Best laid plans

The hot and dry weather has hammered our pastures as well as our flock for the last several weeks. In this weather the ewes are not overly motivated to graze, which is good considering the pastures have all but burned up. What are some of the things we are doing and not doing to ease the stress on our flock and pastures.

To alleviate the stress on our already brutalized pastures, we have started to feed baleage leftover from last year. The lush springs of 2010 and 2011 (which are but just a memory) provided us extra feed from the proceeding year. Since, 2010 we have had extra baleage, though it seems we will have just enough to get us to the hopefully green pastures of 2013. The Big Bale Feeders were pulled out of storage sooner than expected and our late born pasture lambs will be weaned sooner than anticipated, but as the saying goes "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry."

photo: Ewes and lambs eating grass hay from a Big Bale Feeder. 

For those who maintain CRP land (Conservation Reserve Program), they are now able to hay or graze these pieces of land. Premier has a few employees who have CRP ground, we suspect they will take advantage of the grazing (check with your local FSA for rules and requirements). Premier has some ground that we keep as prairie. The sheep are on it in the Spring for lambing and are off it for the rest of the year. This year we will graze it in order to extend our grazing season before breaking into stored feed.

photo: Ewes grazing a late planted soybean field. Soybeans can tolerate heat better than some of the other grasses on our farm. 

When it comes to working the flock in the high heat, we do it only when necessary. For example, last week we had several ewes demonstrating classic worm burden symptoms; lethargic, loose stool and bottle jaw, thus they needed to be wormed. Worming in 100° weather is not comfortable for the sheep or the shepherd. So our shepherds drove and wormed the flock in the early hours of the morning while it was still cool. This cuts down on the amount of stress our ewes experience. 

photo: Building fence during a drought is not an easy task. The spikes often refuse to go into the hard dry ground. It is often necessary to use a drill to make a pilot hole for the spike (below). If you're lucky, there might be a crack in the ground where you want to put the post.

Determining the right poultry waterer

Summer typically brings a few questions regarding water consumption and chickens. Water consumption is hard to nail down as there are many factors that influence intake; salt and protein levels in the diet, humidity, temperature, productivity (growth or egg production) and the birds ability to process feed and water.

A quick internet search will show that the average daily consumption of a chicken is about .3 liters in the cooler months and up to .5 liters per day in warmer months. Remember that there are many factors that influence intake. 

To determine the number of birds per waterer, convert the gallons to liters (3.78 liters per gallon) and divide by .3 for cooler months and .5 for warm months. For example, a 5 gallon Quick Clean Bucket Waterer holds 18.9 liters of water. This is sufficient for 63 chickens in cooler weather or 38 in hot weather. It is best to have more water available than what is actually needed. 

Another way to think of it is, 7-12 birds per gallon of water. (1 gal = 3.78 liters = 7-12 birds). Make sure to always have clean and fresh water in front of your birds. If your birds run out of water between chore times, they a need a larger or an additional waterer. 

Drought fencing tips

It has been very dry throughout much of the country. Many of our incoming calls entail this question, "my fencing was working but now that it's dry it's not, why?" When the soil lost moisture it also lost conductivity. It is harder for the positive charge to travel from the fence, through the animal, ground and back to the energizer. Here are a few tips to help make sure your fences are up to the task. 

Make sure you have enough ground rod(s). A ground rod completes the electrical circuit between energizer, fence, animal, ground rod and energizer. Adding an additional ground rod can increase a fence's effectiveness. Soaking the area around the ground rod aids in conductivity as well. This can be done with a garden hose or a bucket with a small hole in the bottom. The slow leak from the bucket will seep into the ground over time (that way you won't have to stand around holding a garden hose. 

For those with short lengths of fence, it is helpful to walk along the fence and water it. This is a more time (and water) consuming option but it does help. 

Wide impedance energizers are able to deliver high-pulse energy levels and high voltages through a wider range of fence situations. This includes those with high total fence circuit resistance due to inferior polywire/netting; dry, sandy, rocky soils; dry brown grass; and fewer ground rods. 

Positive/Negative netting is useful for sites where soil resistance is high (brown grass, dry soil, snow). The horizontal strands of the netting alternate pos/neg. An animal needs to touch two strands, a positive and a negative, in order to receive a shock. Care must be taken to ensure that nothing is touching two wires at once (brush, grass, sticks) as this will render the net ineffective. 

In some cases an all hot (positive) fence will need to be converted into a pos/neg fence. it may be necessary to add wires to the system and ground them or change positive wires to negative wires in the system. Please call Premier 1-800-282-6631 if you have questions on this. 

Mad dogs and englishmen

The high heat and humidity is not only making us feel sluggish but our flock as well. The sheep do not enjoy grazing in the heat, thus their intake decreases and gains are not as significant as they are in cooler weather.

To beat the heat, the flocks spend a lot of time in the shade and close to their water sources. We also avoid working the animals to reduce the amount of stress they are exposed to during the heat of the day. If we absolutely have to work the livestock, we do it early in the morning to avoid the hotter parts of the day. Soon the heat will break and things can go back to normal. Until then we will have to be vigilant in providing cool drinking water and shade for our flocks.


As the saying goes, "only mad dogs and englishmen go out in the heat of the midday sun".

Garden fencing

It seems that raccoons raid a garden just before it is ready to provide the first ear of corn or cucumber for the season. Many folks combat these pilfering pests by trapping, baiting and other means of discouragement. 

At Premier we respond to such situations with our answer to just about everything—electrified netting. In this case, RaccoonNet™and VersaNet®.

For specifically deterring raccoons, we like to use RaccoonNet. Its low height is easy to step over when going in and out of the garden. 

VersaNet features tighter spacings, multiple heights (20" and 30") and is available in white or green. Green VersaNet blends in nicely with the background which is more aesthetically pleasing to some. It is not as visible as white VersaNet.  

VersaNet is able to guard against a wider range of critters. The tighter spacings help ward smaller pests such as skunks and rabbits. White VersaNet is much more visible than its green counterpart, both humans and animals see it better. For areas that will experience high traffic (human or animal) white VersaNet is recommended. 

Making Small Squares

Last week we made small square bales from a clover field on our home farm. The bales will be used this winter to feed ewes in our lambing jugs. Their size makes them easy to handle, a bale fits well in our drive-by/walk thru feeder or a flake in one of our single or double sided hay feeders. 

Danny and Adrian were on the rack while Carl drove the tractor. When the rack was full it was hauled to the hay barn. When the rack was unhooked, Carl and Danny returned to the field with an empty rack and back to baling.

Adrian went to get the tractor with the bucket to push the rack into the barn. To be productive while waiting for Adrian, I tried pulling the rack into the barn by hand. It was 1/3 of the way in when Adrian arrived to push. As it turns out, it's easier to use the tractor to push the wagon than it is to pull it by hand! We brought the wagon into the barn front end first because it allows us to unload directly into the hay mound (instead of working around the gallous on the back).

While unloading, Adrian placed bales on either side of the tongue and onto the tongue. This formed a ramp/bridge. Adrian would drop bales onto the ramp and they rolled to where I was stacking. When the rack was emptied we would haul it back to the field and trade for the rack Danny and Carl just filled.

When we finished, the barn had an additional 4 racks of hay stuffed inside and we were ready for an iced tea!

Processing Lambs 2012

The other day Carl poked his head into Graphics and asked for some help processing lambs. Since it was a beautiful June morning, I did not hesitate in offering my assistance. After a quick change into "chore clothes" plus a short drive to the North farm, I was ready to process lambs.

Processing involves running the ewes and their lambs through the handling system and pulling out the lambs. At Premier we dock tails and castrate the males. To dock and castrate we use a Ring Expander (also known as an elastrator) and O Rings. If a tail is particularly thick we may use two rings. After the rings are applied, we pour a Pine Tar and Triodine-7 mixture on the rings to prevent infection and to ward off flies. 

Ear tags were also applied and documented during processing. Ear tags allow us to immediately know sire data, age of the lamb and whether it was a single, twin or triplet. An ear tag can tell us all this by color, which ear it is placed in as well as the data included on the tag. We plan to track the weight and performance of our lambs to determine which sire produced the best lambs. After the tag is applied, we spray Catron IV onto both sides of the tag to keep the flies from bothering the wound. 

For instructional videos on tagging, docking and castrating, visit the video section of our website http://www.premier1supplies.com/videos/index.php. 

There were four of us involved in processing lambs. It seemed to be the right amount. Each person had a specific job:

Carl: Castrate lambs, apply pine tar and spray with sprayline if needed. 

Mike: Dock tails and apply pine tar. If a twin born ewe, notch the ear. 

Joe: Tag and document the ear tag. Spray Catron IV on the ear. 

Adrian: Catch and hand off the lamb. 

We were able to do about a lamb per minute (112 lambs in 2 hours). This also included bringing the sheep in from the field, setting up the handling system and running the flock back through the handling system.