emilie H. “Running of the Sheep: Northern Utah Sheep Drives a Long Tradition, but Can They Continue?” HJ News, October 23, 2011.
This article originally appeared in Spin Off Winter 2025.