BREEDING SEASON

We turned the rams out on October 9th which is consistent with our schedule last year. This allows us to shear in early February, puts lambs on the ground in March, and weaning in early May. Though our lambs are small for the show ring at Black Sheep Gathering, this schedule seems best considering our weather and pasture condition. Setting up and separating different breeding groups means of course that we needed to handle all the sheep. This exercise along with the recent sheep handling for the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival once again stressed the importance of developing a level of trust with the flock. It's more and more obvious that most of our more mature animals are much easier to handle, both the rams and the ewes. I mainly attribute that to fact that they know us and trust us. Though they may think it all a bit bothersome, they seem to accept what we need to do and put up with it. It's always the lambs that put up the biggest fight.

The pastures are in great condition and the breeding groups all seem to be doing quite well on the fresh grass. Actually the pastures look the best they have all season. Even though the grass is plentiful I'm trying to supplement it with a bit of baled hay from time to time. They seem to like the balance of fresh and cured feed. Because I don't want the working rams to share a fenceline, not all ewes have access to the barn but they all have shelter of one kind or another. Some of the girls miss their barn and tell me about it every chance they get. But I remind them that they are a primitive breed of sheep and they need to get over it. I do see the value of the barn and know they like to loaf there and spend the night. I'm sure they sense the higher degree of security and it reduces stress. They'll get back to the barn after the rams are finished with their business. - Jeff