Lambs can be so.... challenging.

It's a good thing that they're edible.

Now maybe that's mean.  We definately do not do enough handling of our sheep, especially the lambs for them to learn that people really are okay.  The adults have lost their edginess around us and the yearling mamas have begun to lose their edge too, although they are still at the back of the pack and a few tend to get left behind with the lambs sometimes.  Jacob sheep are known for their flightiness and difficulty in handling.  I don't knwo if it's just us or our particular group but they don't seem much flightier than any other group of sheep I've worked with.  Smarter, certainly but not any flightier, really.

Tomorrow morning, we were going to move our ewes and lambs into the next pasture over from where they were the past week.  There were several things that weren't quite right. 

1.  Somehow, last week while in the previous pasture that was next to the rams, one ewe and her two lambs (both males) got themselves into the ram pasture and couldn't get themselves back.  I'll have to be watching that one in mid-december for lambs.  Our rams have never been fertile this time of year before, too hot, but it's been much cooler lately... hmm. 

2. Goats weren't really supposed to be mixed with the ewes yet, but there they were.  Stubborn goats!

3. a couple of lambs had been making adventures somehow into another pasture in the old orchard. 

This time, when I went to check on sheep after market before going home for the evening, the lamb escapees couldn't figure out how to get back into the correct pasture with mum.  I'd have to convince them through a gate, relatively easy.  There were also some lambs already in the next pasture.  Well, I guess it'll be tonight while I've got light rather than tomorrow when I should be building the next fence for the next pasture.  While I'm at it, I might as well get the ewe out of the rams.  Because she has to males for lambs, I don't care if they stay or come with.  They stayed, this particular ewe is particularly un-flighty and loves people because people always bring grain.  I got her through the fence with little problem.  Getting her away from her lambs (still nursing some even though they are 5 1/2 months old!) was more challenging but grain solved the issue, the first time.  Second problem was getting her into the ewe group.

For some reason, in hoping that ALL the ewes and lambs would follow me and my grain bucket, I left the gate open enough to admit Sweetpea, my errant ewe, but most of the lambs and the alpacas and the goats decided the last pasture would be better.  The adult ewes went with me and I got them into the correct pasture.

Next step was retrieving everyone else.  Not too challenging except that SweetPea wanted to go back to her lambs, and the lambs and yearlings were confused because they could see their mothers on the other side of the fence of the old pasture.  I had to go all the way back across the pasture and start over and herd everyone back to the gate to their most recent pasture.  convincing the alpacas has so far been the most difficult but thye actually led the lambs through.  The goats had a mind of their own so I let them stay behind.  The alpacas impressed me by leading the lambs around and through a gate to get to the opening in the fence for the next pasture.  The lambs piled past them once they realized which pasture they were in since they'd been there before.  The poor alpacas nearly fell into the creekbed but quickly figured it out.

All I had left was the three individual goats.  Once I got them headed in the right direction and through the gate, all I had left to do was tie up the gate again and amost every difficulty had been fixed, about an hour after I began.  All I'll have to fix later is getting the two lambs out of the ram group but we'll be into breeding season before the first ones go to slaughter and I'll have to sort the rams then. 

I do love my sheep.

Shepherd's Corner: Pasturing

We are about to move into the time of year where we are rotating the sheep very quickly from pasture to pasture.  In our idealized farm management system, our sheep would be moving from one pasture to another on a daily basis or atleast on a weekly basis when we are grazing un-fenced areas.  Right now, we are rehabilitating and replacing many old "hard" fences.  These are the fences that are made of a metal mesh and/or barbed wire.  Some of our fences include the barbed wire if we can salvage it from the previous fence while others have a strand or two of electric wire.  In areas of tougher terrain or that are not part of a larger fenceable pasture, we use a four-wire electric fence to keep sheep where they are supposed to be.

We rotate pastures for a number of reasons; first is that forage during the dry season is at a premium and must be used wisely.  Moving quickly from one pasture to another reduces the amount of forage that is lost to trampling when the sheep walk in search of their favorite grasses.  Another prime reason is fertility.  By rotating pastures, manure is spread across the pastures evenly and with zero labor input by us.  We also do not have any runoff from too much manure because the sheep are never in any pasture long enough to leave “too much” manure.  The soils have plenty of time to absorb what the sheep leave behind.  By rotating, we are increasing the amount of forage available to us as well as increasing the fertility of the pastures under our charge!

We also reduce our labor inputs by rotating because we are allowing the sheep to harvest their own feed.  The only hay that we need to move from field to barn and then into feeding racks is hay for winter through early spring when grasses cannot be found under snow and when the ground is so wet and cold and not yet growing that sheep would merely starve and tear apart pastures.  On the Palouse, this still ends up being 4-6 months of the year, depending on spring and fall weather patterns.  This is great for us, because we don't have to spend as many labor hours on the sheep and it reduces the cost of lamb and wool that we produce.  We pass these kinds of savings on to you as our customer.

Now, looking at our prices, this may not seem like a whole lot of savings.  Remember however, that we have little mechanization to ease any labor loads, and that we don't charge at our prices because we can.  We charge the prices we do because we are covering all of our costs.  Take wool for example.  Even 100% wool yarns and products might be less expensive than what our products might cost.  On the other hand, many wool producers are not even covering what it costs to have wool sheared from their sheep!  Our wool and lamb prices reflect the costs and labor involved in producing these items.  When you buy woll or lamb from our flock, you can rest assured that we will be there in the future to provide you with more wool and more lamb because we covered our costs today.

Stewardship of our land begins with stewardship of our economy and our community.

Market Boxes

We are going to offer this week what we like to call "Market Boxes!"

A Market Box is essentially a No-Committment CSA type box.  Each week, we'll put together a group of produce and take 10% off the regular price of the produce if you were to buy each part separately.  We will also include a recipe that will utilize the contents of your Market Box or the box will be themed such that one won't need a recipe.

For Example:

1 Bunch Kale                $1.75
1 bunch Chard              $1.75
1 head Napa Cabbage  $2.00
Beets                            $2.00
Beans                            $2.00
Green Onions                $ 1.75
Regularly: $11.25
Market Box: $ 10.00
Pretty good Deal!

The exact contents and price of the market boxes will change each week as produce moves in and out of season.

Some future themes we are looking at for our boxes during the rest of the season include a Grilling box, a Dorm Dweller box, and a Salsa box.