Hay Order

The first crop of hay is just getting cut from the fields around here now. For those of us who don't raise our livestock on pasture, that is a huge relief. Raising sheep, we prefer them to be on second cut as it has more nutrients and the sheep waste very little of it. But still, this year's first cut is better than last years first cut which was what we were feeding the ewes once last year's second cut ran out. So we were thankful when our hay provider contacted us and delivered a large order of hay.

There isn't quite enough to last us until second cut, but fingers crossed we have an early crop. If not, at least we know he has enough if we're still needing it. Nothing makes me happier than seeing all this green stuff in my barn.

Already my ewes are looking nice and plump.

Oh wait, that's just a pregnant ewe! Go ahead and have that baby any down now please!!!

Superman

Remember the post where I was astonished we bought a huge hay feeder and was able to deliver it home in the back of the pickup truck?

Well getting it home was one thing, getting it off the truck and setup in the pasture was another thing.  We did manage to get it off the truck but then it sat in the same spot for the past week until finally my husband got a day off and we had a small break in lambing to finally move it into the miniature pasture.  That was no small task.  We don't have a tractor and had to move it with the aid of our truck and my husband's superman strength.    But there it is, at last, sitting in the miniature pasture.

Feed Storage

Part of organizing my barn has been trying to find how best to store all the feed and hay.  With my head count going up, our hay supplier has discussed bringing along an elevator in next fall's delivery so that we can order larger amounts of hay and stack them up in the loft.  That will leave more room in the barn.

I realized that I was going through grain far faster than usual once my new flock of sheep arrived.  A head count of all sheep and lambs this morning had me at 58.  I soon found myself constantly down at the feed store.  So instead, I came up with the idea of storing all the grain in a deep freezer.  There was an old unused one in our cellar that came with the house.  It took the four of us but we managed to get it up the narrow staircase. I scrubbed it clean and disinfectant it then drove it over to the barn.  As you can see, it easily holds a week of grain. I'm sure I can fit another weeks worth in it if wanted.  That will definitely cut back on my trips to the feedstore.

And a great work surface when not opened.

Across the aisle along the horse stalls, I picked up the two large and fantastic storage containers on the end.  

They hold 42 gallons a piece and are on wheels so can easily be moved around if necessary.  I store the horses grain in one and creep feed in the other.  The two other storage tubs I store loose mineral in one and the other is for any other grain we want separated such as specialty grain for goats or lamb grower.

Barn Work...Cont'd

In an effort to make my barn more, well, animal friendly, we have been making changes to the barn.  Again.  First we added a wall next to the minis pen.

The only spot left available in the barn is that space left to the wall and that's where we store the hay.  So when this guy arrived yesterday with his monthly delivery,

the minis wouldn't have a free buffet.

On the opposite side we extended the lamb pen and moved the lambs out and made it the new maternity/nursery pen.

Don't know why it seems bigger than the old one as it is the same size but they seem to have more room.

The new lamb pen has also gained a bit more leg space.

Visibly missing is the other black lamb.  I decided she was plenty big enough to join the adult ewes.  This is her next to her mother.

Lastly, we moved the goats into the end horse stall and installed a separate pen for Caesar, the billy goat.

Being the only male and dominate goat, some of the females weren't getting their share.  On top of that he seemed to enjoy ramming them into the walls of the stall.  Thinking we may have some pregnant goats among them, I figured this couldn't be good.  So he has been separated and the girls can now co-exist peacefully

In order for all this shifting around to come about, we had to move all the winter straw which we had stored in the barn to the loft.  Now the thing about my barn is it may be pretty but it ain't to practical.  The loft is a good example of that impracticality.  It's huge with plenty of storage space but lacks any decent way of getting something up there.  Except this 90 degree flight of stairs on the outside of the barn..

What's visibly missing from the outside of this barn is a pulley so I rigged up a quicky makeshift one and when that didn't work we used old-fashioned horse power.  Or in our case, mom power.  We hooked a bale to the end of a rope and the other end tied around my waist.  Then my boy went back and forth to the barn getting the next bale and hooking it up while up above on the loft porch Farm Girl pulled them up with her bare hands while I pulled the majority of the weight by walking back into the loft and hauling the bale up.  It took all day but we finally got the majority of them up into the loft with this method with the exception of about 5 bales which we left for topping up in the barn. It was a lot of back breaking work but this setup works better for me and the animals.  Now everyone has a permanent winter pen where they can stay nice and warm over this long and cold winter.

 This really should be the last of redo's in the barn as there really is nowhere else to expand.

A Grass is a Grass...or Not!

So lately I've been trying very hard to learn all about hay.  From protein content to the different species.  When I first moved to the country I really thought grass was grass and that was that.  As a matter of fact I'm embarrassed to admit I didn't even realize that hay was grass.  Yes it's true.  Then when I finally figured that out, I had no idea there were any differences between 1st, 2nd and 3rd cuts of hay.  I had no clue as to what that meant.  Now that some of it is beginning to sink into my head and realizing that the quality and cut of my bales of hay affected the health of my livestock, I've really started to take an interest and have been on a crusade to self-teach myself all the kinds of grasses there are out there (and to be able to identify them), as well as the differences between grass and legume.

Yesterday I went out to a farm that advertised some bales of hay for sale at a price that was more representative of last year rather than the ridiculous prices being asked this year, so me and Farm Girl went and picked up some bales.  The ad said the hay was 1st cut with timothy and alfalfa.  Perfect, I really wanted to add alfalfa to my hay since it is a vital supplement in both sheep and goats diet.  And the horses love it too.  The problem is, I really have no idea what alfalfa looks like.  I've finally figured out timothy and was able to identify it in the bales.

But there were other grasses in the bale that I thought were alfalfa but turns out they are not.  Since I had no idea what they were, I went on the internet to identify them.

I believe the above is Kentucky Bluegrass but I'm not sure of the one below.

I'm thinking it's some kind of orchard grass only because someone bought the majority of the hay from this farmer and resold it at a higher price on Kijiji (nice eh?) but correctly (or incorrectly) identified the bales as being 70% timothy, 20% alfalfa, and 10% orchard grass.

I'm studying and examining each stem of grass (yes, a little neurotic I know) determined to recognize what is in my fields and in my bales.  I did find a great website to help me but still some of the strands are so similar it is hard to correctly name each one.

Here's the link for anyone who is interested in identifying pasture grass:
http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/livestock/beef/facts/06-095.htm#kentucky