Teresa & Mike CHS - Our journal

At least the "evidence" is already in the paddock....that shade is of high "value" it appears.....

Teresa and I got the chute ready to handle sheep tomorrow. I put them on a paddock next to where the steers will be soon so I wanted them to eat this one down a bit before I let the cows move. I'm positive that most of the ewes are cycling again so I doubt electric netting would stop the ram from going to them.

We attached a gate to the front of the sorting gate and we added a gate to the shop porch. We had been using cattle panels but since we already had the gates, we used them instead. The area on the right is our loading area plus we can put sheep in there till we get everyone sorted and moved. Once out of there they can go to my choice of 4 gates to different paddocks. We put netting in the area to the left that goes up the hill and back into the main paddock. From there they can be called to any paddock on our place.

The picture of the critters grazing was just because I could get most but not all of them in one picture.

We had some WedgeLock gate hardware left from several years ago so we will hang an 8' gate to a T-post at the loading gate. We had to use some cement to anchor the posts since we hit solid slab rock at about 8".

A truly Beautiful site!!.....are they liking the crab grass?

CntryBoy777 said:

A truly Beautiful site!!.....are they liking the crab grass?

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That paddock is mostly Bermuda and Orchard Grass but they have been on the crab grass and like it. It hasn't been planted all that long so I didn't let them graze it down too much.

My sheep think I am a terrible sheep Mommy. They are all on dry lot. I planted giant Bermuda in 3 pastures and locked them up. I am watering it every day until it is up a couple of inches, then I'll drop to 3 times a week. Then I'll plant the patch I have ready on the pipeline. Dragging water hoses every hour takes awhile. About the time that they can graze a little, I'll plant rye, more clovers and start all over. But next year should be good!

Baymule said:

My sheep think I am a terrible sheep Mommy. They are all on dry lot. I planted giant Bermuda in 3 pastures and locked them up. I am watering it every day until it is up a couple of inches, then I'll drop to 3 times a week. Then I'll plant the patch I have ready on the pipeline. Dragging water hoses every hour takes awhile. About the time that they can graze a little, I'll plant rye, more clovers and start all over. But next year should be good!

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I am as happy as I could be with our pastures the way they are now. I have sprayed nitrogen for parasites but the graze has obviously benefited from that and especially the lime. This crop of lambs is going to be rough thinning out since they are about as close to petting zoo type lambs as you can get. They are so tame that whenever I go out I get mobbed with them wanting to get petted. I'm making it a point to ignore the one we castrated for butchering but even he is super friendly.

I limed the areas I planted with seed, so that ought to help. When it is up a couple of inches, I'll spread fertilizer.

We started working sheep right at 10:00 this morning after getting set up and critters taken care of. We finished up a little after 5:00 and we are tired and sore backs from bending over for most of that time working on hooves.

Our new helper is an excellent worker and doesn't wait to be told what to do. I'm glad he was here since we have several that are over 170 pounds and it's a bear getting them in the chair to check hooves.

It was also awesome to be able to do all of that without the Sun beating us up.

I wouldn't straighten up for a week...I tell ya....an energetic "helping hand" is certainly handy to have available....really Glad the setup worked out so well for ya, too........so, how did the hooves do this time, any issues?.....

We had a couple that were really bad last time that were still bad but not as bad. We need to work up a cull list anyway and those two are on it. We had two that were bad enough last time that we gave shots shots of Nuflor which really helped and they were fine this time.

We also castrated another ram lamb that was the last born so that gives us two that will be processed for meat for us.