Hi, I been watching your videos for a couple of months now, and I like them. I like your seriousness and commitment towards your farming operations, also your sense of humor,; but the thing that draw most of my atención is your bible verse in the end of the videos, the faith in God promises to us. That inspiration is priceless!!👋😁 God bless and be safe.
I'm at the point you were when you started. I have acreage (15) but how do I manage it? Watching your videos so I don't make the same mistakes. Don't get me wrong, you learned the hard way so we don't have to. Where I live we do not get enough rain to make it work so, I have to irrigate the pastures. A lot of hard work is ahead. I was especially pleased to learn about your personal belief. "“A man’s heart plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.” Proverbs 16:9" you're absolutely right. quick story. I had just disc harrowed almost a half acre to start with and I had not figured out exactly how I was going to irrigate. the ground is like powder with out any organic material. I knew I had to get water on it ASAP or I would loose my "Top Soil" ( if you can call it that.) 3 days later I got almost a half inch of rain. I was excited. I called my friends to see how they fared with the rain. No on got a drop. I almost cried. I too am grateful to my Father in Heaven for the blessings of being one of his sons as you are one of his daughters. I have subscribed and am going back in "video" time to catch up on what I have missed. Thank you for taking the time to make these videos.
I was floored by those results!! It really propelled me to put the intensive grazing back into place. I’ll be excited to see what August holds and hopefully have a good report to share. 🙌🏻 -the Shepherdess
@@theShepherdess have you thought about working with the chicken lady? She could run mobile chicken tractors and rotate behind the sheep to improve the insect control/load on the sheep and cattle.
The key with parasites is to move your sheep every 3 days or less (it takes about 3 days for the parasite to exit the sheep and then crawl up on the grass to about an inch ready to be reingested). And you should have long recovery periods on your grasses 3-6 months or preferably longer depending on the season before they are regrazed. Parasite eggs will die if exposed to dry heat over summer, so it will depend on your climate also. Also you should be able to train your sheep to one poly wire as long as its no higher than a foot off the ground... will make your life easier. Adult sheep will have higher immunity to parasites. Lambs at weaning or ewes at lambing time (when they are under stress) will be most at risk. If you do faecal egg counts and only treat individual sheep that require wormers. And cull anything that you need to deworm to improve your flock resistance genetics over time. And never feed them grain as it is very bad for their rumen. Good luck.
You've got some great goals set!!!!! Keep up the fantastic work!!!! Loooooove seeing how far you've come do far with your farming journey!!😍👏🏻🌱🐑 Praying the Lord blesses you as you continue into your farming journey, and can't wait to see more videos!!! 😁💖 Also, nice necklace you have there😜😋😂👏🏻
Haha!! Thanks! My brother said I’d better put up a disclaimer or someone would be choked.... but I kind of thought it was cute. 😉😉 Keep praying for me, Anna! I know your prayers are making a difference in my daily work and don’t take it for granted. ❤️❤️ -the Shepherdess
ever since i was a little boy ,, i always wanted to do what your doing,, my parents and other family discouraged me from doing this,, now that most are/ have crossed over to the other side and i am disable now i still have some fight left to get this dream of mine going,, it is just harder for me to do this now i have a little spark of an idea on how i`ll get started,, please forgive an old man who still dreams of one day doing this,, DO NOT LISTEN TO ALL THOSE NEGATIVE PEOPLE/ DREAM KILLERS!!! great video!!
Nothing is impossible with God!! I am going to pray you have the opportunity to pursue this desire in your heart. 🐑 Thank you for being such a huge encouragement to me on this channel. It means so much. -the Shepherdess
It can be done, your young you have time on your side. Plus with sheep it moves fast. What seem like hard decisions now will pay off sooner than you think.
If you haven’t you should look into the benefits of planting Sainfoin as a natural anti-parasitic. I got my first bag of seeds this week and I will be planting this into some of my pasture.
That’s a good point! I’ll have to look into specific plantings for parasite management. Some of the species that are recommended would be invasive in my area so I have to be careful. My neighbors would not like me if it started cropping up in their pastures. 😂😂 -the Shepherdess
Sweet! You go Grace! You're doing great although I just realized I have electro-net anxiety after moving that darn stuff every other day for over a year...yuk! I've never been so glad to get away from anything in my life. It works great but it is pain to move. Though I had 8 sections and briars and tree sprouts galore to deal with. Ha, well you make that bungee choker look good. #trendsetter
Lol. 😂 the netting is a full body workout in itself. 😂😂 But it sure does keep em’ in. I’ve had a good couple days on the single strand, so the netting has been rolled up for a bit. 🤫 -the Shepherdess
@@theShepherdess I have three sections of my old electro net on garden guard duty now keeping the deer and rabbits out of the veggies and the clover companion crop...best use for it ever, lol.
I can't wait for the end of 2021 to see you do a past year video and hopefully at that point you'll be able to reduce your hours at the marketing job or at least have the option.
1 out of 10 is a great result and you should be proud of that. Are you moving your chickens each day or has that plan been revised? As always thanks for posting
The chickens are moving daily but they are in another pasture right now! I’ll have to include an update on them in the next video. Chicken Lady hasn’t made a cameo in a while. 😁 -the Shepherdess
@@theShepherdess Thank you for the update. I was just curious as if you moved them as well as the sheep, that you could be up to your armpits in work. I didn't realise that the chickens were looked after by someone else. I must have either missed that fact or my short term memory failed again. Thanks again for the reply.
Do you have a lot of predator pressure where you are? We have a lot of Coyotes on our farm here in Northern Michigan but are interested in adding sheep to the mix as part of our regenerative farming mix. Curious if the poultry netting is effective against coyotes as having guardian dogs isn’t something we want to do. We run that netting with our pastured egg layers and haven’t really had any issues but the Premier One charger isn’t very strong, especially when coupled to 250’ of netting. What charger do you use or are you just connecting it to an existing electric fence? Aside from that our issue is shade in the summer as most of our 13 acres is open pasture with no trees. Trying to figure out a portable shade structure that could work and be easy enough to move but stable in winds.
We have pretty heavy predator pressure. Our fencing is TIGHT and we have 3 big pet dogs plus a LGD in training. I’d say you need either a good dog or tight fencing :). The first winter we had sheep we had no dogs and just a simple barbed wire fence. That winter we lost 10% of our flock to coyote. I am going to paste a link to 2 videos that will answer your other questions! Thank you so much for watching my videos :). -the Shepherdess
the Shepherdess thank you! I was perusing some of your videos but didn’t come across those yet. Regarding guardian animals, our neighbor has a donkey that they said we can use so I thought that might be a good option. Appreciate your help. !
well done girl im in south africa we use to farm dorpers they graced the whole plot we hired and we only did deworming and ivomec once a year we had the most soft harted ram but he gave us btween 2 to 3 lams p year but bcause his females personalitys overpowers his weve had 75 persenct of them female lams witch made it possible for us to go from just 20 to 80 sheep in to year of witch we only sold the lam rams for the people for funerals.weve had a smal field that was planted with i dont know the english name of the bush 'sout bosh' witch in winter they just loved and they ate that laik crazy . we dont have anymore we have had 8 year drought up till 2018 and bcame to expensive to feed supplement them but hopefully soon again thanx
and the other thing about dorpers they are walkers the can walk 5 tot 6km a day here in sa i dont know how good it is for them to be moved just once a day.
My flock are all critically endangered Leicester Longwools but I’ve watched this channel and Joel’s and others an added pasture rotation, chickens, goats, limiting the horse load for grazing and grass feeding only (except during the 100 days lamb neuro-development). I think sheep should be given multiple opportunities to prove themselves. Mine mature at 18 months for reproduction and I hold 12 months before meat sales. I move once per three days but have fewer sheep, daily fresh water, available minerals and hoof care every six months. How many acres do you use for 25 ewes? I have 10 acres for 20 and they can’t keep up with the growth!
@jahaffe > sorry I wasn’t clear..my problem is that my pasture is so lush and healthy that the current number of sheep aren’t keeping up with the rate of grass growth. I’ve had to lease land for horse grazing to control the high grass fire hazard. I’m adding a flock of goats to address a noxious weed problem but I think at current rate of pasture growth /consumption I could easily double my herd size and still fall behind. We have dry ground but a very high water table. The grass remains thick, lush and fast growing through October. When the land dries out there are multiple artesian springs that flow at over 60,000 gal. Per day for irrigation. I only hay the animals during lambing season when they are corralled for tightly controlled tupping
Great info!! Thanks for sharing. I have 30 acres, so I am at a great advantage there. Plenty of room for growth. 🙌🏻 The dorper farmer I mentioned in this video runs 90 breeders on 30 acres with his once a day pasture rotation. Opportunity for increased stocking rate is another reason I want to maintain the daily rotation. All happening slowly and learning as I go. 👍🏻 -the Shepherdess
Good question: I was only moving once a week December-Feb. Parasites are dormant in those months. I started once a day rotation on March 6 and I paused it for one month while the lambs were dropping. I did not pause long enough to track much of an issue. The primary reason I went back to daily rotation is that may/June/July (in previous years) have been our most difficult months as far as parasite activity. I didn’t own the flock in previous years, but I watched my family struggle to keep them healthy during these months. It was also during these months that we would lose a few of the lambs to parasites. I felt I was setting myself up for trouble if I slacked in these critical months. Parasites hatch out in just 3 days during may/June/July so a 3-4 day rotation put me in that risky zone. It’s hard to type or put all of the factors into a video, but with the mild winters and super wet springs my climate is probably one of the most challenging to run sheep in. If I can get the parasites under control in this climate, I feel like I will have a line of sheep that will do well anywhere. We’ll see where I’m at in August! -the Shepherdess
Grass continues to have higher brix till a peak at about 4 in the afternoon. Higher brix gives the animals more energy/gains per bite of forage. Better manure and urine distribution, more even grazing. with more even grazing the animals don't back graze even if you leave the previous pasture open.
what about the worms that are not picked up via farmacha testing- will you be doing FEC testing? i regualrly fec here - and with the wet weather right now Nemotodirus risk is shooting up post lambing. also you may find this link a helpful resource. www.thebugfarm.co.uk/about-us/dr-sarah-beynon/
Hi, I been watching your videos for a couple of months now, and I like them. I like your seriousness and commitment towards your farming operations, also your sense of humor,; but the thing that draw most of my atención is your bible verse in the end of the videos, the faith in God promises to us. That inspiration is priceless!!👋😁 God bless and be safe.
Thank you so much, Jimet, for encouraging me in my faith! I am so grateful for all of your comments. ⭐️
-the Shepherdess
Keep up the daily grind. The animals look great
Thank you, thank you! The encouragement means so much. 90 days to the end of year 1 and I am so excited. 🙌🏻 God is good.
-the Shepherdess
Animal performance provides fantastic feedback. Much more fun than an employer 's evaluation.
Agreed!!
-the Shepherdess
I'm at the point you were when you started. I have acreage (15) but how do I manage it? Watching your videos so I don't make the same mistakes. Don't get me wrong, you learned the hard way so we don't have to. Where I live we do not get enough rain to make it work so, I have to irrigate the pastures. A lot of hard work is ahead. I was especially pleased to learn about your personal belief. "“A man’s heart plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.” Proverbs 16:9" you're absolutely right. quick story. I had just disc harrowed almost a half acre to start with and I had not figured out exactly how I was going to irrigate. the ground is like powder with out any organic material. I knew I had to get water on it ASAP or I would loose my "Top Soil" ( if you can call it that.) 3 days later I got almost a half inch of rain. I was excited. I called my friends to see how they fared with the rain. No on got a drop. I almost cried. I too am grateful to my Father in Heaven for the blessings of being one of his sons as you are one of his daughters. I have subscribed and am going back in "video" time to catch up on what I have missed. Thank you for taking the time to make these videos.
awesome job
Many thanks, Brandon!
-the Shepherdess
Outstanding results only 1 in 10 needing dewormer. Great job, nose to the proverbial grindstone. God Bless!
I was floored by those results!! It really propelled me to put the intensive grazing back into place. I’ll be excited to see what August holds and hopefully have a good report to share. 🙌🏻
-the Shepherdess
@@theShepherdess have you thought about working with the chicken lady? She could run mobile chicken tractors and rotate behind the sheep to improve the insect control/load on the sheep and cattle.
The key with parasites is to move your sheep every 3 days or less (it takes about 3 days for the parasite to exit the sheep and then crawl up on the grass to about an inch ready to be reingested). And you should have long recovery periods on your grasses 3-6 months or preferably longer depending on the season before they are regrazed. Parasite eggs will die if exposed to dry heat over summer, so it will depend on your climate also. Also you should be able to train your sheep to one poly wire as long as its no higher than a foot off the ground... will make your life easier. Adult sheep will have higher immunity to parasites. Lambs at weaning or ewes at lambing time (when they are under stress) will be most at risk. If you do faecal egg counts and only treat individual sheep that require wormers. And cull anything that you need to deworm to improve your flock resistance genetics over time. And never feed them grain as it is very bad for their rumen. Good luck.
Thanks for sharing this solid info!
-the Shepherdess
Thanks for sharing. You should be proud.
Glad to share!! thanks for your support!!
You've got some great goals set!!!!! Keep up the fantastic work!!!! Loooooove seeing how far you've come do far with your farming journey!!😍👏🏻🌱🐑
Praying the Lord blesses you as you continue into your farming journey, and can't wait to see more videos!!! 😁💖 Also, nice necklace you have there😜😋😂👏🏻
Haha!! Thanks! My brother said I’d better put up a disclaimer or someone would be choked.... but I kind of thought it was cute. 😉😉
Keep praying for me, Anna! I know your prayers are making a difference in my daily work and don’t take it for granted. ❤️❤️
-the Shepherdess
ever since i was a little boy ,, i always wanted to do what your doing,, my parents and other family discouraged me from doing this,, now that most are/ have crossed over to the other side and i am disable now i still have some fight left to get this dream of mine going,, it is just harder for me to do this now i have a little spark of an idea on how i`ll get started,, please forgive an old man who still dreams of one day doing this,, DO NOT LISTEN TO ALL THOSE NEGATIVE PEOPLE/ DREAM KILLERS!!! great video!!
Nothing is impossible with God!! I am going to pray you have the opportunity to pursue this desire in your heart. 🐑 Thank you for being such a huge encouragement to me on this channel. It means so much.
-the Shepherdess
I like when you said God willing i don't see a lot of Christians saying it, we muslims say inshallah , it has the same meaning
It can be done, your young you have time on your side. Plus with sheep it moves fast. What seem like hard decisions now will pay off sooner than you think.
That’s a good word. Someone said high selectivity in your initial stock is something you’ll never regret. I’m holding on to that!
-the Shepherdess
Awesome congrats in advance greetings from LA :)
Many thanks, Sir!
-the Shepherdess
You're not a farmer you're a rancher. 🤠
She is farming plants, which feed sheep and grow soil.
I definitely feel like I could go both ways. Im a sheep rancher and a grass farmer. 😂
-the Shepherdess
If you haven’t you should look into the benefits of planting Sainfoin as a natural anti-parasitic. I got my first bag of seeds this week and I will be planting this into some of my pasture.
That’s a good point! I’ll have to look into specific plantings for parasite management. Some of the species that are recommended would be invasive in my area so I have to be careful. My neighbors would not like me if it started cropping up in their pastures. 😂😂
-the Shepherdess
❤🎉❤🎉❤
Early Merry Christmas
Sweet! You go Grace! You're doing great although I just realized I have electro-net anxiety after moving that darn stuff every other day for over a year...yuk! I've never been so glad to get away from anything in my life. It works great but it is pain to move. Though I had 8 sections and briars and tree sprouts galore to deal with.
Ha, well you make that bungee choker look good. #trendsetter
Lol. 😂 the netting is a full body workout in itself. 😂😂 But it sure does keep em’ in. I’ve had a good couple days on the single strand, so the netting has been rolled up for a bit. 🤫
-the Shepherdess
@@theShepherdess I have three sections of my old electro net on garden guard duty now keeping the deer and rabbits out of the veggies and the clover companion crop...best use for it ever, lol.
When He makes us lie down, it is because we’re full. Rest in the organization.
I can't wait for the end of 2021 to see you do a past year video and hopefully at that point you'll be able to reduce your hours at the marketing job or at least have the option.
I really am excited to do a one year recap! Thanks for joining me thus far. 👍🏻
-the Shepherdess
1 out of 10 is a great result and you should be proud of that. Are you moving your chickens each day or has that plan been revised? As always thanks for posting
The chickens are moving daily but they are in another pasture right now! I’ll have to include an update on them in the next video. Chicken Lady hasn’t made a cameo in a while. 😁
-the Shepherdess
@@theShepherdess Thank you for the update. I was just curious as if you moved them as well as the sheep, that you could be up to your armpits in work. I didn't realise that the chickens were looked after by someone else. I must have either missed that fact or my short term memory failed again. Thanks again for the reply.
Hello.
Thank you for sharing. 💞💞 God bless you. 🙌🙌🙏☝️👍
Thank you, Patricia!! I always look forward to your comments :). ❤️❤️
-the Shepherdess
@@theShepherdess 😳 Oh my goodness. Thank you so much! 🥰
Do you have a lot of predator pressure where you are? We have a lot of Coyotes on our farm here in Northern Michigan but are interested in adding sheep to the mix as part of our regenerative farming mix. Curious if the poultry netting is effective against coyotes as having guardian dogs isn’t something we want to do. We run that netting with our pastured egg layers and haven’t really had any issues but the Premier One charger isn’t very strong, especially when coupled to 250’ of netting. What charger do you use or are you just connecting it to an existing electric fence? Aside from that our issue is shade in the summer as most of our 13 acres is open pasture with no trees. Trying to figure out a portable shade structure that could work and be easy enough to move but stable in winds.
We have pretty heavy predator pressure. Our fencing is TIGHT and we have 3 big pet dogs plus a LGD in training. I’d say you need either a good dog or tight fencing :). The first winter we had sheep we had no dogs and just a simple barbed wire fence. That winter we lost 10% of our flock to coyote.
I am going to paste a link to 2 videos that will answer your other questions! Thank you so much for watching my videos :).
-the Shepherdess
Fence charger: th-cam.com/video/u0dE6DkkIHk/w-d-xo.html
Shade: th-cam.com/video/kGzC28WLqa4/w-d-xo.html
the Shepherdess thank you! I was perusing some of your videos but didn’t come across those yet. Regarding guardian animals, our neighbor has a donkey that they said we can use so I thought that might be a good option. Appreciate your help. !
well done girl im in south africa we use to farm dorpers they graced the whole plot we hired and we only did deworming and ivomec once a year we had the most soft harted ram but he gave us btween 2 to 3 lams p year but bcause his females personalitys overpowers his weve had 75 persenct of them female lams witch made it possible for us to go from just 20 to 80 sheep in to year of witch we only sold the lam rams for the people for funerals.weve had a smal field that was planted with i dont know the english name of the bush 'sout bosh' witch in winter they just loved and they ate that laik crazy . we dont have anymore we have had 8 year drought up till 2018 and bcame to expensive to feed supplement them but hopefully soon again thanx
and the other thing about dorpers they are walkers the can walk 5 tot 6km a day here in sa i dont know how good it is for them to be moved just once a day.
Thank you so much for sharing this information! I would be happy if my ram would give me 75% ewes. 😄😄 Maybe someday!
-the Shepherdess
From Bangladesh i love all farm guys
My flock are all critically endangered Leicester Longwools but I’ve watched this channel and Joel’s and others an added pasture rotation, chickens, goats, limiting the horse load for grazing and grass feeding only (except during the 100 days lamb neuro-development). I think sheep should be given multiple opportunities to prove themselves. Mine mature at 18 months for reproduction and I hold 12 months before meat sales. I move once per three days but have fewer sheep, daily fresh water, available minerals and hoof care every six months. How many acres do you use for 25 ewes? I have 10 acres for 20 and they can’t keep up with the growth!
@jahaffe > sorry I wasn’t clear..my problem is that my pasture is so lush and healthy that the current number of sheep aren’t keeping up with the rate of grass growth. I’ve had to lease land for horse grazing to control the high grass fire hazard. I’m adding a flock of goats to address a noxious weed problem but I think at current rate of pasture growth /consumption I could easily double my herd size and still fall behind. We have dry ground but a very high water table. The grass remains thick, lush and fast growing through October. When the land dries out there are multiple artesian springs that flow at over 60,000 gal. Per day for irrigation. I only hay the animals during lambing season when they are corralled for tightly controlled tupping
Great info!! Thanks for sharing. I have 30 acres, so I am at a great advantage there. Plenty of room for growth. 🙌🏻 The dorper farmer I mentioned in this video runs 90 breeders on 30 acres with his once a day pasture rotation. Opportunity for increased stocking rate is another reason I want to maintain the daily rotation. All happening slowly and learning as I go. 👍🏻
-the Shepherdess
Were you experiencing any problems with moving your herd twice a week? How long have you been doing twice a week?
Good question: I was only moving once a week December-Feb. Parasites are dormant in those months.
I started once a day rotation on March 6 and I paused it for one month while the lambs were dropping.
I did not pause long enough to track much of an issue. The primary reason I went back to daily rotation is that may/June/July (in previous years) have been our most difficult months as far as parasite activity. I didn’t own the flock in previous years, but I watched my family struggle to keep them healthy during these months. It was also during these months that we would lose a few of the lambs to parasites. I felt I was setting myself up for trouble if I slacked in these critical months. Parasites hatch out in just 3 days during may/June/July so a 3-4 day rotation put me in that risky zone.
It’s hard to type or put all of the factors into a video, but with the mild winters and super wet springs my climate is probably one of the most challenging to run sheep in. If I can get the parasites under control in this climate, I feel like I will have a line of sheep that will do well anywhere. We’ll see where I’m at in August!
-the Shepherdess
twice per day is even better, but you need a bigger flock to make it worth it.
Grass continues to have higher brix till a peak at about 4 in the afternoon. Higher brix gives the animals more energy/gains per bite of forage. Better manure and urine distribution, more even grazing. with more even grazing the animals don't back graze even if you leave the previous pasture open.
Great insights here! I might consider twice per day once I reach my desired flock size.
-the Shepherdess
what about the worms that are not picked up via farmacha testing- will you be doing FEC testing? i regualrly fec here - and with the wet weather right now Nemotodirus risk is shooting up post lambing.
also you may find this link a helpful resource.
www.thebugfarm.co.uk/about-us/dr-sarah-beynon/
Awesome videos…but when you were talking about the best sheep you mispronounced St Croix 😎
😄😄😄
Fec ebv’s