Katahdin hair sheep eating trees, grazing strong pasture, and making above average gains
The sheep have now completed the upper pasture at the homestead in 21 days. About a week longer than average, due to eating tree prunings and ideal weather. Just before the leaves change in autumn, I cut the limbs of the trees growing on the edges of the paddocks as the sheep grazed through the pasture. This provides a great supplement to their nutrition extending the time it takes to graze a paddock and adding to the diversity to thier diet.
This is the 5th and final time we plan to graze these pastures this season so I'm letting the sheep graze each paddock a little harder than usual. The paddock on the left is an example of what it looks like after grazing and on the right is where they moved on to.
Getting the extra day or two out of each paddock by the combination of the tree leaves and the extended grazing leads to more rest for the next paddock. Doing so seemed to compound the growth of the pasture this season
with ideal weather leading to a whole extra week of grazing on this pasture.
During the routine check up and weigh-in for the flock we found the sheep in excellent health with only a few needing wormer. The average weight of the lambs was 76lbs up 5lbs above the average at the same time last year of 71lbs. While the growth slowed down a bit from the last weigh-in the lambs are still on track to finish larger than last year.
The leaves on the trees had started to fall in the last paddock of the pasture but the grass ended up getting almost 50 days of rest. The paddock still supported the sheep for an additional day than usual with the strength of the grass alone. Now the sheep have moved on to the last pasture before taking lambs to butcher and separating the ewes into their breeding groups. Just a couple more weeks!
We have a couple lambs left for sale, feel free to DM if you're interested in adding a lamb to your freezer this winter. I am delivering to Grand Rapids, Chicago, and Milwaukee.
#homesteading #permaculture #permies #meshtadel #selfsovereignty #rotationalgrazing #sheep #lamb #silvopasture #regenag #regenerativeagriculture #pasturemanagement #grownostr
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The sheep have now completed the upper pasture at the homestead in 21 days. About a week longer than average, due to eating tree prunings and ideal weather. Just before the leaves change in autumn, I cut the limbs of the trees growing on the edges of the paddocks as the sheep grazed through the pasture. This provides a great supplement to their nutrition extending the time it takes to graze a paddock and adding to the diversity to thier diet.
This is the 5th and final time we plan to graze these pastures this season so I'm letting the sheep graze each paddock a little harder than usual. The paddock on the left is an example of what it looks like after grazing and on the right is where they moved on to.
Getting the extra day or two out of each paddock by the combination of the tree leaves and the extended grazing leads to more rest for the next paddock. Doing so seemed to compound the growth of the pasture this season
with ideal weather leading to a whole extra week of grazing on this pasture.
During the routine check up and weigh-in for the flock we found the sheep in excellent health with only a few needing wormer. The average weight of the lambs was 76lbs up 5lbs above the average at the same time last year of 71lbs. While the growth slowed down a bit from the last weigh-in the lambs are still on track to finish larger than last year.
The leaves on the trees had started to fall in the last paddock of the pasture but the grass ended up getting almost 50 days of rest. The paddock still supported the sheep for an additional day than usual with the strength of the grass alone. Now the sheep have moved on to the last pasture before taking lambs to butcher and separating the ewes into their breeding groups. Just a couple more weeks!
We have a couple lambs left for sale, feel free to DM if you're interested in adding a lamb to your freezer this winter. I am delivering to Grand Rapids, Chicago, and Milwaukee.
#homesteading #permaculture #permies #meshtadel #selfsovereignty #rotationalgrazing #sheep #lamb #silvopasture #regenag #regenerativeagriculture #pasturemanagement #grownostr
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The katahdin hair sheep are grazing their way down the hill towards the yurt and pasture is looking better than it did last year around this time.
They are also able to get their last mouthfuls of leaves. I was able to still prune some limbs before the trees dropped all their leaves as winter approaches the homestead.
First frost came without many surprises, and ended up with about 4in of snow. The sheep seem a little friskier than usual though. They are jumping over the swales.
We want to make sure the lambs can eat all the best grass we have left so the sheep grazed though this pasture at a faster pace. Only 10 days to graze past the yurt this time opposed to 17 days previously. We managed to give this pasture 50 days of rest before the sheep started on this pass again, better than the target of 45. The katahdins have been doing great this season, finding the rhythm and groove with rotational grazing.
#homesteading #permaculture #permies #sheep #rotationalgrazing #lamb #regenag #regenerativeagriculture #silvopasture #meshtadel #selfsovereignty #grownostr
