Blessedfarmgirl's Journal

[Baymule]

It’s dry here too. With some rain, the winter grass would grow, but no rain. I have a 50# sack of rye grass seed, but no use scattering it with no rain.
East Texas Seed Company is in Tyler, we bought lots of seed there. I sowed Kentucky 32, non endophyte fescue and the sheep loved it. Also sowed white ball clover, both reseeded and came back. You might want to check it out for winter grasses.
Here I have a type of brome, it gets about a foot tall and goes to seed in late spring. But no rain!

Your sheep are looking good.

 

[SageHill]

Your grazing season is ending and mine is about to begin (once we get some of our fall rain). Too funny - my sheep get mad and hunger strike (as much as they can, because well they are sheep) when I put them in a dry brown pasture.

 

[blessedfarmgirl]

Wonderful behavior on your dogs' part! Your dogs charging without making a sound is normal for livestock guardian dogs. The other dogs were charging at you and were a danger. Your dogs knew that and responded approriately. LGDs don't bother barking when attacking a predator. Why bother barking? Barking is to set boundries. Since the predators had already crossed the boundary and were about to attack you, they were prepared to just attack and kill them. If the neighbor's dogs had not retreated onto their own property, your dogs would have tried their best to kill them.

Great behavior on their parts, and the recall was wonderful.

Thank you for explaining all that! I was thinking that, but it makes sense why they wouldn't bark.

It’s dry here too. With some rain, the winter grass would grow, but no rain. I have a 50# sack of rye grass seed, but no use scattering it with no rain.
East Texas Seed Company is in Tyler, we bought lots of seed there. I sowed Kentucky 32, non endophyte fescue and the sheep loved it. Also sowed white ball clover, both reseeded and came back. You might want to check it out for winter grasses.
Here I have a type of brome, it gets about a foot tall and goes to seed in late spring. But no rain!

Your sheep are looking good.

I don't know if we'll do winter grass this year, but that's a good idea! I planted one of our pastures with clover last year, and we do have one big perennial rye pasture that I use every spring before the summer grass comes in. I might be planting a couple more areas with rye in February or so. I didn't know fescue was a winter grass.

Your grazing season is ending and mine is about to begin (once we get some of our fall rain). Too funny - my sheep get mad and hunger strike (as much as they can, because well they are sheep) when I put them in a dry brown pasture.

Mine don't necessarily hunger strike, but they do yell. A lot. But then when I leave they go back to eating the dry grass. They are so dramatic, one would think I starve them.

 

[Baymule]

If you plant fescue, make sure it is non endophyte. There are several new varieties that you might look into.

 

[blessedfarmgirl]

Well, it happened! I brought home my first mini Nubian yesterday! I am so in love with her already. She is the sweetest, chillest goat ever. The breeder is exceptional, she takes amazing care of her goats and it shows! So much better then my last experience with a breeder. Willow is bred and due in February with Gen 3 mini Nubian kids. She should be a great producer, her dam is a gallon-a-day girl with great extended lactation capabilities.

As you can see, she's a fair bit taller then my Nigerians. They are kind of intimidated by her size. Normally there is a lot of headbutts and body slamming when a new doe comes and she is terrorized for about a week. Not so with this lady! The other does are all a bit scared of her stature and are ignoring her.

Anyways, I think I've been bit by the Nubian bug.

 

[Youngfarmer2019]

Well, it happened! I brought home my first mini Nubian yesterday! I am so in love with her already. She is the sweetest, chillest goat ever. The breeder is exceptional, she takes amazing care of her goats and it shows! So much better then my last experience with a breeder. Willow is bred and due in February with Gen 3 mini Nubian kids. She should be a great producer, her dam is a gallon-a-day girl with great extended lactation capabilities.

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As you can see, she's a fair bit taller then my Nigerians. They are kind of intimidated by her size. Normally there is a lot of headbutts and body slamming when a new doe comes and she is terrorized for about a week. Not so with this lady! The other does are all a bit scared of her stature and are ignoring her.

Anyways, I think I've been bit by the Nubian bug.

Oooo I switched from nigies to Nubians over a year ago and I will NEVER turn back

 

[blessedfarmgirl]

Oooo I switched from nigies to Nubians over a year ago and I will NEVER turn back

I know!! And now I'm starting to see why. But I still love my nigies, I'm not to that point yet. I think the mini Nubians are the best of both worlds.

 

[Baymule]

She is very pretty!

 

[blessedfarmgirl]

Well, I thought I was done buying animals for the year, but apparently I wasn't. As some of you know, I bought a really nice ram lamb from Baymule this past summer, and planned to use him this fall. However, due to his rough start, (not his genetics) he wasn't doing well. I penned him and fed him extra for about 6 weeks, and he was doing a lot better, but he still isn't to where I want him. About a week ago, a really nice ram came available at a farm near me, and after some thought I decided to get him. Lambs-a-lot could probably have done the job, but I didn't feel very good about putting an under weight ram lamb on 10 ewes. Rams tend to lose a bit of weight during breeding season, and he doesn't have any to lose. So my plan is to grow Lambs-a-lot out and use him next year! I think that will be a lot better for him and for me. So, without any further ado, please meet Hunk. Well, that's not his official name but he is 200 pounds at less than 2 years old. He reached 100 pounds at 4 months! He will be fully registered after he passes his hair coat inspection. He is originally from a farm in Pennsylvania.

He bred his first ewe not five minutes after arriving, and he proceeded to breed 2 more while we watched. I think I'll be swamped with lambs in late March.

The face of happiness.

 

[Baymule]

He’s a big ol’ Hunk of love! Nice ram, sounds like a great buy.