Mutton Mondays - From The Ranch Gate to Dinner Plate

Many people are quite removed from the reality of where their food comes from. This film, From Ranch Gate to Dinner Plate was created by the Colorado Wool Growers and the American Sheep Industry to inform the public of the process that your lamb goes thru before it lands on your plate. From Ranch Gate to Dinner Plate is specific to the Colorado sheep industry however, many of the practices are used throughout the entire meat industry.

My hunky rancher husband filmed this movie. It makes us both quite happy he is able to use his talents and degree while helping the sheep industry. He left his job with Warren Miller Entertainment a few years ago when we decided to move down south to help his Dad with the ranch so when he is able to get the camera out and film, he is quite happy.

The film covers a wide range of topics from how ranch chutes are designed to the actual meat production process and there are a chapters on braising lamb, grilling lamb, barbecuing and roasting lamb. The film covers the humane treatment of sheep, the history of sheep ranching, industry challenges among many other topics.

Here is a link to the Colorado Wool Growers website where they have the movie broken up into chapters. I hope you'll take a few minutes to browse the chapters and learn something about the sheep industry.

I found it interesting that one of the main reasons for the popular dislike of lamb derived from World War II. WWII soldiers were served mutton that was often cooked poorly and therefore these soldiers were turned off by lamb, rightly so. This thinking has been passed down from generation to generation. I understand this is not the case for many people, but I never knew that is where the popular "dislike" of lamb came from. 

My favorite chapter is Chapter 4: Challenges

This chapter discusses the wide array of challenges we face as sheep producers. I feel like ranchers are always getting the short end of the stick. Ever since we've become part of this industry it seems we are constantly on the defensive. Whether someone is trying to kick us off our forest permits, a new law that prohibits our cattle friends from using a certain ranch technique or funding being cut from our Wildlife Services program which will allow more coyotes and bear to kill our ewes and lambs.

The Agriculture Industry is a vital part of our economy and even though you may have never set foot on a ranch, what happens on our ranch ultimately affects you.

If you watch a few minutes of this film you will realize how passionate my fellow sheep ranchers are about their sheep, their ranch and the quality of their product. You also might see a few clips of our ranch and our sheep like this one below! :)

If you would, please take a few minutes to answer these questions. I'm just doing some research for future blog posts and I'd love your input.

What keeps you from eating lamb?
Before watching this film did had you heard about the H-2A Visa Herder Program?
Do you know anything about the Big Horned Sheep conflict?
What did you find most interesting about the film or the clip you watched?
What does Predator Control mean to you?