I took a trip to Korea with my wife for our niece’s wedding. My kids looked after the farm while I was away. While I was gone, Nutmeg had puppies, and one of the sheep was attacked by dogs.
This first video was taken on Tuesday May 21st in the evening. I had just flown back to the US. It took 11.5 hours on the plane and 22 hours of travel overall. It was 90 F and humid.
I noticed that a few of the sheep have minor hoof problems. One of them seems to be a bit overgrown.
I brought Rammy home to be with the other breeding rams. I also brought Gami and Yami to the field as it is time for them to be weaned.
The sheep with the wound on her back now just has bare skin where the wound was. She’s almost 100% healed.
The lambs are ready to be weaned as they are all about 1 month old.
Also, we have a new lamb, probably born a few days ago more or less, to 083?
The sheep that was out of place was the injured sheep and one of her lambs. The other lamb was tangled up in the chicken netting and dead. The sheep was severely wounded so I put her down. The remaining lamb was old enough to be weaned so I don’t have to bottle feed him.
Manure patties were runnier than I wanted.
The summer grasses (mostly bermudagrass) are coming in very strong. The ryegrass is starting to turn brown. There is still lots of other things growing, clovers and such.
I was seriously considering getting trained livestock guardian dogs at the time. Right now I think I will try again training them with the new puppies and Bayley.
Part of farming is you have to cull and kill from time to time. We can’t just let things grow without restraint.
I took a trip to the back of my field to look at the rest of the field but especially the bulls. I was impressed with the growth in the southern half of my field even though it wasn’t as good as the northern half.
My plan is to move the bulls back with the sheep. There should be enough distance between them that it won’t be a problem.
On Wednesday May 22nd I didn’t get to the field in the morning as my daughter did it for me. So I went out in the evening in between rainfall and storming.
We set up a new row for the sheep, but because a storm rolled in we did not move the sheep.
Last year I did a 21-day / 3-week rotation. In late July I took my whole family on a trip to Korea for three weeks, and so I had the cows graze on the northern half of the field for a week and a half, and then my neighbor moved the cows to the southern half for another week and a half. I think they overgrazed in the southern half, eating the grass that was just starting to regrow, and that, combined with the drought we had, the southern half never really recovered until just about now.
So this year I am trying to hit about 80% eaten 1/3 of the way down, with no double-bites. It’s not quite non-selective grazing according to Ben at Grazing365.
The biggest advice I have is you can’t overgraze. If you don’t have enough grass that they leave plenty behind, then you can’t graze and you need to feed them feed and/or hay and put them in a sacrificial lot.
Thursday May 23rd I was finally able to move the sheep to a new row. We got 1.75″ of rain last night so it was humid.
I tagged Yami and Gami last night so that I won’t lose track of them. I also sprayed Gami’s leg with iodine and wrapped it up.
Allergies are back! I was doing okay the first few days.
I got a terrible price for the lambs I sold, about half of what I was expecting. They came out to be about $140 per lamb, and they were around 100 lbs. I should’ve gotten at least $250 or so for each one according to market reports in the area.
The coveted $5/lb probably happens before the religious holidays and are only available to the best lambs. Realistically, I shouldn’t expect that much.
Are sheep still worth it? Absolutely. The reason why sheep do better is they just produce more pounds per acre. T
The sheep targeted milkweed first it seems. Already some milkweed was munched down.
Sarcastically, it is not good to do rotational grazing because the grass gets so tall and thick it is hard to walk around.
We moved the cows to a new row. Some of the cows had more flies than I’d like to see, but many were doing just fine.
Some days I go to the field and I’ll see 2 or 3 rabbits. They are everywhere.
That evening I moved them and setup a back fence for fear that the neighbor’s bull might jump the fence and get to them.
I also restocked their minerals.
Friday May 24th was warm but humid.
The manure patties started to pile up, probably due to the minerals. Lack of minerals can cause the manure to be runny.
If their manure patties piles up much higher, I’ll give them protein supplement in the form of cottonseed meal. It’s a cheap source of protein due to the cotton being raised in our area.
It might be time to move the cows back to the beginning of the field, but the sheep were just there. I’ll give it a few weeks and then we’ll restart the rotation. I might have to advance the sheep a bit before moving the cows to keep some space between the bulls and the cows.
Saturday May 26th was not a good day for me. I started coughing up gunk on Friday, and then my asthma decided to show itself. I decided to push myself through it, so if it sounds like I am wheezing and out of breath it is because I am!
The mother ewe of the new lamb has some issues on her right front hoof. It looks like she is overgrown in the hoof and needs a good trim.
I started thinking about banding the ram lambs. My goat friend said he doesn’t band his billies until they are about 4 months old. I might do the same.
I’ve been thinking deeply about how to market or sell the animals I raise. It is not my forte and I’d prefer to pay someone to do it for me.
I would much rather do direct sales, but that’s not easy to do.
I’m also thinking about the 50 new ewe lambs I bought that will be delivered on June 3rd. I am going to keep the penned up and get them accustomed to myself and my farm, and then gradually allow the sheep to introduce themselves to each other. I’ll probably bring Bailey in early as well.
The ground is super muddy because of the constant rain.
Ben at Grazing365 is pretty certain that you have to put lots of pressure on the grass and the weeds otherwise the weeds will take over.
I’m taking a different approach. I’m trying to graze to grow grass. If the weeds grow as well, I don’t mind it at all.
I am doing multi-species grazing which will put pressure on different weeds based on their preferences.
If I keep the grass long, the goatweed (wooly croton) shouldn’t grow well. That said, I don’t think the goatweed is hurting my operation, and in fact helping the grass to grow higher than it otherwise would.
That evening it was plain humid!
We setup a new row for Sunday morning’s move.
I don’t use insecticides because I want the other insects to thrive. There are insects that prey on the fly or the fly larva, and insects that work to help the soil digest the manure patties.
The flies aren’t really that bad so I’m not too concerned.
My fly control method is primarily getting the right genetics. The cows should be oily and slick.
I also rotate the cows, which helps to move the cows away from the newly hatched flies. I could do skip grazing to put more distance between the flies and the cows.
Beyond that, the only options I have are to bring in animals that prey on the flies. Greg Judy relies on a certain kind of bird that can eat thousands of flies every day. The dung beetles I have dry out the patties, killing the larva. I also have golden dung flies, that prey on the horn flies.
There are some areas where the summer grass is overtaking the spring grass.
I think I might have big bluestem. It’s a grass that is appearing everywhere that I am not familiar with. I don’t think I can identify it yet as it is just a few long leaves. I want to make sure that the cows do not take two bites as it can kill the big bluestem and other native grasses.
#10’s belly is beautiful, extending almost to the ground. The cows need to be stuffed with grass at all times to optimize growth and weight gain. That’s how cows get their nutrition, from fermenting grass in their 4 stomachs.
Sunday May 26th opened with a windy storm that rolled through in the early hours of dawn. There were some branches and trees knocked down along the road I use to get to the field.
I moved the cows to a new row. I should’ve moved the sheep, at least in the evening, but I did not.
Austrian Winterpea is doing quite well in this area.
Greg Judy said he likes to move the cows at 1 pm. But that is the hottest time of day so it isn’t always ideal for the farmer. Maybe once a day moves at 1 pm?
You can see what the cows did to the area around the minerals and the water.
I also noticed that the grass where the wire was is taller than the surrounding area. That means the cows are not grazing under the wire at all.
I heard the story of #21. She broke out of her area at the new place, crossed 3 fences, and let the neighbor’s cows into his alfalfa field. The farmer offered to buy the cow but the vet said she is not viable due to something being too small on the inside. So my friend had her butchered. She weighed 1500 lbs, but the meat was very lean. He is happy, because he wants to jerk the meat.
It took a wrangler 5 hours to get the cow on the trailer. He said the cow almost killed his horse!
Let’s remember that the hotwires are purely psychological. The cows avoid them because they don’t want to get zapped. The cows would probably almost starve rather than cross the hotwire, but if they go a day without water they will absolutely cross the wire.
There is a period of time when grass is ideal for grazing and putting weight on the cow. I am not doing this right now, but I need to learn how to do it. Feed makes it easy to get the cows packing on the pounds, but grass requires some planning and foresight.
The warm season grasses just don’t do as well as ryegrass for putting pounds on the cattle. I think part of this is because people just overgraze it. Give the warm season grasses plenty of rest, and graze it ideally, and it should be almost as good as ryegrass.
Springtime is the one time of the year when my cows and calves can put on serious gains. I need to make sure they get plenty of forage. Summer is more about maintaining weights.