Simply Sheep

[baymule]

That is wonderful Bee. A ewe lamb to add to the flock, ram lambs for sale and meat. Are you going to wether the ram lambs?

 

[Beekissed]

That is wonderful Bee. A ewe lamb to add to the flock, ram lambs for sale and meat. Are you going to wether the ram lambs?

It would simplify things but may bring down the price of any we wish to sell. I think we'll make that decision when we wean in July...at that time we may have to separate the flock and run the rams in opposite paddocks from the ewes.

 

[Beekissed]

A few pics of the sheep and dogs on paddock rotation into a new paddock....we are open grazing this paddock in the interest of just getting them used to this new field that is out of sight from the house. When next we do this one, it will be sectioned off into several smaller paddocks so we can greater impact the soils as we graze it.

 

[baymule]

Wow! What lovely pasture you have!

 

[Beekissed]

Wow! What lovely pasture you have!

Bay, if only! That's not ours....it's an absentee owner's meadow next to our land. We mow it for them but decided to mow it with sheep this year. No more gas money to be spent on land that's not ours.

I'd LOVE to have that kind of grass at our place....maybe in a few years we'll get there.

 

[baymule]

Perhaps you could transplant grasses to your pastures or cut it when it goes to seed and spread the “hay” on your pastures.

 

[Beekissed]

Perhaps you could transplant grasses to your pastures or cut it when it goes to seed and spread the “hay” on your pastures.

Supposedly, by the third year of doing MIG, I'll have grasses like it or better simply by bunching the animals onto small, frequently moved paddocks and rolling out hay where there isn't anything to eat at all in the winter months. Everyone doing this says to trust the method and don't get impatient, so I'm going to trust and not try to jump ahead of the game.

 

[Beekissed]

A few pics of the dogs and sheep....the MIG system is happening and I'm still working out the kinks, the main one being how to run temp wire around all the tree tops from logging. Also how to run them through the middle(the yard), where most of the grass currently is, without impeding the progress of all else that goes on in the yard.

Anyhoo....summer is upon us with high temps and humidity, rains starting to taper off a bit and grass growing pretty well.

Our water wagon in use. Holds the water, minerals and feeder, dog food and pans, push in stakes and wire reels, chocks for the wheels and anything else I want to toss on there at the moment. It can be pulled by hand or by mower or ATV and holds 1400 lbs if need be. I'm in LOVE with the watering system and mineral feeder....streamlined my paddock moves like crazy and also delivers MUCH more drinkable water to both dog and sheep~nice, cool and fresh as opposed to dog slobber slimy and tepid with pieces of grass and leaves in it from sheep's mouths.

The two lambs in the forefront are 2 mo. difference in age. The white one is ours, at 2 mo. yesterday, and the black one we bought for possible breeding, is 4 mo. I'd say we'll likely not use the black one for breeding but will pick up a better ram at our regular breeder....for $275 more than we paid for the black lamb. We'll either butcher the black or sell it.

July, our 3 wk old lamb, is the only one light wt enough to jump to the top of the hay bale and she did it over and over and over as she played with the older boys. It was such a delight to watch the sheer energy and joy in that jumping up and leaping off again...and she was so quick it was hard to get pics of it all.

The dogs, in wait mode for eating. They have to do this each day to teach them to calm down and eat slower. They have to be lying down, head on paws, no tension in the body and eyes on me instead of the food before I'll release them to eat. I started this years ago to slow the dogs down and cut down on food aggression. I also train them on people taking the food, putting hands in the feed, children being near and/or putting hands in the food or on the pan, etc. Most of them pick up on it in a flash.

Blue is 13 mo. old and Charlie is 3 mo. old.

The lawn is definitely showing signs of increased nutrition due to the sheep's grazing, tons of clover of all types showing up and bees and butterflies following.

 

[CrealCritter]

A few pics of the dogs and sheep....the MIG system is happening and I'm still working out the kinks, the main one being how to run temp wire around all the tree tops from logging. Also how to run them through the middle(the yard), where most of the grass currently is, without impeding the progress of all else that goes on in the yard.

Anyhoo....summer is upon us with high temps and humidity, rains starting to taper off a bit and grass growing pretty well.

Our water wagon in use. Holds the water, minerals and feeder, dog food and pans, push in stakes and wire reels, chocks for the wheels and anything else I want to toss on there at the moment. It can be pulled by hand or by mower or ATV and holds 1400 lbs if need be. I'm in LOVE with the watering system and mineral feeder....streamlined my paddock moves like crazy and also delivers MUCH more drinkable water to both dog and sheep~nice, cool and fresh as opposed to dog slobber slimy and tepid with pieces of grass and leaves in it from sheep's mouths.

View attachment 14105

The two lambs in the forefront are 2 mo. difference in age. The white one is ours, at 2 mo. yesterday, and the black one we bought for possible breeding, is 4 mo. I'd say we'll likely not use the black one for breeding but will pick up a better ram at our regular breeder....for $275 more than we paid for the black lamb. We'll either butcher the black or sell it.

View attachment 14106

July, our 3 wk old lamb, is the only one light wt enough to jump to the top of the hay bale and she did it over and over and over as she played with the older boys. It was such a delight to watch the sheer energy and joy in that jumping up and leaping off again...and she was so quick it was hard to get pics of it all.

View attachment 14102View attachment 14103View attachment 14104

The dogs, in wait mode for eating. They have to do this each day to teach them to calm down and eat slower. They have to be lying down, head on paws, no tension in the body and eyes on me instead of the food before I'll release them to eat. I started this years ago to slow the dogs down and cut down on food aggression. I also train them on people taking the food, putting hands in the feed, children being near and/or putting hands in the food or on the pan, etc. Most of them pick up on it in a flash.

Blue is 13 mo. old and Charlie is 3 mo. old.

View attachment 14099View attachment 14100View attachment 14101

The lawn is definitely showing signs of increased nutrition due to the sheep's grazing, tons of clover of all types showing up and bees and butterflies following.

May I ask a few questions?

1) I count 6 sheep, including the lamb. How large of an area (approximately) is it that you have them fenced in?

2) do they have shelter from storms? Run in?

3) do the dogs stay in with the sheep all the time or are the part time sheep dogs?

4) what kind of sheep are they?

5) are you using a pulsing electric fence charger or is it one that put steady voltage?

Thanks

 

[Beekissed]

May I ask a few questions?

1) I count 6 sheep, including the lamb. How large of an area (approximately) is it that you have them fenced in?

2) do they have shelter from storms? Run in?

3) do the dogs stay in with the sheep all the time or are the part time sheep dogs?

4) what kind of sheep are they?

5) are you using a pulsing electric fence charger or is it one that put steady voltage?

Thanks

There are 11 sheep in there(4 ewes, 7 lambs), all Katahdin or Kat/Dorp cross, I couldn't even begin to tell you how large that area is as it's a temp paddock...I just make them up on the fly. I'm doing MIG(managed intensive grazing) with the use of a high tensile perimeter fence and polybraid single strand on push in stakes to move them through the paddocks every 1-4 days(depending how big I want to make each temp paddock). No shelter but trees and brush. The dogs stay with the sheep all the time. Our fence charger pulses, Cyclops brand.

MIG style farming is like mob grazing wherein you bunch the livestock onto smaller paddocks so they poop and pee a lot in a concentrated area, then you move them frequently. You can see vids on YT about MIG, lots of farmers and ranchers doing it now...my fave to watch is Greg Judy. The concept for it all is explained well in talks/vids from Allan Savory and can be found on YT also.

It makes for healthier, better yielding soils and healthier, better yielding livestock and it's also very economical compared to other systems.