Go to Page Three - Breeding and Winter Feeding (December through March)
August
August is a month of upkeep and work projects. We continue moving the cross fencing and the flock. We still check the flock every day, something we do year round.
Another project well under way and continuing is fence building. New perimeter fences are added and three strand permanent cross fencing continues. Check out sheep fencing for more information on fencing options for sheep.
The lambs are very active and we enjoy taking some evening time to sit on the hillsides and laugh at the lamb races and king of the hill antics.
September
September is winsome month in the year of the sheep. The weather is fair as the heat of our summer has passed. There is time for lazy days and watching lambs kick up their heels and run around out on the pasture. Lambs will be approaching 4 months and the 70-90 pound mark.
Fencing continues - it seems like it will continue forever.....!
We will borrow a swather and cut down the millet before it fully ripens. This way there is green feed for swath grazing. The swaths will sit until grazed in the early winter.
October
If we are going to sell lambs to a fall market this is the month. Our lambs will average 95-105 pounds in weight. If we don't sell to the fall market the other option is keeping lambs to finish ourselves.
We bring the flock to the yard and run lambs over a scale. We sort out lambs for market, keeper ram lambs and replacement ewe lambs. At this time we also go through the ewes and cull those who are not measuring up.
We put our hands on the ewes and gauge condition score. We look for any signs that indicate an animal may need worming (very few will) and we trim hooves as needed.
We also have to tag any animals headed for sale and we ear tag replacement ewe lambs that will be staying on the ranch.
We book a truck for transport and send lambs to a buyer or to a sale. Replacement ewe lambs remain with the flock and will get weaned naturally. Since they will soon be capable of breeding, the ram lambs will be seperated and thus weaned.
New grass has ceased growing as our killing frost will have arrived by now. Even so, if our grazing plan was successful throughout the year of the sheep flock on grass we will still have forage for the ewes to keep grazing.
We begin to add extra vitamins to our kelp-based sheep mineral supplement. We do not feed any grains or supplement the available forage with other feeds. Since the nutritional quality of the grass diminishes we find that we need to boost the ewes with added vitamins at this time of year otherwise we may see some signs of deficiency.
November
In a regular year we will have received our first snow fall by now. Post pounding for new fence will have wrapped up as the ground is now frozen. We continue to stretch and put up new wire as long as we can manage to work in the cold.
The flock continues to graze as long as there is enough available forage. Chores include a daily check of the flock and guard dogs.
Grazing moves are less frequent and we can leave the flock to access larger areas to obtain the needed forage.
If it is too cold to run the water station pump to water the flock on pasture, the flock will rely on snow. If sufficient fresh snow is not available we will open water holes along the shores of natural water bodies.
We haul our hay bales home, borrow a tractor and set up our bale graze area for late winter feeding.
So ends this portion of year of the sheep flock - grazing and maintenance (August through November).
Go to Page One - Shearing and Lambing (April through July)
Go to Page Three - Breeding and Winter Feeding (December through March)
In a regular year we will have received our first snow fall by now. Post pounding for new fence will have wrapped up as the ground is now frozen. We continue to stretch and put up new wire as long as we can manage to work in the cold. 