On the Canadian prairie the start of winter is marked by the arrival of snow and cold and its end is marked by the cessation of each. The sixteen hour daylight of the summer is now ten hours at best, and the shortest day is still twenty days out. The 25 degree Celsius heat of summer is now minus fifteen with deeper cold yet to come. The northern prairie makes an adjustment of more than 6 hours of daylight and forty degrees of temperature in a six month span. In the normal swing between our summer and our winter we experience what experts would say is an extreme climate change event.
By the beginning of winter the market lambs are usually sold, the ewe flock has been brought in for a check over of udders, feet and general health. Crutching is done on animals that needed a rear end cleaned up. Cull ewes marked and necessary treatments given to animals who needed it. Then everyone is returned to pasture as one group (without rams).
Despite having stockpiled forage for grazing we have already shifted into the winter routine of feeding hay to the ewe flock each morning. The stockpile grass will await spring time use. With our minimalist approach to keeping livestock, and because it is often only one person doing the chore work, we aim to keep the chore load to what can be reasonably handled by me on a winter day (if I can handle the chores they won't be an issue for Allen but the opposite is not always true).
Hay/forage feed is rolled out on the pasture to the ewe flock each morning, and the guardian dogs are fed. The flock resides, and is fed, on pasture and shelters in an area with adequate tree and bush that with the addition of bedding soon morphs into barn like accommodations. The small group of rams receive a round bale as needed. Four wire panels are placed around the bale to prevent animals from making a mess of it, and a daily portion is pitch forked to this small group. The small group of rams have access to the shearing building for shelter so a regular clean up in the building is needed. That’s done by hand with a good ole’ shovel. Houses for the guardian dogs are situated with the sheep. Each group of animals has access to permanently placed, heated water bowls. In the evening we do a second check on livestock and feed the guardian dogs again. There are no mix mills, no silage, no feed bunks, no feed rations, no conveyors, no grain, no separate groups of animals outside of the rams and the main flock. Outside of the chores for the livestock are the regular tasks of keeping house and farm going; maintaining equipment and water bowls, moving snow, feeding the birds, and walking with the kelpies.
