1. This is probably the best description of what life on a farm is like.
2. Grass is on the offensive and we're losing - the areas that were completely grazed down 2 weeks ago look like a sheep has never set a hoof on them. If the grass grew like this year around, we could feed 150- 200 sheep just on grass, easily (although worms would be a big problem then, not to mention soil compaction and a few other things). Since February we've grazed every pasture except Lake East, DSP and White House area (going there day after tomorrow and will be spending the nights there too). About 1/6 of the hay from the last year is still here.
3. Alchi, Alexa and Anthony got CD-T booster shots 6/15/09.
4. Right now would be a perfect time to cut hay (would be because the starter on my mower decided to die). To be fair to poor thing though there were warning signs for a couple of months, which I kinda ignored with very predictable results. In my defense, I was going to trade the mower for a nice little Kubota, and in these cases fixing things never pays off really.
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2 comments:
You know, all that talk about sheep made me go off the deep end, Leon. :) Since I find myself seriously considering venturing into the world of grass here, I am reading with different eyes.
#2 - how frequently do you rotate your sheep? Are the worm eggs stubborn enough to stick around a long time (like with hogs/humans)?
#4 - bummer, such are mechanical things. Cars always seem do that to me. I hang onto them one day too long. :)
Ron
That's a good thing though - sheep are perfect homestead animals. I've read an article where they had like 50 arguments for that but many are pretty obvious if you think about that. You'd have a very well rounded homestead if you added sheep - the full cycle. By the way, depending on what grows in your forest, you may be able to start sheep even before your forest is cleared - sheep don't mind grazing in the forest at all (they may kill it in the process but you want to clear it anyway, so ... ). Check for the poisonous plants first though - the sheep usually know what not to eat but some are not that smart.
#2 - depends on the grass, layout, etc. but they never stay in one place longer than 5 days (with all you MIG reading, I'm sure you know why :) The worms can last for years in dark moist areas but many die in a few hours if it's dry and sunny. Another benefit of MIG - the grass left so short, there is very little shade and moist. There are always some worms - that's fine as long as the sheep are not overloaded. We don't re-use a pasture for at least 4 months and so far the worms are not a problem even though (or maybe - because) we only worm twice a year and will try to reduce it even more this year. And when I finally have time to build a mobile chicken coop, the chickens will follow a week or so behind and hopefully eat most of larvae. Also, it's fine to cut the grass with worms for hay - they won't hatch on hay and most of the eggs will die during the storage. So, you can "cheat" and use a pasture every 2 months, even though the sheep are on it every 4.
#4 - yep, but at least they can be fixed most of the time. To bad animals (and people) are not like that :)
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