Rotational Grazing 2011

As Phil rotates the sheep through the orchard, they do a great job eating down the armpit-high forage.

The stalks left on the ground are part of the "stockpiled forage." I had always assumed that graziers meant that they had fields untouched, ready to be grazed. But that's not stockpiled forage. Rather, it's leaving some of the forage alone, almost like a living hay, to regrow and regraze later. I like the living hay idea.

And it's always fun when the sheep first enter a new paddock. They are just about invisible. In less than twelve hours, they will be readily apparent.

As the sheep keep rotating through the garden, I keep removing plastic protectors and trimming extra suckers (growth from the roots) and watersprouts (shoots growing vertically out of a branch: there haven't been many of these). Phil and I were pleased to find this little nest in an apple tree. With its one pale blue egg, I'm guessing robin.

To commemorate the shearing of 2011, I submit the photo of Isabella, shorn, with her lamb Camelot. Shearing sure takes the pride out of the poor sheep.

Phil is doing the black sheep first. He has to catch the quick little guys. He is good at getting the shepherd's crook around their necks. Contrary to what I thought when we first got it, the crook does not hold the sheep for long. You have about three seconds to nab the sheep before it wriggles free, but three seconds is long enough for Phil. It's a little arm extension, a little advantage.

Once captured, Phil walks the sheep over to a canvas for some level of cleanliness and comfort, off the prickly grass. He turns the head and presses the rump to make the sheep sit down, and rocks it back. Once its front legs are off the ground, it assumes it's dead, and (mostly) sits still. The sheep generally releases both bladder and bowels, which makes shearing the nether regions quite unpleasant.

The belly wool is felted, filthy, and hard to get into. It's a relief when that part is done.

As we wait for the tractor, and as the heat index showed 106 at 3pm, we spent much of the day inside. The boys and I are getting a good amount of schoolwork done! (One of the benefits of homeschooling: punch it hard in the summer and winter, when it's hard to be outside, and take breaks in the spring and fall, when all we want is to be outside). Despite the heat, when UPS delivered new reels and electric line, we headed down slope to move the cows in the lower pasture to new paddocks.

Joe came with us, but he is a bit timid with the cows. Which makes sense: at 30 pounds, he underweighs all of them, even the littlest calves, by a goodly amount. When sweet Cleo came a little too close to him, he came up with idea, all by himself, to get in between two trees. He then called for me loudly and persistently, but what a clever way to protect himself (at least psychologically).