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Hello! My first post here and wanted to do it on the sheep forum. We are just starting out with a small hair sheep~Katahdin~in WV, with intention of doing managed intensive grazing to improve the soils. Got selective logging done last spring~a disaster due to the company we chose~and are trying to establish silvopasture.
We are currently leasing a 10 acre field from a neighbor that has been unused for over 25 yrs but doesn't have the greatest of graze on it, all the same, so can be benefitted from MIG practices as well. In total, with the leased field, we have 28 acres of land to develop into good grazing, none of it the best but good enough for Katahdin sheep to get fat on, which is why I chose them.
I've been raising farm animals of some kind for 45 yrs but mostly chickens for the past several years until I got into sheep once again. I have a free range flock of chickens I've been developing for the past 10 yrs or so to be the kind of flock I desire but they are just for a food supply and not something I sell on a regular basis.
Doing everything on a shoestring, so lots of DIY solutions and building slowly from cheaper stock and materials. We are using 3 strand high tensile with poly braid on reels to move the stock, Anatolians for guardian animals and have no large equipment or structures for farming purposes...just 4 wheelers for working the land. We sell sheep at a market but hope to develop a herd worthy of selling off the land as well, in our small way.
Not many hair sheep growers in our area and we'd like to change that. Same with the Anatolian dogs...there's only one that I know of in this state, so we'd like to be a second option for that breed so that people aren't stuck with just one choice of LGD breeds for the state. We don't want to get into breeding dogs, really, but a few times would be okay just to get more of the breed into this state and available for sale when needed.
Just got a new 1 yr old ram for breeding in June, which is something new we are trying this year. I like the looks of him! Sorry about pic quality, my camera is crappy. I've attached a file of a pic of him, but it doesn't seem to appear in the post and I'm not sure how to make that happen on this forum, so sorry if he doesn't show.
Thanks for the welcome! 😀
Any idea how to get pics into the post? I attached a file or two but they never seemed to upload to the post, no matter how long I waited. Did it twice, but still no yield.
Hope to exchange ideas and problems with other small time sheep farmers out there on a grass based system, so this forum seemed a likely place to start.
@grassfedit It's okay...it's not that important to the post that they have to be in there. 😀
So, trying something new this year. Going to breed in June for November lambs so we can hit that winter market pricing at the sale barn. Never did that before and am hoping my girls will cycle and the weather won't be too hot then.
Also going to shoot for winter stockpile grazing in the 10 acre field next door that we are leasing. Not sure when to pull off that field entirely to allow for growth enough for that but will play it by ear. We get less rain in July and August, usually pretty droughty then, so we want to be off there entirely by July if we can. I'd like to have at least 10 in or more growth in that field by Oct/Nov.
Sounds like a good experiment! We usually get good grass growth in October here in Iowa and I am suspect WV is very similar. You should have sufficient growth by November if you stop grazing over there in August. Not sure if you can let it rest 60 days or not, but even 40 days rest in the right conditions can produce some good yields.
@grassfedit, we are going to buzz it good through June and July and then pull off until the end of October, right before lambing time. Should be able to put the girls on there from Nov. to March if the all goes well. If not we can supplement with some round bales until we get to know our pasture's potential better. Our land hasn't been farmed for over 100 years and the leased paddock hasn't had anything but horses on it since the 80s and that was just a few horses 25 yrs ago.
It's all pretty poor soil and graze, so it's hard to gauge how well it will do for grazing in this way, but we are keeping stocking numbers down until we find out and develop it more.
Any luck solving the pic issue? I love to post pics and see other's pics on a forum...just adds more detail and flavor to a post.
Hi @jules!
Hope you are well! Just curious if we could get an update on your operation?
How are things around the farm?
How is the grazing going?
