Sheep

Why Sheep?

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A recent article in our local forage newsletter listed four labels for us agrarian types: homesteader, farmer, rancher and agribusiness owner (I know which one of these I am not).

It does my heart good to know there have been enough people returning to the land to grow their own food and raise their own animals that homesteader is now back on the list. Many of these homesteaders are woman, or have women who are driving the dream; which means sheep are a more common consideration when it comes to keeping livestock.

Two very related questions I have been asked over the years: why did you get into sheep and how did you get started?

Homesteading was not a trendy movement twenty years ago and while I share some of the aims I can’t lay any lofty claims to that being my reason. And I’ve been at this too long to be called a homesteader now. No, the very first sheep I bought were for my Border Collie. I had it mind to train a stock dog. That’s it. No more fancy a story than that. I got into sheep with the aim of working a stock dog; the guardian dogs were an unexpected bonus. Now the dogs are my partners in the work of raising sheep to help this prairie thrive.

When I started I knew nothing about sheep and what I knew about livestock wasn’t much more than that. What appealed to me was the size of the animals, the wool and the ability to train a dog with them. The grazing and the grass management were items on the radar but not in place yet. Even still, I know that I never got into raising sheep dreaming about how good a carcass I would raise and how fast I would produce it. That was never a reason and I suggest that these are not viable reasons to get into livestock of any kind, although the entire industry will do everything to convince you otherwise. But if you’re here reading this blog it’s very likely you’re interested in something deeper than intensive carcass production.

As for how I got started…
I started with five ewes. A year later I moved up to thirty ewes I bought on shares (a share of the lambs produced each year went to the seller which allowed me to pay the purchase price of the ewes over time).
That flock of thirty grew in size for a few years just by way of keeping replacement ewe lambs.When I felt I had a handle on this sheep thing I made the decision to purchase a flock of two hundred animals. Then grew from there (and it was still a big learning curve).

Right from the get go I knew I wanted to raise sheep on grass (not artificial milk and grain). I knew I wanted this endeavor to be about the natural purpose of grazing animals – to keep grassland ecosystems in good health. To that end I rear this flock in as natural a manner as I can on the parcel of land I have. You can do this with sheep, you can do this with cattle, with pigs, with chickens….. the Homesteaders are doing it and I applaud them. It’s so good to know the movement is here.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Prairie Winter Priorities

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Yesterday morning arrived with cold temps, stiff winds and snow. I chose to feed hay right where the ewes were bedded so they could remain where they were, snug and protected from the winds. The wind keep at it all day long creating drifts wherever the landscape allowed; drifts that had to be cleared the next morning in order to feed at all.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”2669″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]In the evening I did not bother getting the side by side vehicle out to drive out to the flock but instead I loaded dog food and bowls into a zippered grocery bag and went out on foot. The flock had not moved; the guardian dogs barked a warning at my unusual approach on foot. I dropped down into the hollow to feed them and sat for a spell in the stillness of the prairie cold but where the wind couldn’t reach. The snuffling noises of ewes and the nudges of a dog nose now and again provided small comforts at the close of another day.

Every winter there is a stretch that draws out the pure simplicity of what needs to be done. A prairie winter simplifies your priorities in a manner that a prairie summer can never do. The chief priority of every day is getting food to animals and getting them to shelter if needed. Each morning is an assessment of where to feed that day and how. It probably bears noting here that I don’t rear sheep with any intention of mass production and therefore do not lamb in the winter. I rear sheep with the intention of having grazers on the land and wool in my hands. This minimalist approach allows some leeway in the winter workload and means I do not spend my winter in a barn. It also means that while I use a tractor to feed nowadays (this was not always the case), I’m not running numerous pieces of equipment or heating barns during the coldest months of the year.

In a season when weather can present all manner of extra steps, like clearing snow so you can access the hay feed or the route to pasture, it’s getting the work done that matters. And wether it is a calm day or an ugly one, the feeling of relief and gratitude upon getting hay feed rolled out for the ewes is present all winter long but particularly when working on one’s own.

This is only our second year of feeding using a tractor with a cab on it. As I drive out with a hay bale for the ewes, sitting in the relative comfort of a tractor cab, I am baffled that prior to this we managed feeding with an open cab tractor for eight + years, and prior to that, we managed with no tractor at all. We arrived to this place with just the two of us, no left over equipment or livestock infrastructure to start us off. When crop farming proved a dismal failure (and thank god it did) we made it work because we had to, but from my seat in the cab today, being able to warm my hands and my face for a few moments, I can not believe we did so. Feeding a large flock without a tractor feels like a distant, forgotten life; like a story I told once a long time ago. And if I take into account the farms around us, each with three/four or more tractors parked in the yard, it seems more outlandish that in the twenty first century we went without one for as long as we did.

Not having equipment, and not able to go into more debt so we could have it, is one of the many occurrences that lead us down the road of getting where we are today. And I suppose the doing of it is what gives me the perspective of knowing that the efficiency promised us by way of using equipment doesn’t really add up. And of knowing there is always a way and sometimes not getting on the industry bandwagon in the first place is the only way.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Winter Grazing Sheep

January. A new calendar year is upon us. The longest night has passed, the daylight slowly lengthens and, on the prairie, the cold winter continues.

Speaking of grass based sheep in a place where winter reigns for 5 months of the year seems a little ill matched. Thoughts of grass blow out with the first wind swept snow and are replaced with more immediate thoughts of where to shelter and feed the flock. But even though grass is not first in our thoughts during winter the decision to keep the flock out on pasture is made with the prairie land in mind and the natural inclinations of livestock.

When people hear of sheep reared on grass in a cold climate place like the prairie there is curiosity with how well they do with foraging in the snow. I think sheep posses an exceptional will to forage from the land, and if I possessed half as much will as these ewes my life might be in a very different place. If there is morsels of grass where hay is being fed they will forage. Heavy snow, ice crust and bitter cold will stop them, but once these pass, exploration and grazing resumes. The tough part is stopping them if you do not want them to keep picking at the grass.

The ewes grazed on stockpiled forage up until Christmas when we moved them to a pasture that could use more hay residue and natural fertilizer that results in areas of hay feeding. However, the ewes are showing signs that they are not as content on this pasture and it took a couple days before they quit trying to return to the previous bed ground in the evening and use the new one.

Once snow load builds up and serious cold sets in one’s choices about where to feed become limited by the inability to get around out on the pasture. Then you balance what you can get done in extreme conditions with what you want to see happen. In this fashion winter provides a reprieve from obsessing about grass and grazing. I welcome this reprieve. I can shelf the worry and let Mother Nature hold on to it for the winter.

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