We got our first snow this weekend. The pastures look beautiful covered in white. Wade’s cows are huddled together at the top of the hill just outside my kitchen window, a blanket of snow accumulating along their backs, softly chewing their cud. I wish my horses could do that. It would stave off their winter boredom.
I finally let the girls out into the December portion of the hayfield yesterday. They acted like it was an April turnout – take 3 steps in, head down, start noshing. Like they had not eaten for weeks. Fiona dashed around, head and tail high, like her Arabian self. Dolly was much more business like: quit running around and let’s eat.
My very loose plan is to use the southwest quarter of the hay field for winter grazing for them. I’ll split it into 3 strips moving upslope from west to east, to hopefully follow the soil conditions and get them to higher ground as the soils get softer and softer. They’ll get one strip for the rest of December, one strip in January, and one strip in February. As long as the ground is frozen, they can be out there. I know we will have a lot of days where temps in the afternoon get above freezing, so I will just have to bring them in in the afternoons. Once we hit March 1 they will have to come into the dry lot for 6 weeks to let everything get established for summer grazing. They will just have to suffer with boredom and mud for those 6 weeks. I keep meaning to remember to put the LikIt toy in Fiona’s stall. She has started chewing on the wood, and even the bucket cords and I have to put a stop to that.
The thing I’m thinking about now is how to feed them when they are on the hay field. How much can I decrease their hay when they are out there? I suppose what I need to do is go out there with the grazing stick and measure the dry matter, and then divide by the number of days I plan to keep them there, and then add hay accordingly. I need to remember to order a weight tape to keep track of their body condition throughout the winter. Another thing I need to remember is to come up with a plan for how much extra hay I need to feed when temps get below their body maintenance threshold. What about blanketing? Is it worth doing when the temps fall below maintenance threshold? Will it decease the effectiveness of their coats? Blanketing is a pain and adds to daily labor, but would it be worth it in terms of hay savings? I got the hay probe from the extension office yesterday. I should take the hay samples and send them in this week. That will help me know how much to feed. I got the feed scale last week but I am not all that happy with it. I cannot see the numbers when the hay is on the scale! It cost me $35 form Harbor Freight. Would a hanging scale be better? Would it be worth the extra expense?
I had a visit from Brice my new soil conservationist at the NRCS. He wants me to have a plan for the final infrastructure layout I need when the business is at full production. So I went back and re thought the lamb startup. I think my land can support 40 ewes. I have the calculations for this based in my google drive. So the dry lot/under cover space I will need at full production, at 12-16 sq ft per ewe, will be 480 – 640 sq ft. I’ve decided it makes the most sense to open my building to the north. The portion of the building that is not devoted to the horses is 36 x 24. If I open up the north wall and use panels to block off the north half of the building, that gives me 36 x 12 = 432 sq ft. That’s enough to house almost the entire flock in winter (ewes only; there will be no lambs in winter). If I need to expand past that I have two options: I could go further east and put up walls on the side porch and even move into the gravel area that is east of the building. Or, I could move north and add a roof and wall panels to the west of the dry lot to increase the square footage of the protected space.
What I really need to be doing now is making reservations for 6 ewe lambs for next June, I’m having a hard time finding people. I need to commit to that. Then I’ll need to make a list of projects needed before the ewes arrive: set up summer shelter and water. Make sure I have enough fencing for them. Will I just put them in with the horses? I might need one more roll of electrostop to make a full enclosure for them.
I need to order the solid steel rods and some bigger wheels for the coop. Then I think it will be ready to go. Meg and I are thinking ordering a mix of brown egg layers to arrive in mid-February, and one rooster for aerial predator control.
The Tranquility Ranch 