Simply Sheep

[Beekissed]

Your ram's gut may just be a well functioning rumen. My ram has a "good rib spread" LOL LOL. It's nice to hear how well your ewes have adjusted to better care and are blooming into the healthy animals you want them to be.

I wish I had lush grass! Late winter and spring are my best grass months with clovers, rye and fescue. The summer sun soon scorches them off the face of the earth.

I don't have lush grass, which is why I'm amazed at how they are filling out. My mother scalped the lawn, as she usually does, and then the heat and drought made it all crispy brown. I have green patches here and there that they are eating and how they've become fat on that is a mystery, unless it's because most of the green is clover.

Bay, I'm wondering if you would utilize some of Greg Judy's grazing practices if you could keep that all from happening. I'm going to try it, as this late drought has really opened my eyes as to how quickly what I have can be dried out and crispy. I'm betting that's even worse in TX than it is here.

I'm wondering if you could use the horses to increase stocking density in a rotational grazing setup and improve your pastures and water retention in them?

https://holisticmanagement.org/impa...economic-benefit-with-regenerative-practices/

https://agfundernews.com/dr-richard...ractices-clean-up-the-act-of-agriculture.html

https://foodtank.com/news/2017/11/replenish-sandra-postel/

I've been soaking up Mr. Judy's lectures and videos, as a lot of the thoughts I've had about farming, he's been implementing and having success with. He's making Salatin look like old news.

Imagine if my sheep fatten on this poor graze, how much more so will they do it on excellent graze and stockpiled for the winter graze? I'd love to work my way up to having to feed no hay in the winter months...now THAT would be farming!

 

[baymule]

Yes I do plan on using my horses to rotate pastures. Their manure and trampling the grasses will add humus to the soil. Sheep parasites don’t effect horses and vice versa. So I could use both species to help control parasites.

 

[Beekissed]

Pics of the fat as a tick lady sheep today....forgot to get a pic of fat as a tick Jo. You can see the residual of the copper deficiency wool color on Shine's shoulders but that's getting less and less. You can also see a similar patch on the shoulders of Rose, and it's a light cream color.

Fat bottomed girls, they make the rockin' world go 'round! Look at how long Rose's tail is compared to Shine's. I hope she passes that along to her babies.

Folks, these sheep are fattening up on just very low quality, very short~less than an inch long!~grasses and browse found around the edge of the meadow. They are getting nothing else but some hay they don't really seem to prefer at all. That's one reason I love the Katahdin breed!

No deworming, no vaccines, no supplementing. Gotta love it.

 

[Mini Horses]

They're looking REALLY nice!

 

[Beekissed]

https://www.wormx.info/browseplants

Using a mixed sward of grasses and legumes or legume (high protein) swards; using forage plants containing condensed tannins; and/or allowing access to browse plants can help in control of GI parasites in grazing goats and sheep. Additional benefits can include improved protein availability (and probably minerals) for support of the immune system and improved nutrient-use efficiency (especially protein) in livestock.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Bee, this post/link gets all of my bonus points for the day! Of course it makes sense: God designed ruminants to graze/browse/forage a diet made up of MANY different species of plants. It's not natural, or logical for them to be fed a steady diet of a monoculture field. So often, folks tend to follow the crowd, spouting the same old same old "advice" because that's what they have read or been told. "TANNINS ARE BAD!!!!" Apparently, not exactly true!!!

Why wouldn't it be a sensible plan to gather a barrel of acorns while they are plentiful now. Then, when the spring grasses are so lush, dole out some of those stored nuts???

Of course, flock animals who have access to a much varied pasture that still contains some dried matter from the previous season, as well as some fallen leaves, and nubby, twiggy, underbrush would not need any supplemental acorns.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Speaking of Tannins: For aquarium keepers, they can be a friend: lowering the water pH, and actually benefiting the health of many species of tropical fish:

We love talking about the "blackwater" environment and its affect on fishes.

But beyond the sexy aesthetic, we're talking about some real possible health benefits. Tannic and humid acids found in natural materials which break down and produce blackwater are known to have some anti-fungal properties, as theorized for many years by Betta breeders in Southeast Asia, who claim that their fishes heal up quickly from skin infections when exposed to "blackwater."

The lower pH in "blackwater" also coincides with lower concentrations of heavy metals in the water, and reduced sodium, magnesium, potassium, and calcium concentrations. As you might suspect, there are far less snails and other aquatic crustaceans found in blackwater systems than in other bodies of water, and less in the way of aquatic plants.

 

[baymule]

My girls and lambs are out in the yard eating acorns under the oak trees. They have been gallivanting around all morning.

 

[Beekissed]

Every time the sheep feed past the window I am newly amazed and pleased by their fat stores on their rumps and their sleek, fat bellies. Don't know where they found all that nutrition on this pitiful quality of grass that's been scalped down to the soils...had to have been in the browse along the edges of the meadow. Either way, I'm tickled at how smooth and sleek they look...should bode well for breeding this next month or so.

Anyone else seeing a fat pad over the tails of their sheep tails or is it just me? Bay, are all those acorns laying on the fat for your sheep? When will you be breeding again?

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Yesterday, when we were running errands, there was a driveway where Oaks were dropping nuts. Crushed acorns all over the place. I was marveling at the nutritional bounty I was seeing. Wanted to start raking them up to take home for the chooks! I've heard that when chickens eat too many acorns, it turns their egg yolks an unappetizing color. Any one experienced that?