From the Pastures: The bright side

Well, it’s dry again and we really could use a good soaking rain. I had my eight-way cover crop mix no-till drilled into the wheat stubble on Aug. 13. Since then, I’ve had a total of 3.6 inches of rain, but the last time it rained was three weeks ago. The crop got off to a good start, but it’s pretty thirsty right now. The grass pastures had been growing nice up to about two weeks ago when they started feeling the effects of no rain.

So far, the lambs have had good-quality forage and they are putting on weight. The ewe flock on the other hand does not need the good-quality forage that the lambs are getting. They were weaned off the lambs about one month ago and have hit the road. I have them doing “landscaping duties” at the various farmettes around my neighborhood. They are making other people’s farms look nice, fertilizing the grass for next year and giving the owners a chance to be in the livestock business for a short time.

My farm gets a rest because I only have half the animals on my farm, so during this dry time I can stockpile forage for the winter grazing. It’s a win-win for everyone. I do have to closely watch the ewe flock so they don’t eat the grass into the dirt. I still want a 4-inch residual left after I take the sheep out of a lot so the grass has several solar collectors per plant to regrow from. It’s amazing how the sheep can eat and turn into meat a variety of weeds, including Canadian thistle, dock, pigweed, giant foxtail when it’s young, poison ivy and just about everything else except cans — I leave those for the goats.

The Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival had a good turnout of people and the weather was great. They may have had their last stock dog trial, though. John Wentz, who has put the trial on for 21 years, has lost some of his grazing ground for his sheep flock. So, he’s selling his sheep flock and going to do something completely different. John has put on stock dog trials in Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois for a long time, so now someone else will have to do all the hard work of putting on stock dog trials. He’s going to be missed.

The two grazing schools put on by Illinois Grazing Lands Coalition that were held the first two weekends of September had a good turnout. There were a lot of topics covered and a lot of knowledge shared. Heart of America Grazing Conference will be Oct. 15-16 in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. A pasture walk on Oct. 17 will be at Greg Brann’s “Big Springs Farm” in Adolphus, Kentucky. The Missouri Forage and Grassland Council Annual Conference will be Nov. 13-14 in Lake Ozark, Missouri. For more info on conferences, schools, pasture walks and other educational things go to ilgrazinglands.org.

Look on the bright side — it will rain, eventually.