Ecological Lawn Maintenance

We are still in the phase of establishing truly good pastures, which basically means that the sheep can only be on the new pastures for very brief periods. We were able to use the new pastures for two months during the spring while they were nursing lambs, but otherwise they have been in their drylot being fed hay for much of the year. And then there is the lawn, which we have been having to mow, This property (unlike where I used to live) has lots of lawn. The goats help some (and unlike the sheep will stay around if let out), but they really prefer weeds and brush. This past week we finally got the property fenced off sufficiently to allow the sheep loose for grazing. Hopefully, my lawn mowing days for this year are over.

Lambing Season - Week 3 Begins

We are now two weeks plus into lambing season. Three jacob ewes have lambed so far - two sets of twins and one single. The surprising thing so far is that they are all
ewe lambs. In this picture the lambs are hanging out together while their mothers are eating their daily ration of grain. This year kidding and lambing season will be very drawn out. The mule flock should start lambing next month, followed by the Shetlands in March and finishing up with the goats in April.

Here Come the Mules!

No these aren't the equine kind of mule. In the fall of 2008, we started an experiment - the crossing of Shetland ewes and Jacob ewes with a Blue Faced Leicester (BFL) ram to produce a commercial style crossbred ewe that would hopefully have the vigor of their primitive breed dams and soft lusterous wool of their BFL sire (Longhope Lord Nelson). These crossbred ewes are called mules. The idea is to breed the mule ewes to a British style Suffolk or Texel as a terminal cross to produce lambs that will finish well and quickly on grass. This breeding scheme is popular in Britain and becoming more widely used in the U.S. You can read more about it at http://www.mulesheep.com.

The first 6 lambs we kept born in 2009 (4 jacob and 2 shetland mules) are now over a year old and ready to be bred. They are shown in the picture below with their Suffolk ram. They are about the same height as their dams, but broader and slightly longer. Based on my experience and reading, the BFL crossed with a Shetland produces colors such as black, white and various shades of gray. The Jacob cross surprised me in that we got some white and dark brown lambs in addition to the black lambs I expected. They seem to produce more wool on a weight-basis compared to their dams. Temperment wise the mules resemble their dams; in fact I often describe the Jacob mules as Jacobs wearing a BFL suit because they are definitely Jacob in behavior, but their wool and body type are more like their sire.