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It all started with a pick up door slamming shut. One of the hired men up to the farm stopped at the house and said they were going to spread cow manure on my fields before the CNMP shut off went into effect. Because of frozen soil, we can only spread manure up until December. I like the idea of them spreading manure because that means the grass will really grow next year without having to spend money on fertilizer, but you can't graze sheep on freshly laid manure.
I was just smiling the other day, figuring I could push my grazing all the way up until December, or at least the first major snow. I had plenty of grass for the sheep since the fields were still green and the sheep seemed to be doing well on free range grazing.
Now they are pinned in to the only field I have that the trucks can't get on. That means the grazing is gone and its on to winter feeding. Its no big deal I guess, but one of the things I really want to get into is winter grazing, or at least pushing the grazing back to the extreme. Its a stretch here in Maine, but for every day I gain in the fall, that is one less day of feeding out winter feed...
Now its 20 degrees outside and snowing hard with accumulating snow. I guess winter is here huh?
Eat lamb...because 50,000 coyotes CAN'T be wrong!
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DB the snow hasn't started in this neck of the woods yet but from the feelings outside I'd say yeah winter is here it's cold & very damp feeling down here but the temps are still just high enough that I keep getting rain showers instead of snow.
Lord keep your arm around my shoulder & your hand over my mouth
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Senior Member
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Snow is accumulating here, only a few inches but its enough. I ran up to the big dairy farm and grabbed some hay bales. I grabbed three and hauled them home with my tractor...no cab. It was a 6 mile round trip and I am cold and wet.
The worst thing is, I only got 1.5 hay bales. They are pretty ratty looking stuff with only half a bale really to what I grabbed as they have not done much haying in the last 4 years. The sheep will eat it but I'm going to need better as they near lambing season. I got to figure out a good way to get haylage/silage home...or buy it. I need a silo. I said this last year and never got to it.
Uggg...
Its been a bad week. My Grandmother found out she has inoperable ovarian cancer, my foster child has been sick and missing school she can't afford to miss, and my cousin and brother in law found themselves in jail this week for doing stupid stuff.
Eat lamb...because 50,000 coyotes CAN'T be wrong!
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Junior Member
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Wow DB, that sounds like a horrible week! We will keep you in our prayers. BTW I sent you a PM with an off topic question.
JasonP
Lazy P Homestead
Wright City, MO
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Starting Member
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sorry to hear bout your week DP. But i notic all you guys was saying bout winter is here i just wanted to tell you guys i feel your pain I gotta put a sweat shirt on in the morningbout 6am but its off to a T-shirt by 8am. Should only by in the 70's this weekend 
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feel your pain. I've got snow and ice...temps in the high 20's and feeding hay. However this is the time of year we try to graze off fields a bit..just a little winter grass before the snow. Now, due to the snow the animals are slipping threw the temp fence to greeners plots, like the lawns next door.
but, all in all this to shall pass.
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Senior Member
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JasonP (11/5/2009)
Wow DB, that sounds like a horrible week! We will keep you in our prayers. BTW I sent you a PM with an off topic question.
Jason, I saw that. I have sent you a private email and private message over the last week or so. Have you been getting them? I can understand if you can't get right back to me, but I do not want you thinking I ignored you. I didn't, but I have never heard back from you yet. Technical issue?
Eat lamb...because 50,000 coyotes CAN'T be wrong!
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Senior Member
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I got an ideal field to do some winter grazing on. It faces the prevailing wind, is high on a hill and so the wind will blow the snow right off it. But I just can't graze that field with manure on it.
The dairy farm has cows with Johnnies and the lambs especially could easily pick that disease up. Its nasty too, not to mention it just is not right to force sheep to graze in filth and cow manure. That means feeding out. I was hoping to use those older hay bales, but I am not sure now. They have really been degraded since last winter. I could buy some hay, but that would jack my cost per head per day way up. That's no good!
PS: the snow was deep enough for the snowplow to drop the plow.
Eat lamb...because 50,000 coyotes CAN'T be wrong!
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| I know in my day job, things never go the way I plan but somehow it always seems so much worse when it happens on the farm. I too hope next week is better. I keep forgetting you are a foster parent. I have 4 adopted boys so have done that also. I toy with the idea of trying again...I keep wanting some female energy in my house. Even most of my animals are male!! Mary Ann
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Mary Ann I have the opposite problem...too many girls.
All the sheep are girls except two...and they are both going to the slaughterhouse Monday. I do have 1 dog that is male, but that is off set by one female dog. Two daughters and a wife add to the estrogen levels inside the house, which is not at all counter acted by a few bulls roaming on pasture.
And up to the dairy farm...well it is a 1000 to 3 ratio of cows to bulls there too. So please send some testosterone my way, and I'll send you some estrogen...deal?
Eat lamb...because 50,000 coyotes CAN'T be wrong!
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