Stopping in with a few photos to share.
There are the usual number of losses and causes of them this lambing but the sheep are so unsettled. They move almost continually and I’m thinking this is due to the lack of quality grass. There is green stuff at their feet but the dry dusty conditions have us all looking at the other side of the fence and believing it is better over there when it isn’t. This movement of the ewes means new lambs are on the move too when they should be resting and taking in milk.
I’m allowing the ewes to graze each paddock much harder than I normally would just on account of nothing in front of us to go to. If the grass bounces back from this it will be a true forgiveness by nature. There is nothing like drought conditions to make one realize how little you know about managing grazing or how little forethought you put into it during all those wet years.
We were blessed with one day of drizzle last week and that day and the next was the calmest time on the pasture. The sheep were quiet, they got up, they ate, they laid back down. They took in moisture with the grass they ate and that seemed to make all the difference in the world to them. Normally the prairies are cool enough over night that we get morning dews in the Spring season and I always have wet shoes when walking the dogs in the morning. There is no morning dews this year, just wind and dust. The grasses are crunchy already and we are approaching some record setting high temperatures this week.
We tend to think animals readily adjust and I guess they do; I guess we all do, but we don’t sit still while we do it. The sheep are indicating the adjustment they are having to make, they are not pleased with it. Nor am I. I too am fussing from one project to the next with a real lack of focus. Just feeling that urgency of literally ‘moving’ our way through this. One of Allen’s favourite mantra’s is ‘it is what it is.’ I catch myself repeating that phrase while I check lambs and I stop the movement of my Self for a moment. Recenter, we will adjust because sometimes there is no alternative.
