Dozens of veterinary faculty and students from the University of Minnesota rushed to set up a makeshift animal hospital Monday after a suspicious fire killed hundreds of lambs and ewes at the largest farm in North America that produces cheese from its own sheep milk.

The milking room at Shepherd's Way Farm near Nerstrand, Minn., about 44 miles south of St. Paul, became a focus of efforts to save the ewes that had survived the fire that killed more than 350 other sheep.

Many of the ewes were blackened and singed, their eyes swollen shut and their faces bloated from the effects of smoke inhalation.

Outside, owner Steven Read surveyed the rubble that remained from a nursery where 225 lambs were being hand-raised with bottled milk. All of them perished in the fire, which was discovered at 2:45 a.m. by a neighbor preparing to go to work in the Twin Cities.

As Read talked about the loss, gunshots occasionally rang out from behind another building as Rice County sheriff's officers and others put down animals that veterinarians judged were too badly injured to survive.

Read estimated that 100 ewes died in the fire and that the toll would rise by another 50 or more within a few days. The loss amounts to almost half of a herd of about 800 animals.

Ewes would continue to die, many of respiratory failure, in the weeks ahead, he predicted.

"It's a terrible loss businesswise, but also a terrible loss emotionally," Read said. "Dairy sheep are socialized. We feed them by hand after they're born. We touch them every day. We know them as individuals."

The fire was the second at the farm in less than a week. Last Thursday, a pile of 30 round jumbo bales of hay stacked in a roadside pasture was set on fire.

Read attributed that fire to vandals seeing an easy target in a remote area. He said he is unaware of anyone who might have a grudge against him.

"At this point we can't call either fire arson, but it's highly suspicious," said Mark Hlady, an investigator for the Rice County Sheriff's Department. The two fires are also under investigation by the state fire marshal's office.

The surviving animals were given injections of steroids and diuretics in an effort to relieve respiratory inflammation, and most received pain medication, Read said.

Throughout the day, neighbors arrived with food and sympathy for Read, his wife, Jodi, and their four children. Some stayed to help handle the injured ewes.

Read, a former teacher, and his wife, a former medical writer and editor, began making cheese from sheep milk in 1994 when they lived on a farm in Carver County. They moved to their present farm four years ago.

Shepherd's Way cheese, which comes in five varieties, originally was marketed to specialty food stores and co-op markets. It now is found on the menus of gourmet restaurants and has won awards at numerous competitions.

The farm also is a local destination for specialty cheese enthusiasts who drop by on Saturdays for tours that start at a farm building that has been turned into a small caf