March 26, 2021
As the weather warms up, and the nights remain above freezing, our sugaring season reluctantly comes to an end. We pulled the taps, cleaned the buckets and closed up our sugar house for another season - a truncated, but happy season...
Our lambing,this year, is off to a slow start as well. I'm thinking it, also, won't be as productive as other years. A ewe's fertility is predicated, in large part, on her overall health – and for grass fed sheep, that is a direct reflection of the health and fertility of our pastures. All of our fields, and especially our pasture at Hill-Stead, suffered from last summer's drought, and our lambing season will no doubt be a reflection of that....
Equally predictable, as a result of last year's drought, the price of hay has doubled. As grass based operations like ours were forced to take their animals off pasture in the middle of last summer's grazing season, there was a significant increase in the demand on the hay supply – a supply which was already greatly reduced because hay fields, like pastures, stopped growing when the rain stopped.
Farmers tend to be optimists, and I usually am as well. Every year I just know it's going to be better than the last! This year, however, I'm not so certain - it seems like 2020 just won't quit.
I heard the peepers today, though, beckoning us on towards another season. A season, I hope, filled with happy lambs, healthy ewes, lush pastures and an abundance of gently soaking rain.