My Sheep Journal~ I'm a grandma! Black Betty had twins!!!

[aggieterpkatie]

I've been using small paddocks to rotate my sheep/goats. I find that when I make the paddock too large they tend to overgraze one area and leave the other. If I make it smaller, they're really forced to eat the entire area more evenly. It's working really well for me using just 1 strand of electric tape to keep them in. The ram lamb has been getting out, but he sticks right by the paddock, so it's not a big deal to me.

I've been mowing after the sheep leave an area so I can even it out and knock down anything they didn't eat. So far we're having a hard time keeping up with the grass!

 

[Beekissed]

Aggie, I've noticed the same thing...and we mowed down the left overs today. I really feel that I need at least four sheep to keep up with the grass here...but then I get to thinking, what about in the dry season? Will there be enough?

Then I remember that those 3 girls will have 2-3 lambs each and those lambs have to finish off on grass also, so next spring I may not have enough grass for 9-10 sheep!

I guess a person will never know until they try it out, huh? I just don't want to get an extra ewe and find out the one will have to go.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Aggie, I've noticed the same thing...and we mowed down the left overs today. I really feel that I need at least four sheep to keep up with the grass here...but then I get to thinking, what about in the dry season? Will there be enough?

Then I remember that those 3 girls will have 2-3 lambs each and those lambs have to finish off on grass also, so next spring I may not have enough grass for 9-10 sheep!

I guess a person will never know until they try it out, huh? I just don't want to get an extra ewe and find out the one will have to go.

Yeah, you always want to base your stocking numbers on the amount of pasture available in the middle of the summer when its' hot and droughty and slow growing. It's better to have too much grass in the spring than not enough in the summer!

 

[goodhors]

Well following your year in sheep has been interesting! Could not stop reading all the postings! Thank you for the helpful links.

The vinegar one is extremely thought provoking, might give it a try. I certainly will share it with the 4-H Leader, she likes to hear about simple methods that work. The writer is also in MI, so could be equally helpful to us here.

We do a couple purchased market lambs for 4-H each year, no lambing of our own. I try to keep it as natural as possible, though they come vaccinated. They are pastured daily, get some supplemental lamb feed pellets with cracked corn and oats, as their grain. They are funny to watch, seem to really enjoy themselves outside. Still do very well gaining enough to be a good market weight for fair, usually 130-140 pounds. Judges don't like them heavy, and since daughter walks them daily, the weight is not only fat. Judges want a muscular sheep, do the hands-on feel when evaluating the animals. All sheep in MI must be scapies tagged, since we had a scapies herd imported a few years ago. The scapies animals were all put down, but now the laws are in effect, so tagging is done by the breeders.

Our lambs are Suffolks, which we really have had no problems with while we own them. Can't win the market classes with sheep that are not black legged/faced, white wooled. We had crossbred sheep, Dorset/mixed, with one snow white, the other coal black our first year in 4-H. Judge said Daughter did a good job showing with her 4th, but he just HATED wrinkly sheep because they are hard to judge, and lambs run small in weight compared to desired 130 pound average market lamb.

We knew the crosses would be small, they are as big as they will get at 100-110 pounds, after that is all fat gain. Daughter was also small, so they were just fine for her. She didn't get upset, we had warned her about "color" bias before the Fair. Judge took the time to compliment HER on showing skills. She still got $2 the pound for lambs at the auction! However we have gotten the "acceptable" breeds and look for her market lambs since then.

Just a couple questions after reading your experiences. Have you gotten the fecals done, to see how your sheep are doing with any worm load?

Second was to ask if you had yet done the grass overseeding? From personal experience with my horses, fescues are not good for animals carrying babies. Reading the grass and forage page on sheep, clover causes bloat, and sheep can have the fescue problems but not like horses and cattle do.

I do some seeding in my horse pastures, but not really volume overseeding anymore. I score the ground with a small disc to create cuts to get packed dirt open to the air, have places for seed to fall into and better take root. I take the "more work" method and use a drop seeder set for light seeding, and walk the areas that need improvement. After seeding I may put straw over the seed on bare spots or drag the grassy areas with my chain harrow, closing up the dirt cuts and covering seed from the birds.

I use what is sold as a horse pasture mix here, contains no fescues, small amounts of clover, no alsike (red) clover. We have a foal now and again, so I want very little chance of fescue problems to occur in my pasture and paddocks. Even the endophyte-free fescues seldom stay that way long, with cross pollination from other folks fields and lawns. This mix runs about $50 for 25 pounds, cheaper than the Mare and Foal mix grass seed of $90 for 25 pounds! Grass seed is like gold dust to me, so I want excellent stuff at prices I can afford, good germination rates. In my Master Garden class, we were STRONGLY advised to buy our grass seed locally, it is developed for OUR area soils and temps. Buying brand names perfected for other locales may be wasting our money on seeds that won't do well here.

You have to read seed bag labels, to know EXACTLY what you are getting in a bag. Cheap seed usually is filled with cheap fescues and annual grasses. Michigan State is huge on grass development in the Ag Dept, so the speaker was really good from lawns to pastures, how best to get them looking and working for us in the class.

You may already know all this, but just touching on it in case you haven't had the time to study up on grasses yet. I got my pasture seed from the local Elevator, who offers great quality seed in various mixes. He got the seed to the elevator for me within a day. I was in despair after reading labels at the TSC store and box store Garden departments. ALL seeds available were full of fescue and annual grass seed, NOT what I wanted to plant and not that cheap either!

We spread bedding from the horses on the pastures daily. We usually use a sawdust or wood fiber bedding, which takes some time to break down. I do use commercial fertilizers, and in talking to the fertilizer guy about my soil samples, he said I would need extra lime to allow the soil nitrogen to "free" itself for use by the plants. Test said I had plenty of nitrogen in the soil, wood does not "use it up" but does use nitrogen to break down and returns the nitrogen to the soil. So without my soil test, we would not know this. Soil test will tell you EXACTLY what your soil needs in minerals to allow the best growth of my "crop" which is pasture grasses. Lime evidently is real helpful in many aspects to plants and trapped minerals in the soil with manure like mine spread on them. I find the wood materials to be helpful in adding slow-to-breakdown organic material, so the grass plant roots are mulched for protection from sunburn, erosion in our downpours, keeps the soil moist during the summer dry spells. My pastures look and graze the best they ever have, between the spreading and mowing often to keep things growing. I keep thinking "giant lawn" and those methods work for us. We graze rather intensively with the horses, rotating pastures, no hay needed in summer. So I need the grass producing as well as possible from May to late October when we get the freezing weather.

We have two lambs for this summer. They are getting more friendly with leading them outside daily to graze. Each has a bell, helps the horses know where they are all the time. The one horse HATES surprises, so bell has made him happy. Lambs are in a paddock with the two cattle. All split hoof animals seem happy together, except when the steer licks the lambs, then they run away.

We hope to wash and shear the lambs tomorrow, finally warm enough with upper 60s. Daughter has learned to do shearing herself, does a good job on the sheep stand. Ours never read that book about sitting quietly, ALWAYS fight. Stand is much easier. The black lamb will turn white losing his outer layer. We will shear about monthly, meat lambs gain faster in very short wool when it is hot.

I save the trimmed wool (over an inch long) for pillow stuffing. Meat wool is pretty coarse, but makes great stuffing after running it thru the washer in pillow cases. Actually I wash the wool, two or three pillow cases full, loose packed, to balance in the top load machine. I use HOT water to remove lanolin and smell. Usually use Tide soap, wash twice in hot, rinse an extra time, then toss them in the dryer. This process creates little fluffy, felt wool balls with the short length of wool and drying. As pillow stuffing they stay VERY springy, are extremely comfortable to sleep on. And no sheep smell. I do rewash my pillows once or twice a year in the washer again, then dryer. Pillows stay soft and springy with this method. I use pretty ticking material for the casings, standard sizes, then pillow case over.

I tried being nice to my wool as described in your posts, was WAY too much work with scooping loose wool out, water changes. So went to the loosely packed pillow case method and washing machine cleaning. I am not a spinner or weaver, haven't tried making felt either. Just needed to find a place to use the wool. Have to say those Dorset crosses had the SOFTEST wool, made terrific pillows! Any family member who has rated a homemade pillow LOVES them.

Again, thanks for having this place to share information about sheep and lambies. They are funny. Sorry I got carried away with sharing so much!

 

[Beekissed]

No! It was great! That's why I started this thread, as the sheep people are far and few here...it is wonderful to exchange info on sheep with someone.

I've noticed that my girls won't touch fescue or clover in the spring and summer...have you noticed this with your sheep? They will, however, gorge themselves on it in the fall and go into winter very fat and glossy. I've read that the sugar content of these two forages changes after frost and cold weather and it becomes very sweet and nutritious for ruminants then. I have read about the fescues and the difficulty with pregnancy, but I can't really eliminate all the fescues I have already growing...heck, I'd have a bald place if I did that!

I did overseed but not much. Mostly I scattered pelleted lime here as the soils in this area are very calcium and phosphorus deficient.

I've always found it to be a mark of small town inexperience when these fair judges cannot judge individual breeds on their particular merits and so discourage heritage breeds and less popular breeds in farming.

I've also found that it goes in trends, particularly in cattle, not so much in sheep. When I was young, it was Char cattle, then Herefords, then Limousin, then back to Angus...have they no imagination? Are they unable to judge the individual breeds upon their own merits...like Highland cattle....have these judges studied up on what is show quality in this breed? Nope.

Sad to limit these kid's experience just because these judges cannot expand their repertoire. This has always made me irritated.

One year the kids experimented with New Zealand Red rabbits along with the NZ whites. Our reds were excellent quality but are a smidge smaller boned than the whites...excellent stock all the same. Unfortunately, if your rabbits are white, they don't win. Weird!

I haven't gotten a chance to get any fecals done or even to call my vet and price these tests. Too much happening here to get a chance to do these little things. I'm still curious though.

 

[Beekissed]

Took back the loaner ram today and brought home one of his daughters! She looks very much like him, so we named her Little Moe after her papa, Big Moe. Her full name is Little Moe Money...as in "this is what we really needed around here"!

She will lamb in the middle of June and this will be her first lambing. She is already bagging out and has a swollen vulva. She is very sweet and lets us pet her...I think she will be a lot like her sire and be friendly and bold.

Will post pics when I can. She is full blood Katahdin, bred to a Dorper ram. She is cream with red speckles on her face and legs.

Little Moe.....

 

[Beekissed]

Bought baby bottles today, just in case. If I have a triple...which is highly unlikely on a first lambing...I want to be prepared.

Also got some iodine for the umbilicals, as there are many bugs/flies right now. NOT the time I would have chosen for lambing but I didn't get a say in this one.

Removed ear tags today....I don't tag ewes that will stay here. My lambs to be sold won't need tags either, as the fellow that buys these lots of hair breed lambs sells them in large lots. Apparently he doesn't need tags for this endeavor in these parts.

I hate those heavy tags weighing down those soft ears....I know that sounds mushy but I didn't even pierce my own ears, can't imagine doing it to my lambs.

 

[Beekissed]

Mo is working out just fine and I find her less skittish than the Bettys, which I love! The Bettys are still wild as deer when it comes to being handled. This new girl is pert near bomb proof! My son ran the mower right next to her, which she had never experienced, and she just chewed her cud and watched him drive by....

She also will let me touch her just anywhere as long as she has food in front of her. She has some real pretty and soft wool and I'm willing to bet she is having twins or a really big single. She is waddling and she isn't due until mid-June.

If she has ewes, I will keep them to build my little herd. Can't wait for babies!

 

[Beekissed]

Here is the newest flock member to Sweetwater, along with the Bettys~who look a little scruffy as they are in mid-shed. Mo is the cream colored ewe on the left. She will not shed this year, as she is not quite a year old.

She is learning about herd life within a smaller herd where the pecking order is quite defined. She is adapting well and standing up for herself....and, like her father, is all about the FOOD! Mom had to run her out of the chicken coop this evening when she was trying to feed the chooks. That little sheeple learns quick!

 

[freemotion]

Lovely little flock! Soon to be bigger!