We are trying something new this year finishing the lambs. Because we are slightly over stocked, the butcher date is earlier and the lambs were a bit below average weight, we are feeding all the pasture we have left exclusively to the lambs. Along with the pasture I'm feeding them tree leaves by pruning the trees at the edge of the pasture.
Because we put up a new hard fence in the maple sugar bush and we managed to score some discounted hay we decided it would be best to build a small paddock for the rams and let the ewes have most of the woods. We are feeding hay for now but once the lambs are butchered, we will be moving the ewes back on pasture or putting them on the turnips we planted across the street at the neighbors. It's always interesting what challenges and opportunities each season provides grazing the sheep and producing lamb. Especially as the homestead travels along its natural path of succession.
Katahdin hair sheep are in the middle of their 4th grazing pass of the pastures at the homestead. Only one more to go after this.
Overall the sheep have been doing their job building our soil and turning sunshine into lamb meat while they're at it. We lost one ewe to parasites for the first time ever this season along with a couple lambs as well. For us, losing a few to parasites each year isn't surprising though. We only give dewormer to the few sheep who are struggling each time we check on them. Parasites don't seem to be much of a problem this year. A few years ago we lost 10 percent of our lambs to worms! After that loss, we started checking the sheep every two weeks instead of once a month. Now we are able to treat the sheep who have a heavy worm load before it's too late most of the time.
With ~33 percent more sheep grazing than last year, this season has been challenging. Last year we had 31 total sheep grazing and this year there are 46.
Not only are there more sheep but we also are using 1 acre of pasture exclusively for the dairy sheep leaving less for the katahdin flock to graze.
Thankfully, our new neighbors across the street are cooperating with us, so we've been able to graze a couple acres over there. After we grazed down some of the weeds, we planted turnips so the grazing season will hopefully extend through December for the ewes.
While we have more lambs this year, their weights are below average for this point in the season. With the first butcher date in early October, I'm going to start the finishing process now to see if they can catch back up. I'll be bringing them prunings from trees in each paddock to give them a nice boost of calories and nutrition. In my opinion, the addition of the tree leaves to their diet just before harvesting adds wonderful flavor to the meat too.
We are totally sold out of lamb and I'm proud to say almost all of it is going to the Bitcoin community. I did trade one for store credit at the local family owned convenience store and I ended up selling one to some guests for fiat too. Other than those two lambs, the rest are all headed to bitcoiners anywhere from Grand Rapids to Chicago and even Milwaukee.
#permaculture #permies #homesteading #meshtadel #rotationalgrazing #circulareconony #bitcoinculture #lamb #sheep #regenerativeagriculture #regenag #silvopasture
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#permaculture #permies #homesteading #meshtadel #lamb #rotationalgrazing #sheep