Zoar Farms Management with Mother Katherine

“I know my sheep and my sheep know me.”  (John 10:24)

 Working with animals is a big part of how we “keep this place.”  The Shepherdess of Zoar Farms is Mother Katherine.  Our novice (who helps in the barn) talked with her about her unusual approach.

Tell me about your policy of limited self-determination for the sheep.

This fall when I tried to bring the big group of ewes over the mountain, they categorically refused to go over. They turned and went down the hill to go to the barn.  They didn’t really want to be in the barn, they just didn’t want to go over the hill.  So I said. “Well, OK, you girls know more about it than I do, so I’ll believe you.”  And a few weeks later, I thought, “We’ll try it again,” and that time they went. And in the late fall, I found out there had been a bear over the mountain.  Well, they knew that, and I had not.  That’s what I figured.  There was something up there they didn’t want to run into. A bear. So they had the right – I didn’t make them, I don’t have herding dogs to make them go over the hill.  So that was their self-determination, what they wanted to do.

If other farmers rely on herding dogs, what do you do?

Our sheep have a big vocabulary.  I can tell them lots of things.  Routine and expectation is the biggest thing.  They know the routine, to go into the barn by that gate.  The girls have a big vocabulary, and I can say what it is we’re going to do. “We’re going to go over the hill.  We’re going back to the barn.”  Also they know their own names, and they know each other’s names. So [when I am with them in the field], I can talk about somebody that might be in the barn.

Other farmers may not give them names or call them by name, right?

Right.  Hobby farmers do, but not commercial farmers.  A lot of times they have too many animals, or they are acquisitions.  All of these girls I planned [their breeding] and delivered [as lambs].

So the sheep respond to their names?

Yes. I know the voices, and when I hear a voice I will respond to that voice with the name. And so they’ve learned that if I’m looking for somebody and I call out a name, they’ll either come or answer. If one is in trouble, and I don’t know where they are, and they call, I say, “You keep talking, and I’ll find you. Keep talking!”

In the evening, as you leave the house to go to the barn, they are already calling out to you, and you greet each one individually.

Yes! One day when I finished in the barn, I was coming into the house, and one spoke, so I said, “Good night, Goliath” And another one spoke: “Good night, Janie.”  I went through the whole flock, and I thought, “I’m on an episode of the Waltons here!”  So I got through everybody, and I put my hand on the knob, and somebody spoke, and I said, “We ain’t doing this again! Good night!”

That same winter we were in the field and they started this noise. I said, “Good night, good night, good night,” but they kept it up.  And I thought, “What’s going on here?” So I went to them and said, “Where are all the old people?  There’s Janie, there’s Miss Virginia.  Where’s Punky?” So we went looking for Punky, and she was down.  I went and got her all situated as best I could and watched her for the next couple of days, until she felt better.  But that’s why they were talking, to draw my attention to her.

They care about each other. And they trust you, they know you.

If we take them somewhere, I take them. When the doctor comes, I hold them. I’m there.

That reminds me of the Gospel passage about the Good Shepherd.

Of course. Jesus knew what he was talking about.

But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice;
and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them;
and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.  (John 10:2-4)

From Essays & Notes vol. 23, no. 1, Spring 2026