Fall Flock

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I know a lot of people on here seem to enjoy my sheep so I thought you might like a picture of them I snapped the other night. My sheep free range (no fences) during the day, and every night I usher them back into a night paddock to protect them from coyotes. As I did this the other day, I took some pictures and one came out pretty good. The foliage this year is very bland due to our drought and a few gales that knocked the leaves off the trees, but it's still a cool picture of my farm.
 

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Beautiful shot. Looks like great grazing too.
No fences? I'm amazed.
Five strand, 8000volt dc fence is the norm here, keeps the sheep in, dogs and coyotes out, and sure makes you mad when you brush against it:eek:
 
Travis thanks for showing us your sheep. Picture is very cool. You a lucky man living on a spread like that.:thumb: Sheep are fattening up nicely or is it all just wool? Is this the whole herd for the moment?

Grazing looks good. Do you harvest it at all?

Hey i think you gotta change your avatar to shepherd use this picture.;):thumb:
 
Pete if you look close in the pic you can see what I am guessing are fence posts at the edge of the field. It is a beauitful scene Travis. I love the changing colors of the fall.

Sharp eye Drew.

There is some fence up between the hay field and the corn field, but it was used back when there was standing corn in the field and the Pony used to go in and eat the cobs. What keeps the sheep in is actually the grass itself. The other 3 sides of the field has absolutely no fence, but when the sheep can graze on this grass, they have no desire to head out into the woods. This is 3rd crop Orchard Grass/Timothy/Clover/Alfalfa mix. The first two crops were removed for dairy cow feed which is why its so lush. It was just too short to waste fuel harvesting a 3rd crop...so the sheep get it.

The sheep are in good shape. Much of what you see is wool actually, but they have been on ideal grass since May due to jockeying the sheep around the harvesting of haylage. What you see is what they have been eating all summer; nothing to tall and stemmy, and yet they are not starving either, so they put on good wool and weight all summer. They are in good condition going into winter that is for sure.
 
Very neat pic, thanks for posting. Beautiful country.
Yep, when raising critters the product you are selling is really grass. Sometimes it is processed into beef (or lamb, or whatever), sometimes it is processed into wool. Sometimes it is sold as hay. For folks who think farmers are simple, they are probably right in some ways. They focus on common sense economics and no one in the world does it better.
 
when raising critters the product you are selling is really grass
My wife makes the same point Frank, and often comments that what we have is a complicated system for converting grass into woolen blankets:)
From Travis' comment on the two cuts of haylage for dairy cattle, I'm guessing that, to be that lush in October, that land gets the benefit of a good dose of manure as well. Having them out there grazing sure beats the work and economics of hauling baled hay to them.
 
Travis,
Do you do your own shearing or do you have someone come in and do it for you....never worked sheep myself but have watched a video of guys shearing sheep down in Australia... looked like back breaking work.
I know you can't shear sheep in the winter and will wait for spring...
 
Peter: you are both right and wrong on the manure aspect of things. This field has gotten a healthy dose of cow manure in years past, so inevitably that has improved the soil so that it is at optimum levels as far as organic matter and nitrogen is concerned, but this year it did not get any. We just plum ran out. You would never think that would be the case with dairy farming, but even with a 1.8 million gallon lagoon, there are just too many other fields that need it, so the manure is hauled in every other year or so. But I think you will find that even at that rotation, it fortifies the soil enough to produce a good crop of grass. (And this field is crop rotated between corn and haylage every 8-10 years).

Allen: To answer your question, no the majority of what you are seeing is NOT ours. Our land resides mostly to the left, right and behind us. The hoop barn situated in the distance is part of the family's though, and houses the dairy farm...or what was the dairy farm. We are moving to a better facility and that will be a beef operation soon. As you can see in the picture though, 90% of the land here is forest, with about 10% field. We have a total of 120 acres in fields (corn/hay/pasture) but the vast majority of it is woodland. We are clearing more of it every year though to make way for more sheep.

Chuck: Coming from a a very long line of sheep farmers, I can shear sheep and so can my father, but we prefer not too. It is just too hard on my back, and my Dad is too old. It is back breaking work, but fortunately I found a 20 year old vet student nearby that comes from a long line of sheep shearers too. She charges half what other charge ($5 per sheep) and deworms, and trims their hooves to boot. If I did it myself it would make the difference between making money and losing money on the wool crop. Currently I get 29 cents per pound for the wool, and each sheep gets between 7-13 pounds of fleece. So you pay $5 per sheep to get at most $3.77 for the wool. That is not good economics, BUT wool breeds are preferred by the Middle Eastern consumers so you get 15% more money for the price of the meat which makes up for the cost of shearing.

Here is a picture of the 2009 shearing day, and as you can see, it is back breaking work...literally.
 

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Frank, my Grandfather used to say, "Travis, put hay in front of a ewe, and a ram behind her, and you will always make money", but I am not so sure that is true today. His point was simple, farming is simple.

I think the problem today is that we live in a very complex society. Farming is simple, but we sell to consumers that expect far more sophistication. At the same time the USDA demands a lot of science from us as well. It is no longer okay to simply graze a few sheep on a few acres of land, you must do soil sampling, manure samples and cross reference the two to be sure you are not polluting your soil via a Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plan and a soil scientist. And we must have annual inspections of our flocks to ensure Scrapie does not enter the food chain. And there are many more requirements to modern sheep farming...

And certainly farmers are no better since they feel this need to sound sophisticated and important and must keep up with their fellow neighbors and talk science regarding soil, animal health, nutrition and argonomics.

I personally think we as farmers should celebrate the fact that we are simple. Not in terms of being dumb...I do not know of a single successful farmer that is not highly intelligent...but realize that what makes us farmers is our hard work, ability to adapt to changing circumstances, and willingness to sell our products at a fair price. Those are simple concepts, but they are at odds with those that buy and regulate the commodities that we sell.

What a shame.:deadhorse:
 
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