Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[farmerjan]

3 months is a "butchering backup" ????? How about a year or more backup here....
Better make a few appts to have them as a safety net.... you can always cancel, they usually always have someone needing a spot to take a cancellation.

The weights on the lambs are VERY IMPRESSIVE.....

 

[Ridgetop]

Thanks, FarmerJan! I figure to call Kent tomorrow and book a slaughter date every month for several months. Three or four ewes due this month. so . . . .

Around the Easter holidays I can save feed money by sending them to the auction and hopefully getting $135+/hd for 50-60 lb lambs. However if we get more rain and forage the lambs will grow easily to slaughter weight (100+lbs.) for nothing. Judging the market - the grower's dilemma.

Some of my ewes are due to be bred this month - yearlings that didn't breed last spring. I will hold the spring lambs over for another 6 months. And of course, the ewes with older lambs at side can also be bred back now. I like to keep lambs coming all year round since I can only fit 5 ewes in my current jugs. We really need to move to a Texas ranch so our flock can multiply and we can have more jugs.

It will mean adding at least one other LGD. Rika is starting to show her age - 8 years old. One litter sister has already died, while Erick has retired her litter brother, Asker (Bubba's dad), since he was starting to show signs of age. A close friend who helps Erick at his ranch has taken Asker to be her home and yard guardian. Angel is 2. and Bubba is going on 5. At the moment the three of them under Rika's training and guidance are doing fine. However, Bubba is blind in one eye, and Rika is showing her age. It is probably time to tell Erick we need another female puppy,

If we were on our eventual ranch in Texas, he might loan one of his younger dogs to us for training in an emergency. As it is we should think about adding another dog in a year. I hate to think of Rika aging. She s my darling.

We have been looking at ranches in eastern Texas. Some of them have mainly native pasture grass mixed with some coastal. I told DH we might eventually have to reseed which could be expensive.

Farmerjan: What would we have to do to reseed coastal into a field which has healthy pasture grass mix?
Would we have to disc the current good grass under and then replant? Or could we just reseed the field with a good hay variety and hope eventually it would establish over the current grass? If and when this happens Farmerjan we will hire you as a consultant and have you come for a visit to give us your opinion. Not in the summer, of course. 😓

We don't know if or when we will be able to get our Texas Ranch. Looking at properties and waiting on the Yelm "turn down" period of discovery to be over February 8. At that time we will be in a very strong position to buy. Judging by our luck though it will also coincide with removal of all quarantines and a giant surge in land purchases meaning we will not be able to find anything to buy!

So far one offer was turned down by the probate court. Another seller doesn't want to sell on a contingency even though the offer is cash. ☹️ However we are not giving up. Determined to get to Texas!

Wagons East! Gone to Texas! (Soon )

 

[Baymule]

Hitch up that wagon!! Will y’all be coming by way of 20-mule team?

 

[farmerjan]

@Ridgetop ; thank you for the compliment of "advising" on the reseeding of the pasture. However.... I am not the one to ask because the conditions in Texas are way different than here and I am not at all familiar with the soil or the grasses that grow there. I can tell you that if the native pasture is healthy, you will need to do renovations of a sort to get a new grass established. discing and seeding at the least.... all according what the existing grasses are, even a kill of grass to get a cleaner seedbed to reseed. You need to talk to the extension agent or soil conservation people.
I am not a big one on chemicals.... but in order to kill off the existing grasses, you may need to use chemicals to kill off the existing grasses.
One thing that we do to renovate pastures and hayfields..... we will plant something like corn or sorghum-sudan grass. Using an herbicide for the corn, no-till into the field; then it will get tall enough to then shade out most of the weeds and grasses, that were not killed by the herbicide. Then when the corn is harvested, the ground is basically bare, plant a cover crop for the winter, or in the case of Texas, possibly plant a pasture mix you want, in the fall so it can get established and then in the spring it will come on fast and will help to crowd out any of the weeds/unwanted native pasture.
Understand that the native grasses there are usually the ones that will withstand the droughts and heat..... you might be able to interseed some other varieties of grass/pasture so that you will have the best of all worlds. Drought tolerant natives for the hottest part of the year, cultivated/planted more desireable grasses for the cooler weather. I honestly don't know the first thing of dealing with the heat/drought/temp swings that @Baymule talks about. You need a "native" of the area that knows the soil and what will grow and not grow there.

 

[Baymule]

For grazing, a mixed pasture has a better chance of always having something for livestock to eat. Plus, there is better nutrition in a mixed pasture. For hay, the preferred here is Bermuda, usually Coastal or Jiggs Bermuda.

 

[Ridgetop]

If the pasture grass is healthy, probably just better off to let it grow, keep it healthy, and make a grass hay, or just let the livestock graze it. Maybe cross fence to small pastures for rotational grazing. Let the sheep graze it to 2"-3" then move them to the next enclosure. Repeat and move. ???

 

[farmerjan]

Rotational grazing is always the best option for the land, and grasses growing there. Better to buy your hay.... get it early and store it. If you don't need it, it will keep if under roof.... Maybe get it made on shares if it is a farm that has had previous hay made on some of it.... and you can get the current farmer to continue to make it...... One of those things you will have to see about as soon as you find a place and get serious about buying it.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

I am excited for you, Miss @Ridgetop!

 

[Ridgetop]

Hitch up that wagon!! Will y’all be coming by way of 20-mule team?

More like 300+ diesel. LOL Once we we are on our ranch though we will have the obligatory equine (Josie the Mule) in our field to avoid being run out of town on a rail for having sheep instead of cows. LOL

 

[Ridgetop]

By the way. did any one else get the UD NASS Sheep and Goats Report to fill out? I just finished mine and will send it back (a little late apparently but it's for the government). If anyone had to fill out one did you notice that the predator control information was mainly about goats and kids, not sheep? I just filled everything out except for the goat information on losses, births, etc., as it related to my sheep. It must signal a large movement into commercial meat goat production.

BTW, we just returned from Nipomo and DS3 said that a neighboring rancher's fences came down and his flock ended up at his next door neighbor's. The neighbor agreed to keep them on his 5 acre back yard while the rancher repaired or ran new fencing. Apparently coyotes got in and killed a ewe. When they found her there was only one leg left of the carcass!

The neighbor does not have any guardian dogs since they don't have any sheep of their own.

DDIL1 and I spent a pleasant several hours looking a ranches we would buy. DS3 wants to come to Texas and so does she bit she is worried about jobs for linemen. He is a foreman here. He found one job in southeast Texas but they didn't know where that was until I told her it was not far from the areas we had looked for ranches. We seem to be moving all over the eastern Texas area looking. LOL They want a small ranch eventually too. He already has a new Kioti tractor, our old Farmall tractor, and the attachments. Just needs the hay equipment. He already knew the steps in cutting, tedding, windrowing, and baling. Proud of him. LOL They are just not sure he could make a living there. She doesn't work and they have 9 year old and 6 year old boys.

They had finally butchered their turkeys. He hadn't had time for the past couple months so they just ept growing. the largest one weighed 45 lbs. dressed out!!! They skinned them, cut them into sections to freeze and were going to grind some of the meat as well. They offered me all the necks and I was willig but told DDIL that if she put them in the pressure cooker she could make dog food like Baymule does. DDIL might try it. She could also boil them all up and strain the liquid for a straight chicken stock. DS3 offered me some of the meat and I brought home 4 thighs. Each one was huge. - maybe 5 lbs.! DS3 and DDIL referred to their turkeys as "dinosaurs" because of their size. and judging from the thighs they were about that size! They love raising turkeys each year along with the other types f chickens DDIL raises. She is finally able to order chicks after several years of Newcastle quarantine. Ordered some sort of Giant that was black, as well as a few other breeds. They like to experiment to find ones they like.