Feast or Fleeced?

I did my research. Read many websites. Collected information. Yep, Icelandic Lambs grow well on grass. In fact, they are best at gaining weight on grass and will be 90-110# in 4 to 5 months. We kept our lambs on mother's milk and grass all summer, and at the appointed time of 5 monthes, we delivered them to the processor knowing we have customers waiting for packages of healthy, tender lamb meat.

Here's where the research hits the pasture. After 5 months, our lambs didn't quite make the 110# target. In fact, they were about half that! Wow! A bit disappointing.

Well, what's a grassfarmer to do? We'll still have good meat to sell this year, albeit much less than hoped for. And next year we have a plan. My husband, the intensive grazer expert, says we'll try putting them on a fresh paddock at least every week. This year we've been able to improve several more paddocks and get them fenced in and ready to be used for intensive grazing purposes next year.

Isn't that what any good farmer says, "There's always next year." In the meantime, I'll still be selling lamb meat in a week or so. You just might want to call sooner since the supply is a little limited.

intensive grazing

I do my best at this thing called grass farming, but frankly, I'm quite the novice. My husband, Bob, is a wealth of knowledge and my main advisor. He has an animal science degree from NDSU, been a dairyman for many years, and now uses intensive grazing methods on the organic farm where he works raising grass-fed beef. I have books and magazines, but I like just asking Bob the most. :)

Today I made some shepherding decisions. The sheep have been in paddock #1 for about a month, and its looking pretty chewed down. On the other hand, paddocks 2 and 3 are looking lush with grass and some weeds. This morning saw Elizabeth, Karl and I out with various tools working on the fence line east of the barn. Sheep are quite good at escaping through a less-than-secure fence, and we have several places not very secure.

Karl cut a hog panel, drove two steel posts in and attached the panel to finish off the far east end gap between a gate and the outer fence. (we have a great 6-string barbed fence around the perimeter of the pasture/paddocks.)

Meanwhile, Elizabeth was adding a wire fence (specific kind unknown to me and Bob's not here) to another area, and I drilled some boards to support fence around the waterer that the hogs had torn down last spring.

It was hot but the mosquitos are horrible so we are in long-sleeved shirts and jeans. . .and hoods, too, in Karl's case.

This is a roll of wire fence we found out in the trees. It has come in very handy. The farm had old, wooden fence for horses when we bought the place. It had served well but has now fallen apart and time to replace with something stronger and good for sheep. One day paddocks 2 and 3 will get seperated with a functional fence, too.

The first picture at the top of the blog is the sheep in paddock 1 as I'm circling around them to switch pastures. They got all excited and ran through the gate. About 20 to 30 feet into the new paddock they abruptly stopped and dropped their heads. Aaah. New pasture; life is good.