http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/Ranching-blog.html This is the Ranching-With-Sheep updates page in mini blog form. The purpose is to keep readers current with new and updated information added to our site. en-us ranching Thu, 29 Jul 2010 23:35:12 GMT Thu, 29 Jul 2010 23:35:12 GMT ranching-with-sheep.com http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/accelerated-lambing.html Accelerated Lambing - What is involved in this intensive side of sheep management in which the sheep flock is managed to lamb more frequently? Thu, 29 Jul 2010 23:25:23 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/Ranching-blog.html#Blog-2010-Entry-15-Lost-Rams Earlier this month we lost our rams. We went out to move them only to discover they were not where we had set them. There are vast spaces of unoccupied grassland interspersed with cropland surrounding us. Finding 18 rams proved no easy task. We gave up searching until yesterday when we received notice that they had been spotted along a road about 2 miles from they yard. We located them at dark last night and promptly lost them again. They were moving like deer. First thing this am after a couple hours of searching they were spotted again, this time about one mile from home. I grabbed a dog and off we went. It was quite the long way home with some very flighty animals, however I'm very happy to report all the rams are in. It's days like this that my working dogs are worth more than gold. Do you use dogs to manage livestock? Have they saved your bacon on occasion? Tell us about it by posting your story on our <a href="http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/working-dogs.html">working dogs page.</a> Mon, 26 Jul 2010 17:13:41 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/the-old-english-sheep-dog-as-guardian-dog.html I have been using them for a little over 20 years and find them to be very hard workers Sat, 24 Jul 2010 23:01:03 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/Ranching-blog.html#Blog-2010-Entry-14-The-Pace-Slows With lambing complete the pace of the daily routine has slowed. While pasture lambing is indeed a low labour affair there is still the checking of animals twice a day and moving the flock to new paddocks every second or third day. And moving portable fencing in between. And somewhere in there is docking tails and castrating lambs as well. At the end of lambing we are back to doing one daily check on animals and the flock moves are spread out further since the grass growth has slowed. Our stint of mob grazing is done as the alfalfa in our pastures has matured considerably. The flock is back on a piece of land that we began early spring grazing on in May. This means they are set on a larger tract of land for the time being and will be there for about two weeks. This is affording us a bit of a reprieve. We still need to do a lot more cross fencing to realize the kind of rotational grazing we would like. That or buy a whole lot more animals. Not something we're willing to do until we can pay cash for them. For now we'll take advantage of using some larger pieces of grazing land for part of our summer and letting the flock park for a bit. Everything else will happen in due time. Fri, 09 Jul 2010 02:20:56 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/Ranching-blog.html#Blog-2010-Entry-13-Mob-Grazing-Attempt In an attempt to manage for bloat on rain lush alfalfa pastures we tried our hand at mob grazing. We rotated roughly 340 ewes with lambs, two heifers, one calf and a llama on 2.5 acres. We were moving the mob every 12 hours. A few things happened. Moves were easy since animals were always ready to move to fresh grass. It got so the sheep would begin following us as soon as we showed up, just waiting for us to drop the fence and let them go to the next piece. The grass was better utilized for sure. Now the animals had to eat some grass where previously they could select all the alfalfa they wanted. What wasn't eaten was trampled into the earth. Keeping up with the water station was a chore at times. So was keeping animals in the fence. Our fencer is highly challenged this year as many sections of our fence-line are sitting in water plus the grass growth along the fence-line is drawing a lot of power from the fence. Sheep figure these things out. The only place they ended up was on another piece of our land but it was amazingly aggravating to have sheep outside of the fence. We took personal offense to the sight every time! Without established permanent or semi-permanent cross fencing already in place mob grazing is a lot of work. We were setting up and taking down Electranet every day to keep up to the moves. In the end bloat was not a real issue for us as many suspect it will be when grazing on alfalfa. Tue, 06 Jul 2010 19:33:19 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/Ranching-blog.html#Blog-2010-Entry-12-Sunshine-and-Lollipops We corralled the flock on the one dry sunny day we had this past week and docked tails and castrated ram lambs. We were pleasantly surprised to realize just shy of 300 lambs were on the ground, alive and well. I am amazed at how many lambs came through such miserable weather conditions as we have had for the past three weeks. Our <a href="http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/lambing.html"> lambing</a> takes place on pasture so we are subject to whatever conditions we get. The conditions have been less than sunshine and lollipops. And while newborn lambs will survive more cold than I thought they would they don't handle being wet and cold at the same time - for days on end. I wrote a brief post regarding the wet weather about two weeks ago, never imagining it would continue for another two weeks and drop almost eight inches of rain. We're soggy and we're not used to it. This year is indeed an anomaly. Mon, 14 Jun 2010 00:59:24 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/site-map.html Ranching with sheep site map. Helping you to easily find your way around our site Thu, 03 Jun 2010 13:21:14 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/swath-grazing.html Swath grazing sheep is not a common occurrence but can work well to alleviate winter feed costs while providing alternatives in pasture management Wed, 02 Jun 2010 23:24:23 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/grazing-in-the-grass.html Sheep grazing in the grass is a pastoral scene but figuring out and maintaining a rotational grazing plan is the real art. Here's a few tips that we learned along the way Wed, 02 Jun 2010 23:10:43 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/rotational-grazing-2.html Feel overwhelmed by the rotational grazing lingo and keeping track of the do and don't's? Consider a mowing the lawn approach to help you with grazing in the grass Wed, 02 Jun 2010 23:03:06 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/Ranching-blog.html#Blog-2010-Entry-11-Stock-Dog-Clinics We have just come through hosting a two day stock dog training clinic with instructors Dave & Trudy Viklund. While I expect to learn by attending clinics, I am always amazed at the number of puzzle pieces that fall into place for me. This clinic with Dave and Trudy did not disappoint. I worked my young Kelpie, Cajun, and it was a treat to witness the shaping of progress over the two days. The capacity of <a href="http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/working-dogs.html">working dogs</a> to learn to work in partnership with people while utilizing their instinct to move livestock is enormous. From Shelties and Beardies to Kelpies and Collies these dogs possess more talent and communicative skills than all of us at the clinic combined. There were numerous and generous comments on the respectful training approach Dave and Trudy employ and the learning that occurred for the people in attendance. We are sure that Dave and Trudy will be back at Dog Tale Ranch in the future. Sun, 30 May 2010 20:50:53 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/Ranching-blog.html#Blog-2010-Entry-10-Illusion-of-Right-and-Wrong This week of lambing has certainly not gone as planned. Planned was each ewe birthing twins with ease and in the sunshine, with room for acceptance of the occasion loss. What is - is a week of if-it-could-go-wrong-it-did. Miserable weather, ewes with birthing trouble, ewes walking away from lambs, and painful not fair scenarios like one ewe who laid down to birth with feet uphill and was not able right herself in time to take care of her newborn lambs. She appeared more distraught than we were to discover they were both dead. The look in her eyes showed dismay and if any ewe needed to have live lambs it was her. While the above scenarios make my eyes well with tears, if I put emotions aside all these occurrences are only wrong because I hold onto a perception of right and wrong. Maybe there is no right and wrong and things just are. While no easy feat it is less stressful when one can understand the concept that right and wrong do not exist and accept that life experiences are just that - life experiences. The goal is to figure out how to be grateful for each experience because the experiences symbolize that we are still thriving in this game of life. That's more than can be said for the dead lambs we've picked up this week. Sun, 30 May 2010 20:46:36 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/ranching-newsletter.html Crooked Fences, the ranching newsletter written to foster connections between land, livestock, sustainability and human potential Sun, 30 May 2010 20:12:01 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/Ranching-blog.html#Blog-2010-Entry-9-Working-With-Nature Work with Nature, even when she's rocking the boat - almost literally in this case. We are one week into <a href="http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/lambing.html">lambing</a>. It is the latter half of May when we expect sunshine and a few rain showers. However soaking rains, cold temperatures and high winds arrived yesterday and have wreaked havoc on an otherwise successful lambing week. The forecast outlook is dismal for the next two days. Mother Nature is all inclusive so beware of holding onto undue expectations. We expect better weather in May as though somehow we are in control of such a feat. We are not and there is no point hanging onto quilt or anger over it. We are not immune to such occurrences and should not expect to be, no matter how much we try to jungle the system to work in our favour. Expectation of control is a <a href="http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/what-is-a-paradigm.html">paradigm</a> that cheats us. The ewes do not hold the control either. The ewes who lamb in sheltered areas or get their lambs to shelter are the ewes this type of weather will extract. And it is a marvel to see it happen. Those who lose their lambs will just have a free and easy summer season without raising a lamb. Well not quite - they'll be dogging sheep. So we carry on, going deeper to find the meaning and the opportunity in such challenges while holding tight to the knowledge that all will be well in the end. Sun, 23 May 2010 21:06:27 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/lambing-2.html Shed or pasture lambing. Compare the two and learn what is involved so you can choose the right program for you and your sheep flock Wed, 05 May 2010 21:17:59 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/year-of-the-sheep-3.html This is the final third of our year of the sheep flock calendar. This section of the sheep ranchers year involves breeding time and winter feeding Wed, 05 May 2010 20:37:10 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/year-of-the-sheep-2.html We continue with the sheep ranchers calendar depicting a year of the sheep flock on grass. Page two of this calendar year includes grazing and maintenance Wed, 05 May 2010 20:27:48 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/year-of-the-sheep.html It's not the Chinese Zodiac but rather a look at the sheep ranchers calendar depicting a year of the sheep flock on grass. This is page one - discover what takes place from sheep shearing through lamb Wed, 05 May 2010 20:17:47 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/Ranching-blog.html#Blog-2010-Entry-8-Wetlands As I walk our pastures and look at grass I also take note of the wetlands. With less than usual snow melt, early this spring they were low. Now however, we are receiving our fourth day of rain and snow in five days. It is good. Spring moisture cleanses the prairies of winter snow dust. It quenches the thirst of the land and fills our wetlands. The rain (even in the form of wet snow) is very welcome. Our <a href="http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/wetlands.html">wetlands</a> are very important to us and we care about their fate. They allow us to water livestock on pasture and they are also one of the most productive ecosystems going. So much life exists because there are wetlands. Without them our prairie paradise would be pretty barren. Wed, 05 May 2010 03:13:40 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/Ranching-blog.html#Blog-2010-Entry-7-Sheep-Shearing---A-New-Year-Begins Shearing is finished and lambing is only a few weeks away. Another year of sheep production begins. The few days prior to <a href="http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/sheep-shearing.html">sheep shearing</a> we dealt with intermittent rain, enough that we were concerned about wet wool. The herding dogs, who are coming off of a season of light winter chores, did extra duty moving the flock daily, into shelter from the rain and back out to eat when there was a break. I think they were glad of the days rest when two terrific ladies and their working dogs showed up to help us out on shearing day. You just have to appreciate help like this and the work that <a href="http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/working-dogs.html">working dogs</a> do. Shearing went well as we had adequate extra hands on deck to keep pace with the four shearers. The ewes are in good condition, something we get very excited about since in our quest for a natural approach we have eliminated some routine flock treatments. It is always a bit unnerving traversing down a new road and wondering if you're on the right track or not. It appears we are for now though. I enjoy this time of the year, walking the pastures, witnessing the slow bloom of new green across the landscape and seeing how much the ewes relish the first grass shoots. The flock has been grazing for a couple weeks now, occasionally coming back for a bit of hay. This is an early start to the grazing season for us. Since winter feeding did not begin until mid December we only fed hay for four months or about 120 days this year. A trend we hope to continue. Tue, 04 May 2010 01:26:52 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/gathering-eggs-how-this-working-dog-helps-out.html My Aussie Keesha stands guard while I gather eggs in the hen house. The reason she watches out for me is the rooster wants to attack anyone who tries Sun, 02 May 2010 12:13:33 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/sheep-management-2.html Sheep Management - a look at the options of confinement, semi-confinement and zero confinement methods of sheep raising, the characterisitics and the sheep ranching costs associated with each Sat, 10 Apr 2010 01:28:47 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/working-dogs-how-an-australian-shepherd-saved-the-day.html Autumn is the time of the year when livestock is rounded up and gathered to be shipped to market. Calves are collected and weaned and any that were not Fri, 02 Apr 2010 13:40:27 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/sheep-predators-2.html Want to know about sheep predators? Want to keep your sheep flock safe? Becoming familiar with the various livestock predators you may encounter in your ranching area will give you a heads up about wh Sun, 28 Mar 2010 21:40:39 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/herding-events.html Looking for herding events? Whether your working your first dog or your tenth, Dog Tale Ranch offers opportunities for training and working your stock dog in real ranch setting. Thu, 25 Mar 2010 20:51:32 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/ranching-business.html Ranching business, love of a lifestyle or both? Easy to learn tips to help you discover your profit source and to profit at home on the ranch Thu, 25 Mar 2010 20:33:26 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/profit-source.html There is a profit source in the ranching business for those who recognize the priceless and abundant potential of grass, sun, wind and water. Read about some of them here Thu, 25 Mar 2010 20:21:49 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/want-to-earn-more-profits.html Want to earn more profits on the ranch or through raising sheep? Use these tips to focus on profit sources and keeping more profit at home Thu, 25 Mar 2010 19:59:59 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/living-off-the-land.html Living off the land involves an awareness of how you can profit at home through ranching, becoming profit focused and learning what your profit sources are Thu, 25 Mar 2010 19:45:26 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/hair-sheep.html Are hair sheep the next up and coming breeds of sheep to raise? As low sheep wool prices continue to keep wool as a costly by-product of wool breeds many will be considering these different breeds of Sun, 07 Mar 2010 01:59:35 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/different-breeds-of-sheep.html Different breeds of sheep including the wool breeds, hair sheep, meat breeds and prolific breeds to help you narrow down your choice Sun, 07 Mar 2010 01:46:19 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/rare-breeds-of-sheep.html Why rare breeds of sheep should be taken into consideration by all of us who are sheep ranching and/or interested in sheep breeds Sat, 06 Mar 2010 03:39:21 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/breeds-of-sheep.html Selecting breeds of sheep suited for natural, grass based sheep ranching. Almost as important as selecting breed is selecting for maternal traits terminal sire characteristics Sat, 06 Mar 2010 03:31:10 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/sheep-breeds.html Sheep breeds, a condensed version to help you pin point the breeds of sheep best suited to your land, your ranch and your desires Sat, 06 Mar 2010 03:12:30 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/what-is-a-paradigm.html Just what is a paradigm and what does a paradigm shift have to do with ranching with sheep, agriculture or you and me? Mon, 01 Mar 2010 02:08:01 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/aggressive-dog-behavior.html Aggressive dog behavior in livestock guardian dogs sometimes becomes an issue for new and even been-around-awhile owners. So take heart - you're not alone in dealing with dog behavior issues. Read abo Sat, 27 Feb 2010 13:48:27 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/guardian-dog.html The livestock guardian dog is a tool to help you decrease sheep predator losses to your stock. The tool can be more effective if the person using it has a little knowledge. Glean some tips so your LGD Sat, 27 Feb 2010 13:30:21 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/livestock-fencing-extras.html Find out what other livestock fencing considerations to take into account to ensure your sheep fencing is feasible and enhances instead of hinders the daily functioning of your ranch and your land Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:15:44 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/Ranching-blog.html#Blog-2010-Entry-6-The-Great-Bale-Escape Sometimes you try your best to set up well in advance and it backfires on you. Across the south end of our bale graze area is a row a bales basically set there to act as a fence line. After a winter storm passed through here there were snow drifts to the top of the bales. The sheep ignored these as the drifts proved too deep even for their curious and venturous nature. That is until last week. During the winter time the snow settles and becomes more and more firm making walking where it was once not possible, possible. When I walked out in the evening to call up and feed the guard dogs I was startled to see a group of sheep come from the far side of bales (that is outside of the fence), trot along the top of the bales and drop down, back where the rest of the flock was. Our great plan to foil their great plan was to borrow a tractor and move snow. After all we still needed to clear our yard out. That didn't go so well. When you're in the position of having to beg, borrow and, well okay this tractor wouldn't be worth stealing, you have to deal with what you get and work around others. The tractor wasn't exactly ready to move snow. So the majority of the flock spent a day outside of the bale graze paddock. Come evening we took dogs along to gather them up and put them back where we felt they belonged. Observing their tracks and where they had gone to (turned out not far at all) we noticed they had been foraging for REAL grass on a piece of native prairie grassland. These girls know how to forage and have the desire to do so. It's exactly what we wanted in our sheep. Foraging for grass in February in Saskatchewan. Wed, 24 Feb 2010 12:52:50 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/sheep-raising.html We've compiled the questions about sheep raising that we get asked on a frequent basis, and put them together here. Read our answers to questions like "how do sheep compare with cattle?" and "what do Tue, 23 Feb 2010 13:42:45 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/sheep-trek-2009-and-why-i-need-my-working-dogs.html Last winter we had about 100 head of sheep. We had approximately 40 lambs that were grazing an area 1/2 mile from the main farm here in central KY. Well, Sun, 14 Feb 2010 01:50:32 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/sheep-minerals.html When it comes to sheep minerals and maintaining sheep health the majority of your problems and your fixes will be contained in your land Fri, 12 Feb 2010 12:59:57 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/why-some-primitive-working-dogs-can-be-a-ranchers-best-friend.html My late husband Larry and I had a passion for preserving a rare breed, especially one that had a potential to assist man in a working capacity. The ancient Thu, 11 Feb 2010 13:25:24 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/working-dog-putting-the-cows-away.html One cold March day, our herd of cattle escaped their feedlot pasture and headed half a mile away to their summer pasture. The grass truly was greener Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:37:03 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/Ranching-blog.html#Blog-2010-Entry-5-Sheep-and-Traffic-Circles Our round bales are set up in rows for winter grazing. At this point in the winter there is a significant amount of snow piled up between each bale. There is a zone of clearing in the immediate vicinity around each bale. Each time we allow access to a new bales it takes a brave lead ewe to plow a trail to the new row. More often than not she'll follow our footsteps to do so. Once at the row the flock uses a system that resembles traffic circles to move bale to bale. No kidding. Picture a circle around each bale and then two trails through the snow on two sides of it. These trails are often started by us when we move along the row cutting bottom twines which we do each time we start a new row of bales. Or the trails are started by the two heifers as they are more willing and able to plow through snow. Because sheep dislike wading through deep snow they move around the bale and exit at a trail. Other ewes arriving to a bale will be on the second lane. Occassionally someone is in the wrong lane and I'm sure who turns around is somehow determined by bravado or status. When a herding dog comes along there is often a traffic pile up. In their rush to move quickly the sheep forget about any lanes. Hhhmmm... this is sounding vaguely familiar. Sat, 06 Feb 2010 03:08:43 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/treating-internal-parasites.html If you will be treating internal parasites in your flock of sheep you will want to take into account these helpful considerations to increase the effectiveness and help save a dollar Sun, 31 Jan 2010 02:52:44 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/internal-parasites.html While there may not be a magic bullet for controlling internal parasites in sheep there are sheep management practices that will help to maintain sheep health and keep worm loads under control Sun, 31 Jan 2010 02:32:04 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/livestock-fencing-options.html Having livestock fencing options besides the commonly used high tensile fence allow the sheep rancher to make a choice suited to the various needs of the ranch Sun, 31 Jan 2010 02:07:38 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/sheep-flocks.html The simplistic nature of raising sheep flocks on grass make it an appealing choice to consider. Contributions to health of land and livestock are only a portion of the many benefits Wed, 27 Jan 2010 18:19:41 GMT http://www.ranching-with-sheep.com/flock-of-sheep-starting.html Not all sheep are created equal. Establishing a flock of sheep means taking into consideration what breed traits you're after to begin with and just what type of operation you really intend to run Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:53:24 GMT