Simply Sheep

[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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

 

[CrealCritter]

It sounds like a lot of work but it only takes minutes for each paddock move if you get the system down. The benefits of it outweigh the trouble it takes....if you look at pics of MIG farms and those that just rotate stationary paddocks or open graze it's startling to see the difference. After about 3 yrs of this kind of system, I'll likely not have to buy winter hay any longer but can just use stock piled graze(pasture left to cure on the stem) to feed the flock. That's the whole reason I chose this type of farming, as it's more sustainable than the typical farming we all know. Having a system that needs little to no input from outside resources is my goal. For a few minutes a day or every other day....or 4 days, depending on the paddock size I choose...it's well worth it. We also got a low impedence solar charger as a back up for the fence when power is out, so even more sustainable.

CC, we used to keep out deer with a pulsing charger, even when we lived off grid. Had one wired to a battery. Just placed a single strand of wire at knee height and never had a deer in the garden in the 30 odd years we used that method, even with herds of 15 or more grazing around the garden each evening.

This high tensile is some bad mama jamma fence....we've only got 3 strands at 10, 21, 32 in. using Timeless fence posts(by far the easiest fence posts I've ever had to put in or use) spaced at 20 to 25 ft and it's a nice looking, tight fence. These fence posts are so flexible that you can roll a bale over them, a tree can fall on the fence, and even drive an ATV over them and they just spring right back up. Made of recycled vinyl windows with predrilled holes at regular spacing, they are driven in with a Tpost driver. Easy peesy lemon squeezy!

You mean these? https://timelessfencesystem.com/

Is that what's shown in your pictures? They look like your standard run of the mill spike posts that you can get at any farm store.

 

[Beekissed]

I'm guessing the sheep will most likely prune all of that shrubby stuff that is looking to take over, eventually converting it to a balance of selected trees for dappled shade with an understory of good grazing. Bee, what is the term for this? Silviculture???? I looked that up on google, but the term is too broad for the concept regarding beneficial grazing for herd animals.

Silvopasture...I think it's not a term that's well known except with regenerative agriculture.

Silvopasture

www.fs.usda.gov

 

[Lazy Gardener]

TY! That's the word I was looking for. Meaning, it's grass land with selected trees growing... Can you tell some of the "stacked" benefits of this method, instead of just pasture. My thought process is: Sunlight = energy. So... full sun = faster grass growth. But... tree cover and resulting shade may help with water retention?

 

[flowerbug]

A few pics showing how well these hair sheep eat brush. When most folks mention getting animals to eat brush, they always mention goats but I don't think they realize their are other good options.

This tree line is ordinarily a solid wall of greenery, from top to bottom. After the sheep are in that paddock, you can see the difference in a big way. All that's left clinging to the stems and branches are tiny leaves.

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A few pics of the flock grazing in a temp paddock next to a neighbor's field. What's amazing is the shoulder height (to a sheep) grass behind that single line of hot wire and that no sheep dare cross it to get to that field.

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One of the twins, will be 3 mo. old in July. Time flies!

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And Blue, the faithful sheep dog. We give him large bones for each paddock so that when he gets there he'll have something to do while he's just lying around watching sheep.

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once they learn the routine and know that you'll come along to move them they can be content to deal with what is in front of them.

 

[baymule]

Somebody thinks it makes a good snooze wagon!

 

[flowerbug]

Don't know if I posted pics of this, but this is our water/mineral/tools/dog food/misc. wagon we use as we move sheep from paddock to paddock. They stay in each paddock anywhere from 2-4 days at a time, so we needed something versatile and portable. We are still working on it, so it's a work in progress.

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looks like it needs an umbrella stand...