Join us March 24, 2012 for our Second Annual Spring Celebration, celebrating all of our new lambs!

Follow us on Facebook for more details.

-a+s

This is lambing season and it is a time of year when I get to take as much time watching the sheep as I would like.  I look for subtle changes in their behavior that hint at an eminent birth.  This time of the year also means I don’t go very far or very long from the farm.  Although I can spot a ewe in labor most of the time, some of them are pretty good at hiding it.  We tend to have most of our lambs about fourteen to twenty-one days into lambing season we tend to have a few early birds.  The early birds tend to be first time moms so we have to keep an eye on them to make sure they get through okay.

Pay attention to our facebook page for photos of the new lambs.

-Shaun

They’ve had their eye on it for six months now.  Every time they passed by, they looked longingly at the abundant native pasture and sheltering woods.  Deep down, instinctively, they know it is their home.  At least is should be.  After all, their ancestors came from land like that.

Our flock of Gulf Coast ewes were ready to cross the river and finally graze the only part of our property they’ve never been to.  The South-West corner of our property, some six acres is cut off by shallow Lavaca River.  Because of the ravine it rests in it is nearly impossible to reach it with equipment.  Any ambitions of improving this area by previous owners of this land would have been extinguished by this fact.  The result is a native savannah and woods.  It’s about as close as we can get on our property to the piney woods forest the Gulf Coast sheep were supported by for so many years.

Gulf Coast Sheep were free-grazed in the piney woods of the Gulf Coast for centuries.  They fended for themselves with little human intervention.  That is the Culture that has been lost, nearly taking this breed of sheep with it.  It has been been our goal to recreate as many of the components of that as we could on our limited land.  We move the sheep daily.  We let them graze native pastures, trees, weedy patches to ensure we don’t breed out the ability they have to forage and thrive in less than ideal pastures.  Our biggest dream is to create a savannah over the rest of our property.  This will take time, but it’s a goal worth pursuing.

Until then, our sheep will be limited to their “vacations” in the woods.

Cool season grasses survive frosts, so our sheep always have something green to eat.

We do grow a lot of food for sheep.  Most of it is very freeze resistant this time of year, however we do see some transformations from living forage to “stock-piled” forage.  Even though a frost may knock back some grasses, the leaves dry and remain for future grazing.

Warm season grasses begin to slumber for the winter, their dried leaves will provide sustenance for our flock through the winter.

Life is present even in dead or dormant plants.  Life is present in the frost that halts the over growth of certain weeds, and life is definitely present in the coolness that alerts winter plants to grow.  We are constantly amazed at all the miracles of farming.

-a+s

Not only is Iris the "Leader" she is also the spokesperson for the ewes.

Although Iris get’s the sheep moving she is not the boss-lady.  That roll seems to fall on Nancy these days.  The boss-lady tends to be one of the oldest and most experienced ewes.  She tends to hang out in the middle of the flock except when she is butting yearling lambs around when they get out of line.  She also decides when new ewes can gain full membership of the flock.  Until that time, new ewes hang out in a group at the fringes of the flock.

Nancy is hard to photograph. She is in the center of this photo, giving a very serious stare-down.

With the rams, which are kept seperate from the ewes we notice an even stranger social behavior.  Sheep actually seem to be biased against sheep of different colors.  In our ram flock we have two boys that are always pushed away from the rest, and yes they are black sheep.

That is the flock social dynamic in a nutshell.  They are very interesting people.

It’s with these considerations that we made the decision to purchase some irrigation equipment and irrigate a few acres of our pasture.  We came to the understanding that in order to be profitable we need to keep our flock of sheep growing, and on a year with norman rainfall that is possible.  However these drought years limit the amount of forage we can produce.  One option is to limit the flock size, that means no growth.  Our flock size is a bit flexible because we harvest lambs over the winter, but in a drought year that still doesn’t cover the forage deficit.  Another option is to bring in hay.  Since we feed only forage hay is the most economical option for supplemental feed, but we would be shelling out $120 a week to feed.  So, we could grow the flock, but not grow the profit.  Not to mention the risk of bringing in feed from another farm with a whole new variety of weed seeds, funguses and most of the time herbicides.   Irrigation is the option we chose.  We will grow our own forage on the farm, and the sheep will harvest it.  Not only will irrigation boost the grass growth to create stockpiled forages, but we can also broadcast oat, clover and turnip seed in other areas to create some great cool season nutrition.

Some might argue that irrigating pasture is not sustainable, but we don’t agree, as long as it is done responsibly.  We are using a K-line pod irrigation system that rains down slowly so the water can soak in and not run off.  We also water early in the morning to minimize evaporation.  Besides, many hay sources for our area irrigate, fertilize and spray herbicide in the hay fields.  Then they use diesel powered tractors to harvest it and diesel trucks to move it.

What is sustainable, making some much needed rain land on our pastures and doing what we have a passion for or trucking in hay and going out of business?

-a+s

That day I had noticed some slight discomfort in my stomach, but I didn’t think much of it.  That was until we were about halfway home from the event.  We couldn’t pull the car over fast enough, before my stomach made a very impolite turn for the worst.  ”Oh well,” I thought, “I’ve got a little stomach bug, but I’ll be fine in the morning.  I just need to sleep it off.”  About 2am it was time for round two.  I guess Amy felt a little left out so she joined in the fun.  It was about that time I realized this was going to be a big problem.

There are no sick days on a farm.  You have to figure out what you can accomplish in whatever state you are in to make sure the animals’ or vegetables’ basic needs are met.  The sheep lucked out.  Monday morning they got a whole lot of their favorite food, Alfalfa.  I mustered up the strength to do their daily rotation that afternoon, but I had to sit down in the shade every fifteen minutes or so.  There was little disruption to the chickens because they tend to be less labor intensive on a day to day basis.  Night fell.  A the water line going into our house burst at the water filter so I had to Macgyver it back together until I could make it into town for the proper parts the next day.  Fevers raced up and down.  Neither of us could really eat much all day, but we went to sleep hopeful that the next day would be better.

Tuesday morning I was completely wiped out and had no energy.  I was able to eat a little bit more, but it was still a struggle.  Today the ewes would only get alfalfa.  A move was out of the question until I stomach a decent meal.  Bit by bit we got more food and fluids down.  Almost exactly 48 hours after my stomach got rude something happened.  Like someone flipped a switch my stomach was better.

Today is a good day.  While Amy and I are still exhausted and just now getting our energy back, we were able to get our day to day chores done.  There is still some catching up to do, but we are going to make it.

It is very rare that we are both sick.  And I’ve only been so sick that I couldn’t do my farm work once before.  So for us both to be out of commission took some serious will power to get things done.  I am definitely going to write this into our emergency plan, so next time maybe we can rest a little bit more.

-Shaun

-a+s