meadow
Deeply Rooted
So glad that you made it!
Baymule’s Farm
- Thread starter baymule
- Start date
- Thread starter
- #592
baymule
Garden Master
Then I had to come back home!
This is a series of water over the road before my driveway.
My driveway
Pasture
This is a series of water over the road before my driveway.
My driveway
Pasture
meadow
Deeply Rooted
Are you sure that your farm was not teleported to Seattle?
- Thread starter
- #594
baymule
Garden Master
Supposed to get pounded again tomorrow. Friday might even see sunshine.
flowerbug
Garden Master
see if you can find some prairie grass mixes and get them going in areas (limit grazing for a while to give the plants some chance to get started). besides holding the ground in place they act very well at soaking up water. if anything you can test it in an area to see how it holds up.
Carol Dee
Garden Master
Looks awfully soggy. hope you start to dry out soon.
- Thread starter
- #597
baymule
Garden Master
This place already has good grass, a thick sod. It’s hard to cut it with a shovel. It’s a mixed variety of grasses, forbs and a few species of unwanted weeds the sheep won’t eat. The soil isn’t washing away and it is super saturated already. The standing water will soak in once it stops raining. It’s just raining so much, so fast, that the ground can’t soak it all up.see if you can find some prairie grass mixes and get them going in areas (limit grazing for a while to give the plants some chance to get started). besides holding the ground in place they act very well at soaking up water. if anything you can test it in an area to see how it holds up.
Prairie grasses typically require long rest periods and can easily be overgrazed. These grasses worked well in the days of immense buffalo herds. The Buffalo herds were constantly on the move, not confined in fences like our livestock today. They ate as they moved, trampling the grasses down, feeding the microbes in the soil, enriching the soil, adding humus in the process. Their urine and manure fertilized the soil. They didn’t return for months, giving the grasses and forbs time to recover and grow again. Natures eco system at work.
I will cross fence this place, to practice rotational grazing. This being my first year, I’m doing a lot of observation. I’m not in a hurry to make changes. This land has been a part of a working cattle ranch for 3 generations with well established pastures.
I’ve been in touch with the NRCS, through the USDA. There is a federal program that will send someone out, do a pasture walk with me, advise and help me make the most of this place-free of charge.
- Thread starter
- #598
baymule
Garden Master
I think we might see sunshine Friday. Shhhh don’t want to say that out loud.
I’m so over mud.
- Thread starter
- #599
baymule
Garden Master
Postures from yesterday. I’m almost ashamed to show them, but I’ve done the best I could in the time I had, throw knee replacement surgery and down time, it has been adequate. But who could predict Noah’s Flood?
As bad as this looks, it’s sure to be worse today. Still pouring down rain. When I go out to feed this morning, I expect much worse.
Rain will clear out tonight, then 4 days of sunshine. We just gotta make through today. One more day. Just one more day.
Reina’s stall. It’s open on 2 sides, I put up a tarp to deflect at least some of the rain. But the ground is standing water. Poor girl is eating her feed, followed by alfalfa hay. At least her belly can be full. And I slog out in this 6 times a day for her eye drops.
The ewes and lambs pen. There are 2 Quonset huts and a cow panel shelter, all deep bedded with hay. The ground is so wet that the shelters are muck. I have 4 lambs, 3 weeks and 1 week old. Poor little things are wet and cold, but they aren’t stupid. They clump up together for warmth in one of the shelters and yell for their moms to come find them. This is the pen I fell down and wallowed in. Poop soup.
This is my front yard, Cooper and 8 ewes are in here. They have a shelter, not in picture, and it’s soggy too.
This is the inside of the hoop shelter in the ewes/lambs pen. Looks good doesn’t it? Even with all that hay, it’s wet.
With all the rain pounding down, when I go out this morning, it will be worse. Just one more day. Rain will clear out this evening. Just one more day, get through today and then 4 days of sunshine. One more day.
As bad as this looks, it’s sure to be worse today. Still pouring down rain. When I go out to feed this morning, I expect much worse.
Rain will clear out tonight, then 4 days of sunshine. We just gotta make through today. One more day. Just one more day.
Reina’s stall. It’s open on 2 sides, I put up a tarp to deflect at least some of the rain. But the ground is standing water. Poor girl is eating her feed, followed by alfalfa hay. At least her belly can be full. And I slog out in this 6 times a day for her eye drops.
The ewes and lambs pen. There are 2 Quonset huts and a cow panel shelter, all deep bedded with hay. The ground is so wet that the shelters are muck. I have 4 lambs, 3 weeks and 1 week old. Poor little things are wet and cold, but they aren’t stupid. They clump up together for warmth in one of the shelters and yell for their moms to come find them. This is the pen I fell down and wallowed in. Poop soup.
This is my front yard, Cooper and 8 ewes are in here. They have a shelter, not in picture, and it’s soggy too.
This is the inside of the hoop shelter in the ewes/lambs pen. Looks good doesn’t it? Even with all that hay, it’s wet.
With all the rain pounding down, when I go out this morning, it will be worse. Just one more day. Rain will clear out this evening. Just one more day, get through today and then 4 days of sunshine. One more day.
