Spring grazing is finally here!

We thought that we would be able to graze early this year.  Boy were we wrong.  The cattle finally got to go out on pasture yesterday and the sheep today.  We had to buy in hay starting in April.  We were so close!!!

Lawnmowers hard at work

We are starting the sheep off slowly by using them as lawnmowers around the barnyard.  By giving them just small bits of fresh green grass we keep them from getting bloat.  They also continue to have full access to bales of hay and can return to their barn at night or if the weather turns.  We will also put them on other areas around the house and barn before they go on to pasture full time.  We almost always have a neighbour stop by to tell us the sheep are out.  I guess we should tie bright flags on the electric netting.

Pammy the Lammy

Lambing started on February 11th this year.  We have had 27 lambs born with only 1 mortality.  There were 6 ewes that have not lambed.  So there may be more to come but I am skeptical.  We normally keep all of the ewes in the barn for lambing but this year we decided that they could have access to the barnyard.  While fresh air and sunshine are a good thing, the amount of rain we have had is not so good.  We even had one lamb get stuck in the mud.  Thankfully she survived with minimal damage.  I have now started calling her "mudcake".

2 Bridges Libby

We have had an excellent batch of calves this year.  We have 4 heifer calves and 4 bull calves.  There is one more cow to have a calf and she will break the tie.  We recently imported some belted galloway bull semen from the UK.  It was quite the experience.  We find now that we have too many bulls on the property so will be starting to advertise a few of the registered bulls.  Hemlock (or Hemi) is a nice bull that is 2.5 years old.  He has given us a few nice heifer calves that we will keep.  His partner in the pasture right now is Kentucky.  He is only a yearling bull but is looking quite good.  His genetics are very good so we expect to see great things from him.

2 Bridges Hemlock

Hemi, Kentucky and Kansas

Hemi currently has an ad on kijiji.  Any inquiries can contact us directly at 2bridgesfarm at gmail.com


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