The Care and Feeding of Livestock in Winter For Beginners

Having livestock on your property is a challenge, especially for the novice.  Having livestock on your property during the winter months can be especially challenging.    With the onset of winter comes rain and snow, which when mixed with manure in confined spaces can create an incredible mess and some serious health and environmental issues can occur.  I freely admit to that novice status, having not yet gone through a winter with the sheep.  Fortunately, I have a lot of very good resources available to me right here in my office.  The District recently introduced the Land and Livestock program to the region and provided a lot of excellent ideas for minimizing the effects of winter on the land and the livestock. 

The first consideration is location, location, location.  We had the choice of several areas to make into a suitable winter paddock for our four sheep and hopefully in early spring, a number of lambs.  One important consideration was the convenience factor.  I needed to have the paddock fairly close to the house so I could plug tank heaters in and be able to fill water tanks without having to haul water.  I also needed easy access to my indoor hay storage which as it turns out is about is about 300’ feet away.  We do have water tight bins that hold at least 4 days worth of feed right next to the paddock and it is easy to replenish that supply.  The spot we chose is about 75 feet southeast of the house and is on the same elevation as the house with a slight fall-off to the south toward the drain-field.  The total area is roughly 8,000 square feet in a slightly oval configuration.  There are several pine trees within the paddock and outside which will provide some shelter from the wind and a bit of thermal cover. 

With the site chosen and enclosed using the 16’ cattle panels and “T” posts, we needed to start thinking about building a shelter of some sort.  I thought about several different designs and chose a structure framed with wood and covered on the sides and back wall with plywood.  It took about 8 hours to build and another 45 minutes in the hot tub that evening!  The dimensions are 8’ deep and 7’ wide.  The roof is corrugated fiberglass panels screwed to 2x2’s.  The open front of the shelter is 4’ tall, sloping to 3.5’ at the back wall.  The shelter opening is pointed northwest toward the house so we can see inside and so it provides protection from the prevailing winds. Four animals will comfortably fit inside the shelter along with the feed bins.  The feeders are plastic storage bins with cutouts on the front.  Another consideration was to armor the high traffic areas like the water tank and the gate to prevent the formation of mud.  I excavated about 6” deep at both areas and filled them with 3/8’s minus gravel which I compacted a bit.  The water tank sits next to the north fence so it can be filled from outside the pen with the hose.   The bare earth inside the shelter will be covered with wheat straw which can be quickly changed when manure begins to accumulate.  The advantage of using straw is it composts quickly and easily and will be great for the gardens.  I am also moving the chicken coop into the paddock with the sheep.  They are free range during the day and this will eliminate the need for me to let them out every morning and put them into their pen at night.  They will still be able to have free range during the day and I won’t have to worry about predators at night.  The hens being the gregarious girls that they are, spend all day in with the sheep anyway.  I will locate the coop close to the water tank so I can run one extension cord with a gang block to provide power for both water heaters and a heat lamp for the hens.  And I can still collect eggs without having to go inside the pen, just by reaching through the cattle panel and lifting the roof section over the nest boxes.

 I hope that all of the preparations we are going through make for a successful and healthy winter habitat for the sheep and the hens; and make it easier on us.  Maybe it’s just me, but I feel a bit of trepidation knowing that winter weather is imminent.  I just hope I haven’t missed something important.  Time will tell and with any luck at all, we can look forward to lambs next spring!  I’ll share the photos!

Sheep Eat My Grass; the Year in Review

Simple temporary shade shelter

It has been an interesting first summer of having livestock on the property.  With the challenges of building fence, rotating the sheep through pastures, building temporary shelters for shade and experiencing the shearing process, we have learned a great deal.  It was delightful to come home from work and enjoy the bucolic scene of sheep eating the grass that I no longer had to mow.  We would sit outside watching and enjoying, joined by the gregarious hens.  All so peaceful…that is until coyotes killed two of our flock. 

The ewes after shearing

A harsh lesson was learned about how to protect the sheep from predation.  And then there was the issue of losing our American Black Bellied ram, Simon to a massive abdominal infection with another valuable lesson learned about not getting too attached to livestock that were never intended to be pets.  And we did have a couple of incidents of the sheep escaping captivity before the perimeter fences were complete.  In both cases, we got lucky.  The first time, one of the ewes escaped while we were building a new enclosure and had a gap that we thought we could protect.  We were wrong and she took off like she had a wolf on her tail, headed west at a high rate of speed.  We followed her for a couple of miles before we gave up, realizing we couldn’t flank her or get her turned for home.  The young Border collie we were training just wasn’t ready for prime time and was no help.  It was getting dark when we gave up, figuring her to be the next meal for the coyotes.  To our surprise, she showed up the following evening and we were able to get her back in with her mates. 

Cattle panels for security

The second incident happened when the temporary fencing we were using as a chute fell over in the rocky ground and the sheep calmly stepped over it and went for a stroll, all of them this time.  Fortunately, they weren’t trying to escape, just wandering a bit.  With the use of the older Border collie and help from a neighbor, we were able to get them back inside the pen in about and hour without too much difficulty.

A tank heater will prevent ice this winter

All things considered, it has been a delightful experience with a couple of not so pleasant events mixed in.  Our emphasis now is preparing for winter and lambs next spring.  There is much to be done; building shelters, making sure we have enough hay put by, and installing freeze proof water tanks along with feeding bunks. 

The sheep have to share the pasture!

I sometimes wonder why we are doing this.  As I approach retirement, I should be simplifying, not adding more work and responsibility.  And yet, I can honestly say  that after the first summer, even with the difficulties we experienced, I would do it again in a heart-beat. I would do a couple of things differently and I will have that opportunity and more next year.  Just wait ‘till you see the photos of the lambs!

Spokane Conservation District

How do we do it? 

  

How does a small organization like the Spokane Conservation District manage to accomplish so much with so few people and limited resources?  Leveraging - and no that is not a nasty word in the context of leveraged buyouts and toxic assets.  In this case, leveraging is a very positive and necessary part of doing business as a conservation district.  Let’s begin in the context of leveraging operational funds. 

Conservation districts are political sub-divisions of state government but receive little if any funding directly from the state.  Most of the 45 districts in the State are reliant on short-term project specific grants.  

 In 1989, the Washington State Legislature passed a law allowing the counties of Washington State to impose a special assessment on behalf of the conservation district in that county.  This method of providing local funding to solve local issues falls perfectly in line with the mission of the conservation districts themselves; solving local issues with local solutions led by local people.  The Spokane District was the first in the State to request that implementation in 1990 and the assessment went into effect in January 1991.

No-Till farming saves moisture, soil, fuel, and money

Over the ensuing 21 years, the Spokane Conservation District has realized nearly $7 million in revenue from the assessment while leveraging that money into well over $10 million in project specific grants that would not otherwise been administered in Spokane County.  The assessment also allowed us to begin a new conservation program that supplied low interest loans to agriculture producers to purchase farming equipment designed to reduce soil erosion and prevent soil runoff into area streams and lakes.  That program utilizes money from the Department of Ecology which comes to the District as a loan, and then is loaned out to producers.  Since 1995, the District has loaned more than $22 million for conservation farming equipment purchases.  The net gain from this program is being able to eliminate soil erosion on more than ½ million acres of crop ground and the taxpayers got the money back with interest!   That program has now been expanded to 14 counties and 17 conservation districts in Eastern Washington and now 4 counties in North Idaho, all with the assessment rate caps remaining the same as they were in 1991.   

 Livestock and Land

 

The District recently introduced a new program; Livestock and Land.  This program originated in California and is now being introduced in Washington by the Spokane Conservation District.   It is designed to help livestock owners with proper management of pastures and paddocks and to deal with manure and mud issues.   Many livestock owners have problems with manure management.  In the summer, the impacts of having manure accumulate in pastures and paddocks is not too serious.  Most of the folks are able to apply the manure on the ground to fertilize pastures that have already been grazed.  But during the winter when the animals are confined, some serious health and environmental issues can occur.  With the onset of winter comes rain and snow, which when mixed with manure in confined spaces can create an incredible mess.  The Livestock and Land program provides those landowners with effective solutions to manure management, composting, drainage and shelter.  This program takes advantage of grants and cost-share opportunities to help fund the projects with the District staff providing technical and construction assistance.  If you would like more information on this program, contact Walt Edelen, the Water Resources Program Manger for the District.  Email: Walt-edelen@sccd.org or call 509 535 7274 extension 224.

With only 36% of our total budget coming from the assessment, taxpayers in Spokane County receive a lot of value for their $5 per year contribution. We do that through leveraging all of our human and financial resources to the maximum!  Support your conservation district.  We do everything - From the Ground Up!

Sick Sheep Seldom Survive

 Sick Sheep Seldom Survive

A common saying in vet school is “Sick Sheep Seldom Survive”.   We understand that more now having experienced that just last week.  Our 9 month old American Black Belly ram, Simon had to be euthanized by our veterinarian after a brief but severe infection caused him to lose at least 25% of his body weight.  We acquired Simon this past July 23^rd from a farm where we had already purchased a couple of Katahdin ewes.  

Simon meets the Ewes!

Simon had been bottle fed, so he acted much more like a dog than a ram.  He would come when he was called, loved to be scratched behind the ears and on his neck.  When he started losing weight about a two months after we got him, we thought perhaps he had a belly full of parasitic worms so administered the appropriate de-wormer.  Our veterinarian who also happens to be our son examined a fecal sample and to no one’s surprise, found a few different species of worms but nothing unusual in species or population density.  When that treatment failed to have any positive results, a round of two different antibiotics along with a pain reliever seemed to have an effect, but only for a day or two.  Simon wasn’t very interested in food.  As thin as he was, he should have been ravenous.   His teeth had some rather sharp points on them and could have been the reason for not eating so we sedated him and filed his teeth smooth, thinking we had hit upon the solution.  The following day was no different with Simon refusing every possible combination of grains, alfalfa, fresh grass and other treats any other sheep would relish. As it turned out, he was probably in pain and grinding his teeth.  On Wednesday evening, he was euthanized and a post-mortem was performed.  As it turned out, he was suffering from a massive abdominal infection and had lesions on his lungs.  There was nothing that could have been done for him.  It obviously wasn’t contagious; the ewes were all doing very nicely, putting on considerable weight throughout the summer and fall. 

 

Our son told us when we got him, “Don’t get too attached” and yet we did.  Perhaps it was the way Simon behaved and seemed to relish human contact. Perhaps it was his gentle nature, the result of which was our naming him the first day we had him.  And he was very cute or pretty, depending on how you looked at him.  Whatever the case, it was hard to see him suffer and hard to lose him.   

 

There has to be a middle ground, where you care about your livestock yet don’t invest emotionally in them to the degree we did.  First it was losing two ewes to coyotes and then the loss of our ram. This incident will serve as a learning experience for us, we hope.  This article is less about losing an animal than putting that loss into proper perspective.  After all, we want the sheep to eat our grass and at some point, we will eat them.  That’s life and that’s life on the farm.