Working a sheep ranch against all odds

DILLON — John Helle began raising registered Rambouillet sheep in high school as an FFA project, and has been doing so ever since.

“This was my 25th year in selling registered Rambouillet rams at the Miles City ram sale,” said Helle, who, with his family, raises sheep, cattle and wheat near Dillon. “Rambouillet is a fine wool, white-faced breed of sheep, and they herd easy. They stay together really well, which is important because there are no fences where we summer graze, so they have to stay together in a band.” The Helle family has two operations in which the livestock and land has split ownership but are run together. Third generation ranchers, Helle and his brother, Tom, raise approximately 4,000 commercial ewes, 350 registered Rambouillet ewes, 2,000 to 3,000 yearling sheep and a couple hundred Angus-based cows, along with farm about 1,000 irrigated acres.

“We did have a couple thousand acres of irrigated farmland, but that has changed since we haven’t had the water,” explained Helle. “We now irrigate about 500 acres. We also put our dryland wheat fields into grass this year because $2- to $3-wheat wasn’t enough to pay to have the fields in the crop. It’s more convenient to have the extra grass.” Putting the wheat fields into grass was the original plan. “When we bought the farm land, the wheat market was decent and the land was in bad shape,” said Helle. “We decided to farm it up until we could put it into grass for an improved early spring pasture. I guess we’ve accomplished that.” Despite the prolonged drought conditions and fall season, the Helles’ pastures are greening. “We’ve had a beautiful Indian summer down here,” said Helle. “It’s been nice and warm and not freezing at night. And we’ve had some moisture; we had some showers in the last 10 days that have the grass greening back up. Our crested wheat fields are green again, and our native fields are showing a green tint.” The majority of Helle’s grazing pastures is made up of native grasses, but some of the lower elevation fields are crested wheat grass, he said. Earlier this month, with the help of the five herders, the Helle family moved their sheep from the summer pasture on National Forest grounds to the home ranch.

While Helle returned with his sheep, he found he was a few guard dogs short. “We’ve had a lot of trouble with wolves killing our guard dogs,” he explained. “The guard dogs bond with the sheep and protect them. The (missing) dogs probably took off after the wolves and got killed.” Helle uses Akbash dogs, a Turkish breed, to guard his sheep. “Those dogs are worth a couple of thousand of dollars by the time they are trained,” he said. “And it takes a couple of years to get them fully trained.” Helle said the herders and he once found an Akbash dog that had been nearly fatally mauled by wolves while protecting its sheep. Helle was able to save the dog, but ended up investing $800 in vet bills and many hours of his time into saving the dog’s life. Helle could have been paid for the dog’s medical bills because it was a verifiable wolf attack. However, he’ll get no compensation offers for the two missing dogs. “I can’t prove they were killed by wolves, but it’s pretty obvious,” he said.

Helle and his family do not accept compensation payments for the damages wolves cause to their livestock business.

“We don’t take compensation because we don’t believe 10 cents on the $1 of market value is justification of their program,” he explained. “For every one verified wolf kill, we figure there are nine more that either won’t be found or aren’t verifiable. I think they should pay damages because they’re responsible for putting the wolves in the area. I think they should be personally liable for their actions, as a dog owner would be if it were a town dog attacking our sheep.” The only justice the Helle family has gotten out of the See HELLE RANCH, Page 3 wolf harassment is the federal government’s authorization to kill two of the wolves that killed the guard dogs. Four wolves from the same area were authorized to be killed after killing a neighbor’s cattle. “The number of livestock killed by wolves nationally isn’t that much, or a big deal to them,” said Helle, “but it’s a big deal when it’s your sheep and your livelihood.” Not only is the compensation program unjustifiable, but Helle said he is also disappointed with the program’s lack of interest in informing livestock owners when wolves have been spotted in areas also inhabited by livestock. “They need to reassess who they have watching these wolves,” he said. “One of the guys they have flying over the country and watching these wolves works for Ted Turner.” Helle has faith the system can change now that it is in the hands of Montana officials. “Now that the program is under the state control, I hope they’ll be more expedient into our response to the wolves, and monitor their action around livestock,” he said. “We’re testing the state’s program and so far, are not happy with the preliminary results, but at least we can work with the state to make it better.” While the Helle family deals with and works toward a better wolf management program, it’s the day-to-day activities that keep the family ranch operating. “Last week, we sorted the purebred ewes to mate with the rams and gathered the cattle so we could wean the calves,” he said. “Today, I shipped ewes to Alzada (Mont.) and worked, eyed and weighed buck lambs. To eye is to trim around the eyes so that the snow doesn’t wool blind them.” Soon, the Helle family is going to preg-check the cows and work (eye and tag) 8,000 sheep. “October is getting as busy or worse than May,” he said.

Even though they are very busy, the Helle family members will break long enough to go elk hunting on opening weekend. “My sons, Evan and Nathan, are old enough this year to hunt, and my brother has a son that is old enough this year also,” he said. “Last year, we didn’t have much snow and the elk didn’t come down so the hunting was terrible. This year, we have elk on our private land, so we’re going to close the property and let the boys have the run of the land until they get their elk, then we’ll open up the land to other hunters.” Helle and his wife, Karen, have four children: Evan, 14, Nathan, 12, Weston, 9, and Claire, 6. “Three of the children are involved in 4-H, and Evan and Nathan played football this fall,” Helle said proudly. “Nathan played on the seventh grade team and they had the perfect season. They won all their games. However, Evan’s team was the exact opposite. Evan was the leading tackle on the eighth grade team. It was all that practice from tackling sheep.” The Helle children are also active motorcyclists and skiers. “We use motorcycles a lot on the ranch,” said Helle. “We use horses too, but we have a lot of land. Our summer range is three hours from our home on dirt roads. We use a lot of border collies and motorcycles because motorcycles are faster and more efficient when you are checking fields and gathering sheep. We use horses to work the animals.” Just as Helle’s brother is essential to getting the work done on the ranch, Karen Helle plays an important role in the family operation. “She does all the bookwork and feeds the crew when we’re lambing,” he explained. “She also likes to sew, likes draft horses - she has a team of Fjords and a miniature horse she likes to drive. In the last two to three weeks, she has been making cheese and soaps. She wanted to get a milk cow, but I won’t let her buy one because I don’t want anymore chores.” One of Karen’s most time-consuming and important jobs is keeping up with the Helle children. “It’s a full time job chasing all those kids in sports and other activities,” said Helle.

Helle and his family work extra hard in the fall months to enable them to enjoy the area slopes during the winter months. “We try to get our work done in the fall so we can ski all winter,” he explained. “I am a member of the ski patrol here, so I get a discount for the family’s ski passes.” In addition to being experienced skiers, the Helle family competes in ski races. “We ski race recreationally,” he explained. “We pick and choose which races would be fun and compete in those. I like cross-max races, with bank turns and jumps, where you are not racing against the clock but against other people. They turn you loose with about four to five other skiers out on the same track. It can get wild.”