Is it ok to let our sheep graze perennial pasture planted 3 months ago?

[soarwitheagles]

LS,

I do not think they are the AHB. I was told by top beeks that the AHB are smaller in size. These bees are 20%-30% larger than any of our other bees. We are still trying to figure out what happened...

I keep hoping they will continue to grow in size so I can take one or two of them for a ride. I would like to go to Lake Tahoe for a vacation but do not wanna pay the airfare...

 

[Latestarter]

Wow... now those would be some pretty big and powerful bees! I don't think I'd want to be their beekeeper!

 

[WildRoseBeef]

That forage stand looks like its doing very well, I don't think you'll need to apply any fertilizer on it right now. If you are going to apply fertilizer, manure is the best option, but not as much as recommended because you could make the legumes more "lazy" and encourage more grass competition over the legumes than you need. Rotating the sheep in the pasture will help with the fertilizer needs too next year.

 

[soarwitheagles]

That forage stand looks like its doing very well, I don't think you'll need to apply any fertilizer on it right now. If you are going to apply fertilizer, manure is the best option, but not as much as recommended because you could make the legumes more "lazy" and encourage more grass competition over the legumes than you need. Rotating the sheep in the pasture will help with the fertilizer needs too next year.

Thank you for your reply Wild Rose. I kinda wish I had scooped up more sheep feces during the lulls in our storms. I could have applied a lot of nice, low level nitrogen sheep pellets to that paddock. Unfortunately, we keep having storms and it washes the feces away. On the brighter side of things, last fall I gathered nearly 20 yards of sheep feces and composted it. It finally finished composting a couple of months ago. We have applied it recently to our veggie growing areas and it is making a huge difference. Hope to post pics soon.

We are using 120 ft. long trellises, 8 ft. high, and have a few of em'!

 

[Baymule]

How is your pasture doing now and what did you plant in it?

 

[soarwitheagles]

How is your pasture doing now and what did you plant in it?

Baymule,

Our perennial pasture with grass and 75% clover is doing about 1 million percent better than I would have imagined! We are totally thrilled considering this was a first time experiment for total newbie city slickers...

According to the advice given by UC Davis Ag specialists, we planted GP 1 Perennial pasture seed. But I adjusted or modified the seed mixture to include about 75% of ladino, dutch, rose clover and also birds foot trefoil and chickory.

My major mistakes were waiting way too long for first mowing [grass was over 5 ft. tall], no use of fertilizer, a wee bit sparse when spreading seed, and I simply should have planted a minimum of one full acre instead of a little over a half acre [we ran out of time].

I was told by many negative local nay-sayers that our water bill costs [electricity to pump the well water] would far exceed the cost of purchasing bales of hay/clover. Forgive me for my poor English, but they were so full of crap! Extra electric costs to pump water all summer was about $20-$30 per month! And the pasture more than provided the extremely important protein needs of a flock of 35+ sheep.

Our practice is to allow the sheep to forage in the back forest area during the mornings and day time, then, move them to the clover rich/protein rich fields for 2-3 hours each evening. All sheep healthy as can be, dropping lambs all summer long, and more sheep pregnant and ready to drop more lambs all the way through to next spring.

Moral of the story: Don't always believe the negative locals, esp. if they have been raising livestock for 30+ years with high levels of extreme ignorance...

 

[Baymule]

What is your base grass? Your pasture is beautiful. We are about to spread lime and plant 3 pastures. We are dragging out green briars and doing clean up in a 1 acre pasture now. I am looking at Bahia as a base grass with Dutch white clover, a white arrow leaf clover, and chicory. How does the birds foot trefoil do for you? I sprigged Bermuda and Bahia last fall in this pasture we are cleaning now. Then we got pigs in early spring and they ate all the Bahia rhizomes. They left the Bermuda, it spread, and the sheep don't like it.

Did you ever find out what the bigger bees were?

 

[soarwitheagles]

What is your base grass? Your pasture is beautiful. We are about to spread lime and plant 3 pastures. We are dragging out green briars and doing clean up in a 1 acre pasture now. I am looking at Bahia as a base grass with Dutch white clover, a white arrow leaf clover, and chicory. How does the birds foot trefoil do for you? I sprigged Bermuda and Bahia last fall in this pasture we are cleaning now. Then we got pigs in early spring and they ate all the Bahia rhizomes. They left the Bermuda, it spread, and the sheep don't like it.

Did you ever find out what the bigger bees were?

Bay,

I looked all over for the bag with the percentages, but could not find it. I will post the answer once I find it. If I remember correctly, it had 3 perennial grasses and definitely had the rose clover...for some reason, the UC Davis Extension people are super big on the rose clover for our soil and climate. But they recommended only 15% clover and I know why: they would like to protect animals from bloat. But our American Blackbellies and Dorpers have the ability to self monitor, so I increased the clover percentages to near 75%. We desperately needed the higher percentages of protein in the pasture!

We noticed a wonderful change here...the sheep are having babies nearly every month now, all year round and that is exactly what we were wanting to happen. And the lambs are much more healthier looking too. We have had no sicknesses at all for 18 months now. Last week, we did have a small dorper x lamb get a large infection in the eye and the lower jaw. But I think I know what happened...he got stabbed very deeply by some super rusty fencing I left out at a paddock gate! After a shot of penicillin and some Oxy gel in the eye, he is good as new now. And his mama just let him go back on the teats.

Both the birds foot trefoil and chickory do well here. They are suppose to help reduce the probability of parasites in sheep.

I kinda wish I had fertilized, but now I am wondering if the pasture is getting enough fertilizer. Listen to this please: all our clover was inoculated with rhizobia bacteria before planting. So every clover plant in the field [tens of thousands] suck nitrogen out of the atmosphere and inject it into the soil. They say we are receiving 100+ lbs of nitrogen per 1/2 acre per year. Last, I forgot the sheep are "naturally" fertilizing the field every day when we let them out to the field for 2-3 hours.

Regarding the larger bees...no, not sure what they are, but boy did we capitalize on them! I took that queen and made many daughter queens from her Bay. I think it is obvious now she is a hybrid from one of the large, massive local beekeepers hives. We captured over 20 swarms this spring. After making lots of nucs and splits, we may be up over 10 times the hives we began with in the spring. I feel it has been a super natural increase that came straight from heaven.

Tonight, we just started the queen starter hive to raise a shipload of Carniolan queens. We discovered a number of the swarms were nearly all black and they are the Carniolan breed. An incredibly breed with marvelous traits. You may want to read about them.

We may try our hand at raising a large number of Carniolan queens with small nucs in the next few weeks. Then, we would like to overwinter them and have them ready this spring.

We nearly gave up on raising bees last year because we worked so hard and yet, barely saw any increase. We did not stop praying. Suddenly, farmers all around us began to plant massive acreage of clover. Massive wild flower blooms too. What a game changer. We went from Barely-Get-By-Street [right next to Grumble Alley] to Super Abundance Highway [right next to Rejoice in the Lord Always Court].

So, that is our story for now. We are learning so much and I am thankful for all the people here at BYH for helping us move from total city slickers to still wet behind the ears newbies.

 

[Baymule]

We went from Barely-Get-By-Street [right next to Grumble Alley] to Super Abundance Highway [right next to Rejoice in the Lord Always Court].

We really need people like you and your wife here in northeast Texas!

 

[soarwitheagles]

We really need people like you and your wife here in northeast Texas!

Believe me when I say Texas is looking more and more attractive to us.

Here in California, we reward law breakers and illegal immigrants. And the top law makers are in radical rebellion against the Federal government. They actually pass laws that encourage and promote and reward law breakers and punish law abiding citizens. It is a the strongest form of governmental insanity I have ever seen in this nation and it is deeply troubling. If you are a student of history, every nation that decided to go in this wrong direction unequivocally and without fail was destroyed from the inside out.

In Texas, your state government has taken a strong stand for what is right, decent, safe, and sane.

This nation is looking more and more like it may come apart at the seams. That is what happens when evil is called good, good is called evil, and lines and laws of morality and decency become terrible confused and twisted. My concern is the violence, lies, deception and insanity from the left will become more and more serious, and could eventually lead to massive civil unrest and possible civil war.

My most recent question to myself is this: In the event this nation becomes deeply unraveled with massive civil unrest, where would be the safest place to live....? Very interesting question and it has been going through my mind over and over for the first time ever in the last few days...