Ewe with 5 lambs born on pasture

The goal of the Tamarack farm management plan is to identify what our resources are, and to utilize those resources in a full yet sustainable way while minimizing the challenges. We live in an area that has seen a decline in farming during the past decade, thus has an abundance of vacated farm land. This supports a surplus of low quality hay, and an abundance of top quality clover pastures if managed properly. Cheap hay and abundant clover grazing are our best resources. Labor is expensive and scarce, and predators are abundant. These are our challenges. Lambing late in the spring so that lactating ewes are raising lambs on pasture when their nutritional needs are the highest and the feed quality is also high has been the best way to utilize our resources. By pasture lambing, we can keep our labor requirements low. By utilizing livestock guarding dogs, and rotational grazing, we can limit our problems with depredation.

Because our non growing season is so long (6 months of winter), the best sheep to utilize these resources is a highly prolific breed that literally has a population explosion to utilize the abundance of high quality pasture during the spring flush, and that then can be depopulated (marketed) in the fall so that only a minimal number of animals need be over wintered.

Can you find all 4 guard dogs in the photo? (move your mouse over photo!)

Rotational grazing is an important part of our management tool box. Rotational grazing is where grazing livestock are moved frequently to fresh pasture as one large group there by best imitating the hoof and tooth impact large herds once had as predators pushed them around. Today we can achieve the same effect with fences and a grazing plan. Rotational grazing is beneficial for the land, the livestock, and for the bottom line. The more intensive the rotation, (i.e. the more livestock per acre and the shorter duration on any given paddock), the more rapidly benefits will be achieved. We try to achieve 125 ewes to the acre and stay in a paddock from one to seven days. Also known as MIG (management intensive grazing).

The phrase 'high stocking rate' as is used to explain the number of animals in a paddock should not be confused with the stocking rate for the entire farm. While good grass management will result in increasing the carrying capacity of the entire farm, the number of animals per acre in a paddock are considerably higher than the number per acre averaged over the entire farm. In our instance, while a one acre paddock will support 125 ewes for one to three days, that acre, over the course of the summer will support 5-8 ewes. The difference between 5 and 8 can be achieved through MIG.

Rotational grazing benefits the land by increasing the density of forage that covers the soil, thus reducing soil erosion and increasing organic matter and fertility. Some studies have also found that by rotationally grazing stream banks, stream habitat can improve and support more trout as compared to the same stream bank left to grow into brush. This is because grass roots hold soil better than trees.

Rotational grazing results in a rapid and marked improvement in forage quality and palatability. Livestock benefit by improved nutrition.

Over time, properly managed rotational grazing will result in higher forage yields thus supporting more livestock on the same land. Better nutrition, more animals per acre all add to up to more pounds sold per acre.

The Tamarack flock spends nearly the entire year on pasture. Wintering on pasture is an especially important part of the management plan, both financially and as a soil fertility management tool. For as long as possible, ewes are grazed into the winter, grazing through as much as 12 inches of snow. Winter stockpiled pastures are of higher quality than can be affordably purchased as hay. Approx 1/2 acre of unimproved stockpile will feed a ewe for 60 days. We are also making increasing use of tillable crops such as turnips, as stockpiled winter feed. When hay feeding does become necessary large round hay bales are set out in the paddocks and ewes 'graze' the bales free choice. while this method will not work with cattle, it can be managed quite well with sheep. Bales can be placed anywhere soil fertility is poor. With adequate snow cover, the only chores will be to feed the guard dogs and clean up the twine.

There are a few key details that make feeding hay this way successful. By placing the bales out on pasture, a long distance from any favorite bedding areas, the sheep are more inclined to graze the bales and not lie on them. This system works best with tightly wrapped grass hay. High quality alfalfa hay is a very poor choice as the tiny leaves will contaminate the wool, and often sheep will waste more by digging after their favorite parts and contaminating the stems. Lastly, this system works best when deep snow is a normal part of winter. Deep snow assures that sheep will clean up one bale before moving on to the next.

Many people worry about waste in this system. There is about $5 worth of fertilizer in every 800 pound bale of hay. So not all is truly wasted. Certainly this system works best where hay is cheap. Often we can purchase our hay for $35-$55 per ton. Managed well, there is very little waste that would not have happened in a feed lot situation with bale feeders. Paddocks where bales were fed through out the winter will green up faster, have higher organic matter content, and the residue hay piles will have decomposed by late summer, producing 2.5-3 times more forage than nearby areas untouched by hay feeding. So worries about 'waste' are more of a cosmetic concern.

Lambing, and the follow up, lamb rearing is the most challenging part of the year. A multitude of variables must be taken into account, such as the weather, rapidly changing grass growth, and predators. I have chosen to use the 'drift' style of lambing management. Drift lambing is where each day the pregnant ewes are moved out of the paddock onto fresh grass, and those that have already lambed are left behind. This takes a certain amount of skill, but with dedication, can be learned. After a period of three weeks, all of the sheep will be freshly lambed, and because the drop group moved every 1-3 days, will be scattered all over the farm. The advantages of drift lambing are several. With the newly dropped lambs always together in one place, the shepherd can better address their needs should weather or predators become an issue. Less time is tied up walking over every paddock looking for newborns if tagging newborns is necessary. The disadvantage is that it takes a trained eye to know when to move the pregnant group out of a paddock. The goal is to leave the right balance of sheep and grass behind so that the ewes can be set stocked for 3-6 weeks while they raise their lambs. Drift lambing also requires more labor than set stock lambing, because it entails frequent moving of sheep.

Ewes are ultra sounded prior to lambing and split up according to the number of lambs they contain. This is a very important aspect to lambing highly prolific ewes on pasture. Triplet bearing ewes will have much fewer problems keeping litters together if there are not any single bearing ewes in the paddock.

Lambs are reared on pasture in a set-stock system for as long as possible. Very young lambs identify with the location at which they expect to find their mother to suckle. If lambs are moved too early, there will be some amount of confusion, possibly resulting in reduced suckling and lower lamb gains as lambs and ewes spend more time trying to relocate each other. The larger the litter size, the more crucial set stocking is to the very young lamb. I like to set stock for a minimum of 3 weeks, and preferably as much as 5 weeks after lambing.

Generally the appearance of predators dictates when it is time to gather the many different paddocks up into one mob. By managing the entire group as one, fenced in relatively small (1-3 acre) pastures, and rotationally grazed along with 4+ guard dogs is the only way we can prevent depredation. Triplet rearing ewes are managed as a separate group and often fed one pound of shelled corn per ewe per day from the end of lambing until just before weaning. Where possible triplet ewes are forward grazed ahead of the twin and single group.

One of the keys to a successful winter grazing program, is early weaning. Ewes that can regain body condition long before winter sets in, will be better foragers during adverse weather conditions. for Northern Minnesota, this means that sheep need to be at a body condition score of 3 by November first. To achieve this we shoot to wean as we enter our 'flat' spot in the summer grass growth, which is typically in August. At this point our lambs are 70-90 days old. This helps allocate scarce quality grazing to the lambs, while the ewes are dried up for 10 days on low quality hay. After weaning is complete, the ewes graze behind the lambs, or are generally used for cleanup of rank, overgrown paddocks. As October approaches, ewes are given higher quality grazing as needed to achieve our body condition score by November first.

Lambs remain on pasture after weaning and continue grazing rotationally until November. Grass growth ceases in October, so quality grazing is on the decline through the fall. Grazing turnip tops have helped provide some quality grazing for lambs during the late fall season when grass is less palatable. Lambs are fed one pound of shelled corn during late October to prepare them for lamb finishing on self feeders in November/December.

Now we have come full circle and winter is once again approaching. Back in August, paddocks or hay fields are set aside for winter grazing the ewe flock. These paddocks must provide 6 to 8 inches of high quality standing forage. More recently I have tried turnips as stockpiled winter feed. The turnips are planted as a part of the hay rotation, and the tops are grazed by the lambs. So far I have been extremely satisfied with the amount of quality feed provided by grazing turnips. Ewes can readily graze through 6-8 inches of fresh snow. Under carefully supervised circumstances, they can manage to graze through up to a foot of snow for short periods of time. Snow provides all of the water needs for sheep during early gestation.

Cattle play an important role in our sheep operation. Cattle have a different method of grazing than sheep and can be used to handily recondition sheep pastures that are getting out of control. A few yearling cattle can be rotated through paddocks of ewes and lambs without causing the kind of disturbance to bonding that moving other sheep in and out would cause. Research has also shown that lambs grazed on paddocks previously grazed by cattle will grow better than if grazed on paddocks formerly grazed by other sheep. This is due to the fact that the cattle will leave more clover in the paddock. Cattle can also be used as a handy way to help reduce the parasite burden on sheep pastures. To achieve this a planned program of rotating pastures between species needs to be followed. Cattle also provide cash flow. Generally lambs require careful attention to marketing to obtain the prices they deserve. Often this means waiting for a specific holiday to create demand. Calves can be marketed quite profitably over a much wider period of time, thus can provide cash flow to a sheep farm during periods of slow sales.

"Obstacles are those frightful things you see 
when you take your eyes off your goal." 
Henry Ford (1863-1947)