When you buy our lamb,
...you know it is raised
with the best of care
for a premium product.

The James Ranch Home

The James Ranch

Lamb Lovers' Specials

Price List

Recipes

Pictures on the Ranch

Secure Shopping Cart

A group of ewes emerge from the canyon during their winter grazing.
The Sierra Foothills are not suitable for cropland; the ewes and the hills
are made for each other. They gently harvest the variety of forage available
throughout the year, while enriching the soil and organic matter as they travel
through their daily grazings.

Lance and Maggie carefully move lambs to a smaller area where they can be assessed.
We raise and sell breeding stock to large commercial producers because
we have kept a pure, closed flock of proven sheep for almost twenty years.
Our meat lambs are raised alongside the breeding stock for the very best of care.

Here a group of lambs can be admired without causing any stress to the animals.
Note the greenhouses in the background; these sanitary and comfortable shelters provide clean and welcomed protection from adverse weather.
This is 'Sweep'. She was 15 years old when she passed away this spring. She
was the reason for the quote 'man's best friend'. With only the two of us managing our flocks, a good Border Collie makes sheep movement easy and without stress to herd and flockmaster. She was part of our family. Now Maggie has transfered into the spot of 'herd dog'.

Gay, Laura, Lance and Crystal Columbel
Finally, thanks to Sacramento Bee photographer, Chris Crewell, we have this family photo, as well as others, on our web site. This was at the end of a long, rainy day of lambing when Chris joined us to see first hand the life of a shepherd.
We don't have too many photo-ops because of our busy lives, so allow this black-and-white newspaper photo to give you an idea of the family behind the scenes.
When you call or Email, you are talking directly to one of us, probably Gay.
And when you order our lamb, we are all responsible for that order,
from receipt through packaging through shipping.
It is you, the customer, that allows us to continue ranching...
as nature intended it!
Thank you from the Columbel Family

Back to Page 1 of Pictures.