This week at the Three 10s, we had a few different projects going on. We welcomed our new chicken flock of four hens :). This was a pretty simple process as we already had the coop set up from our last group. I have a parent who supplies us with chickens at school and she generously gave me these four hens who were already laying. I really did not want to start over with chicks! I am gathering 3 eggs a day right now, so someone is slacking…I will have to investigate that more.

The garden is growing. Yay! Most of it is doing really well. We had a terrible storm come through early in the week. We were really blessed with no damage to the farm. People too close for comfort to us were not as fortunate. It did, however, wash four of my baby okra plants right out of the ground. I think the way the water ran just hit them perfectly. Fortunately, I jumped the gun with planting and still have plenty of time to replace them. The zucchini and tomatoes had a little frost damage from what I hope is our last cold night of the year. I know I should have covered them. I didn’t. But I picked those leaves off and the plants are doing great. 

Our main project for the week was pasture management. We have a LOT of grass. Which is a wonderful thing. At our old house we had to feed hay 12 months a year. Here we are only feeding through the winter months. We have two pastures that have never had rest in the 3 years we have been here. Terrible management! But we have so much grass I keep thinking I can kill part of it off and the horses will not be so obese. It is not working. It is also not good for pest management. So poor Bryson put up more fence this week. He is so good to me. 

We used t-posts and electric tape for this project and squared off 100×100 foot sections of the pastures. The horses will be put up at night and turned out during the day. Ideally, I would reverse that and have them up during the day, but realistically it is not as feasible. With both of us working full time, I cannot risk the horses getting ornary and not going up easily, and then one or both of us are late for work. Domino affects there. As they figure out what is going on, it will likely get harder to put them in the dry lot. Thankfully our herd is made up of mostly good citizens, and while the tape will be electric, I do not have too many concerns about them testing the fence and trying to go through. 

The sheep are also being put in a smaller space. Their pasture space will be cut in half, and it is time to separate the ram lambs. We are also using a temporary fence for this, but it is mesh, to not risk anyone slipping through the cracks (sheep or dog). I will link the fence we are using below. Instead of turning them in and out, they will stay on one half for 10-14 days and then switch. This will limit their grazing as well, and aid in pest management. This is also a great idea if you are managing pastures where you need to conserve grass. This allows one half to “rest” by keeping the animals off. This is a more common form of “pasture rotation” that is very important for any livestock operation. 

Why do we care if the horses and sheep have too much grass? Horses and sheep have very different digestive systems, yet both need high forage or roughage diets. There is so much information out there about this, and I will not bore you with it here!* A lot of times, the struggle is getting enough roughage in the diet, especially if space is limited. People then supplement with grain. This is not harmful, as long as a roughage is still the main food source. (With enough quantity and quality) As I said earlier, we are blessed with plenty of grass. We do not grain our horses at all (I will actually start to give them a little just to entice them into the dry lots in the evening. It will not be enough to truly affect their overall nutrient consumption for the day.) and the sheep get just enough in the evening to bring them all up to put hands on them. This gives us a chance to check everyone up close daily, and who doesn’t love friendly sheep? 

Our struggle here at the Three 10s is a lot of very overweight animals. Obesity in animals has the same negative effects as in people. Obviously in our animals we are concerned first with overall health, but then things start to differ. In our horses we are more concerned with hoof health. Modern horses are fairly poorly designed animals, with huge bodies placed on relatively small legs and feet. Additionally, especially in the spring, laminitis is a big concern. Laminitis can lead to founder in extreme cases, and can be managed by limiting exposure to the sugar in grasses.** In our sheep, obesity is more of a concern when breeding and lambing. Similar to humans, if a sheep is overweight it can cause problems with conception, during gestation, and can even pass adiposity to their offspring. 

Whew! That was a lot, and I could go on and on. Pasture management and diet is fascinating to me, but I am sure I am in a small minority here. I did not even touch on why pasture management is so important for pest management, but that could be another day. 

In more exciting news, we are making friends with Lily! She has her mom’s skepticism, so this is fun. Thanks for joining us in another week of homesteading on the side!

“For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

*If you want to learn more about the difference between digestive systems and pasture management, the number one source I will usually refer to is your Cooperative Extension Service. There is a lot of information about non-ruminants (horses) and ruminants (sheep), as well as why managing pastures is a very important subject!

**Pete Ramey has a lot of wonderful information about hoof health. Here is a great place to start:  http://www.hoofrehab.com/SpringLaminitis.html

LINK to the fence we used for sheep: https://www.premier1supplies.com/fencing.php?fence_id=145