Farming in the shade

Our sheep and cattle are often pastured beyond the reach of a hose. This requires us to haul water to them on a regular basis, and in the case of our cattle herd, we've had to haul water four or five times a day to keep up with their consumption. We've been using our trusty Gator with four 15-gallon water tanks. It takes quite a bit of time to keep up with the demand for water this way, and means that someone always has to be around the farm, hauling water every 2-4 hours. The Farmer wondered about getting larger tanks and doing the water runs less often. We found a few 330-gallon tanks for sale on Craigslist, and set a couple of them on a seldom-used hay wagon. We fitted them with special valves to which we could attach a garden hose. Now we fill two large tanks (each takes 50 minutes to fill) and haul water once every three days or so. The hose is attached to a standard waterer with a float (to prevent overfilling). The water is gravity-fed from the storage tanks, a...

Spring is here, finally. For a few days we skipped over spring and headed straight for summer. But now we are safely back in spring. The barn is overfull of sheep. The cows are nibbling the sacrifice pasture they've wintered in to death. (A sacrifice pasture is one that will be tilled up and planted to something else, so you don't really care that it gets overgrazed and ruined.) Speaking of ruined, we like to give the pastures a head-start on the animals. Spring growth is phenomenal, but the pastures have to be to a certain stage before you turn the animals loose on them, or they will be stunted for the season.  This pasture is not ready yet.  This pasture is getting close. We will let the sheep out this Friday, April 29, at 4:30 pm. If you'd like to stop out and watch this annual rite of spring, feel free to come. We are at 13275 Blair Street in Holland, Michigan.

During the summer we intensively rotationally graze our sheep and cattle. The sheep are moved to fresh pasture daily, while the cattle get new grass every three days or so.  In the pastures where we can reach a water source using up to eight 100' lengths of hose, we spend a lot of time dragging hoses along as we move the sheep. But in the furtherest pastures, we need to bring water in tanks. On hot days, we bring fresh water several times a day.  Our trusty little John Deere Gator helps us with the hauling of three tanks of water which we use to fill three tubs. I think this ewe is ready for a drink. It's usually a peaceful job, and very gratifying. The sheep need us to care for their needs, and obviously appreciate the fresh grass and water we provide. A shepherd boy described a similar relationship in verse one of Psalm 23: "The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need."

The sheep have been out on pasture for nearly three weeks now. We have seen the absolutely amazing spring pasture growth spurt that surprises us each year. Such fertility and abundance! Here, I'll show you. Before turning any animals into a pasture, it looks like this. After turning animals into a pasture (the sheep graze each pasture for one day), it looks like this. Still a lot left, allowing the plants to bounce back more easily from the grazing. And this is another pasture that was also grazed for one day, but it was before the rapid spring growth kicked in. This pasture will take a bit longer to recover. We've tried hard to keep the animals moving this first three weeks, having heard that it's best to hit everything once in those first three weeks. We haven't managed to accomplish that, despite our move-them-every-day plan. Managed grazing is both art and science, and there are so many variables that we are always learning something new.

Since we put the sheep out to pasture about a week ago, we've moved them four times. Our rotational grazing guru is going to be away for the summer, and so I will have to be the sheep mover. I got a lesson a couple of days ago. Around the whole big pasture is a permanent perimeter fence. We subdivide the large pasture into many smaller pastures by putting up temporary fence. First, we made a dent in the pasture by driving a straight-ish line from one permanent fence to another. This dent is where we set up the temporary fence. We laid each of the fence sections out on the ground. It took four sections of fence and a gate to reach across the pasture to subdivide it. After laying each section out, we stuck the poles of the fence in the ground. The temporary fence was very easy to set up because the ground was so soft. After all the sections were set up, we electrified it. Can't have the little buggers getting out. And then we opened the fence between the ol...

Last summer we bought a used mower deck. The kind that you can mount on the back of the tractor, and make some serious time as you are mowing down the leftovers in a pasture that has just been vacated by animals. It's a good practice, but one that has been hard for us with just a small brush hog .  Well, as with most equipment that we (can afford to) buy, it was Well-Used. Very broken in. Like more rust than steel, if you know what I mean. The bones of the piece are still good. But the rest of it needed a lot of work.  Elbow grease (and small machine, bearing and sheet metal shops) to the rescue. We are stimulating our local economy in small doses. The parts are ordered and the rusty bits have been scraped off. We are getting close.

When I blogged yesterday about what to do with the dwindling feed problem, I didn't tell you that we'd already made a plan and carried it out. I wanted to see what others would have decided, though I realize I didn't give all the information. Things I left out included lack of money and the fact that we are still lambing. The first year we had sheep we had the ewes giving birth out in the pasture, and it Did Not Go Well. Since that time we've chosen to lamb inside, where conditions are much more controlled. Anyway, this past weekend it was apparent that we had a dire situation on our hands. Denial of the situation was not working; something needed to be done, and it needed to be done right then. But of course we had these cows in the way. So the first order of business was to sort the calves from their mothers, and remove the bull from the group. Enter the sorting chute we recently purchased (which probably has something to do with our cash flow problem). We spen...

Earlier this year we planted radishes and oats together as a cover crop. We thought we might be able to use some of these plantings as fall pasture. And we've done just that. Here is what the plantings look like after the cows have been through and eaten all the oats. The sheep are in this field now, and we are hoping that sheep like radishes better than the cows did. Apparently they do. The foreground in this photo shows the "after" shot. And this is "after", up close. While I was out taking photos, I noticed two sheep that had gone THROUGH the temporary electric fence. Can you see the fence laying down behind them? I can't say that the grass was greener on this side. Must be they needed a little "alone" time, as I noticed one of the escapees was the ram. Mmm-hmmm. I'm on to you.

Last week The Farmer and I spent an evening walking the perimeter of one of the pastures to see to the fences. A lot of grass and weeds had grown up around the bottom wire of the fence. Some of the insulators had come loose or broken. Here The Farmer is replacing an insulator. He'll hook the wire back into the new insulator after it's firmly attached to the steel t-post. The plastic insulators keep the t-posts from being an instant ground for the electric fence. One afternoon this week, we flipped the switch to turn the fence on, and tested to see the strength of the electricity flowing through the wires. You might be wondering if the fence hurts the sheep, and the answer is: Only if they touch it. They learn to stay away from it when it's working well. When it's not working well, we chase sheep. We set up some temporary fence (also electrified) leading out to the field that had corn in it last year. The pasture grass has been slow to grow this cold, wet spring. There i...

After days of preparation, everything was ready. The food was prepped, the tents were up, the grill was lit. Looks like a party, doesn't it? Well, when we farmers do continuing ed, it has to include food. This is actually a pasture walk/grazing seminar. These are held regularly in our area, and give farmers who are currently (or just thinking about) raising livestock on pasture a chance to see someone else's set-up. The presenters arrived at 4:00 for a farm tour and dress rehearsal. Supper was at 5:00. We made sure to tell folks after they'd enjoyed their grilled brat that they'd just eaten lamb. Is that wicked? Then it was time for the show. Several folks spoke on different aspects of grazing and managing livestock on forage. I had to leave for an evening meeting, so missed all the good stuff (except for the lamb brats, of course). Representatives from Bio-Systems, NRCS, the local Conservation District, MSU, MSUE and MAEAP were there, with take-home goodies availabl...