Sheep in the backyard

Did you know we have seven lawnmowers?  Here they are!

They do a pretty good job, although they haven't acquired a taste for certain weeds.  We may have to actually end up mowing weeds, but they do a good job with the grass!

I think they were plotting their break out in this pictures...caught ya!

How's that door taste?  Better than grass?

We haven't moved them fully out yet on pasture, just to the backyard for several reasons.  We haven't set up good tight fence yet.  And we've been having lots and lots of coyotes in our neighborhood.  Since it's been so nice outside, we have had our windows open.  And boy oh boy are coyotes loud at 1:00 in the AM!  I looked out my window as soon as I heard them one morning and could have sworn they would be in our backyard since they were so loud.  Jon even got on the four wheeler with a spotlight and shotgun to see if he could take care of a few.  No luck, but it does make me a little nervous to put the sheep out by themselves in the pasture.  We either need to get a guardian dog, put them with the cattle or bring them back to an enclosed area at night.  But we all know our luck with dogs....

Why yes, that is a pool noodle wrapped around my dog's neck!  Why in the world would a dog have a pool noodle around his neck?

So, he doesn't rip out his new stitches, of course!

Hopefully this experience will teach him not to mess with a heifer who has horns....

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livestock-go-round

or Musical Livestock, if you prefer. No matter how you say it, there has been a lot of moving of animals in the past week. The first of which was to separate the sows from the piglets. I managed to separate and move them fairly easily. Then came the hair sheep and combining the rams and ewes. That was easy, all I did was open up the fence panel between their pens. Next came the cattle, I setup poly-wire around some of the alfalfa and moved the cowherd onto that. I even managed to get a boar moved from the garden into the sow pen and a sow into the garden with the other boar. A few delays but nothing unexpected. So far, so good right?

Well, then that sow got out and I chased her around the farm and got her back in. While I was looking for tools to repair the fence, she proceeded to run right back out the other side (this pen just has one electric fence wire). By that time it was dark and I had no idea where she was. So I fixed the  fence and called it a night. Later that night, Jamie was concerned that something would happen to her so I went back out with the spotlight and found her. I proceeded to chase her around the farm yard again and I almost had her but I ended up losing her and decided to wait until morning. The next morning Jamie and I chased her around again (ok so I chased her around but Jamie helped stage blockades) and eventually got her in the pen with the piglets. We decided that was good enough and would bring the boar to her. After some coaxing with the feed bucket, we managed to get the boar in too.

Then came the cow. Cow #27 is the "Escapee cow". I have seen her go under, over, through most fences on our farm. And I'm tired of it! This weekend was the last straw when I found her and a bunch of heifers out and some of my poly-wire down. We decided then and there that she was not going back with the herd; although she did not get the memo. I've been working with the cattle using the animal handling techniques I learned but there's not much you can do in that particular situation. So I ended up chasing her around the farm on a four wheeler. Throughout the course of the day she jumped over (and temporarily got stuck in) a barbed wire fence and three electric fences. I did get her into the corral up towards the house though and that's where she'll have to stay since she'll get out of any other sort of fencing that I have on the farm. Of course, she has a four month old calf too but he was with the herd at the time so I was only able to move her. They are both bauling but I can't get the calf to leave the herd so I'm not sure what to do. He's definitely old enough to wean but I prefer to keep him on through the winter to help him gain weight faster. I'm thinking that he will make his way to her but we'll see.

I thought I would draw it up on the board for you to help clear things up...

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our latest visitor

I was working the other day and I heard Max making a racquet. But not his normal, incessant barking. So I go outside to find this:

We have a visiting cat that Max is trying to welcome to the farm but, apparently, the cat isn't feeling very social. He's the black spot in the crook of the tree.

Even the ewes came over to see what all the commotion was about.

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Here they are!!! Our sheep!!

Jon took a 12 hour ride down to Missouri yesterday to buy some sheep from Greg Judy.  If you have ever read any of his books Comeback Farms or No Risk Ranching, you would know our excitement.  He has managed to create a flock of hair sheep that does not need to be wormed and is very low input.  These are not sheep that will need to be sheared, they lose their hair in the spring just like cattle.

Jon met Greg in February in Junction City, Kansas at a speaking event.  Greg had mentioned he had a waiting list for sheep and Jon immediately used his cellphone to email him at the event and get us on the list.  And our number just came up!

This wasn't particularly good timing for us money or time wise.  But when an opportunity presents itself, sometimes you just gotta make it work. 

And here are the lovely ladies and gentleman:

One of our 100% St. Croix rams.

Poor buddy...he was tired.  Long trip!

 Our females.  They are an array of breeds, I think maybe some Dorper, Barbados, Katahdin and just a good mix of hair sheep. 

Aren't they gorgeous!

We got them situated just before it got dark, which was perfect timing.

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