Teresa & Mike CHS - Our journal

[Baymule]

Do you take the sheep off the pasture when you spray it?

That's nice about being able to keep the windows up and the shop cooler now.

 

[Mike CHS]

I open up the paddock next to the one they are in but the nitrogen doesn't bother them. I also cut several bags of grass during the day so they get plenty to eat.

If I was doing it for the grass I would take them off but I'm doing it to kill parasites so it's a toss.

 

[Baymule]

A friend's horse grazed her yard right after her Dad spread fertilizer on it. The horse died. It made me gun shy on letting any animal on a fertilized area. The nitrogen doesn't affect the lambs?

 

[Mike CHS]

What I use is Haymaker which isn't a concentrate and I don't apply it heavily. I have sprayed it when they wander around the tractor a couple of times and it isn't a problem. ]

Teresa said "Hi" by the way.

 

[Baymule]

Give her a big hug, say Howdy and tell her it's from me. LOL

 

[CntryBoy777]

Do ya treat the neighbors area that ya cut grass from?....just thought about "transfer", if ya don't....just my curiosity....

 

[Mike CHS]

Do ya treat the neighbors area that ya cut grass from?....just thought about "transfer", if ya don't....just my curiosity....

I did spray their pasture with 2-4-D but not the nitrogen. Since they moved in the deer seem to have found another place to lounge around in as they have 5 well mannered dogs but deer don't know about manners.

 

[Mike CHS]

The storms that came through early this morning brought down a couple of trees and bent one over so much that I had to cut it to get through to the others. One of the branches came down on the fence but a couple of large branches hit vertically both inside and outside the fence and held up the rest so the only damage was to a hot wire insulator and some minor bending of the woven wire. We worked on cutting them up for about an hour and a half and the sky opened up with heavy rain so it will bet finished later. The one tree that is left blocks the land on the perimeter but I have other ways to get around.

 

[greybeard]

What I use is Haymaker which isn't a concentrate and I don't apply it heavily. I have sprayed it when they wander around the tractor a couple of times and it isn't a problem.

A friend's horse grazed her yard right after her Dad spread fertilizer on it. The horse died. It made me gun shy on letting any animal on a fertilized area. The nitrogen doesn't affect the lambs?

Horses are generally less suseptible to the effects of fertilize than ruminants, but it can still happen.
It's a form of nitrate toxicity..actually nitrite/ammonia poisoning. In ruminants most of it takes place in the rumen, but with equines it also happens in the hindgut.

The normal process for non problematic forage conversion is as follows:

Nitrate (NO3) —-> Nitrite (NO2) —-> Ammonia (NH3) —-> Amino Acid —-> Protein
The nitrates (nitrogen) in the fertilize are converted to nitrites, which then is converted to ammonia, and then to amino acids and to protein.

If high levels of nitrogen is in the water, forage or hay, an imbalance occurs.
Nitrates can be (and always are) converted to nitrites faster than nitrites can be converted to ammonia. Thus, a high level of nitrites occur leading to nitrites being absorbed directly into the bloodstream, and those nitrites change hemoglobin into methemaglobin, which does not have the ability to transport oxygen. The animal basically suffocates, and it can happen very quickly.

You can graze pastures right after fertilizing, but you MUST know how much N you are applying per acre and how much is a safe level. It varies with different animals and the calculation for safe application and consumption is fairly complex.
One aspect that always has to be adhered to is to increase grain intake anytime nitrate levels are increased in the case of non-ruminants especially.
You can do the research to determine what is safe, but just know that nitrite toxicity is a very real risk when fertilizing.
Otherwise, the rule of thumb is to always wait until a few days after fertilizing AND a couple days AFTER rain has fallen on the fertilized forages/pastures.

The Haymaker I looked at a couple years ago was a concentrate and recommended mixing rate was 1 gal Haymaker/50 gal water per acre.
It was not cost effective for me.

 

[Bruce]

Mike, I don't know if you've seen this but thought you might be interested - 2016 Katahdin show with judge comments. 1H 17M so get a cup of something before you start watching

Full disclosure: I didn't watch a lot of it since I have no sheep, it was posted on another forum I follow.