Sheep

Pastoral Tasks

Musing, Sheep / July 30, 2023 / By

Moving the flock is one of those tasks that has me feeling slightly annoyed knowing I have to do it but as soon as the Kelpies and I are underway, feeling glad that I get too. There is a feeling of assurance and rightness in doing one of the oldest pastoral tasks there is. The smooth flock moves are golden of course. Yet even the rough flock moves where things go awry leave their pastoral stamp upon the soul.

Last night’s plan was to night pen the ewes and release them to a new pasture in the morning. It wasn’t a long move but what I didn’t take into account was how frisky the ewes were feeling on account of cooler weather after several days of intense heat. I let my assumption of an easy move with a flock I know blind me to the real mood of the ewes. The move was soured when we lost our sheep. My frustration got the better of me and I wrongfully chastised the stock dog who was helping me. He had no clue what his misstep had been – he hadn’t made one at that point.

In the grand scheme of things a move gone awry is trivial. We always get the flock where needed and we all still show up for work the next day. In hindsight, the injury lies in knowing that I let wee frustrations interfere with the pastoral nature of the task in front of me. Letting haste and frustration steal those moments feels like wasting a vital and precious piece of my own nature. Wasting those moments feels like disregard for the very thing I am searching for in raising sheep in this manner.

wool sheep with cowbirds

Tidbit From Beyond the Rat Race

Sheep / June 7, 2023 / By

A little slice of life beyond the rat race. It just makes your breath slow, does it not?

Sheep trail across pasture of new spring growth

It is early morning and there is a fine mist in the air from a recent rainfall. The landscape has just begun to flush with the brilliant green of spring. The grass is full of moisture each morning. Half a dozen steps and your boots will be sufficiently washed by their leaves.

The ewes have just been turned out for the day. They were penned overnight to allow for a move to new pasture because the day before they went a walk about off of the farm property. Even though it is early for you and I, they would normally be half way to full with grazing by this time of the morning. Being held in an overnight paddock means that on this morning they are subject to my schedule rather than theirs. I fed guardian dogs before releasing the ewes and the ewes watched in the manner that sheep do, which is to look like you’re not watching at all. But when I moved toward the gate, many heads came up and it took only two calls of “come girls, come girls,” before the ewes were streaming toward the open gate.

From there all I did was watch them go.

Winter With A Pasture Flock

Sheep / December 1, 2022 / By

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.

sheep filing up to feed

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.