January 15, 2021
Most grass fed operations have a pasture which is ominously referred to as the “sacrifice area”. But despite what you are thinking, it's a really positive and proactive concept. The sacrifice refers to the pasture not the animals. It's where you graze your animals when it's too wet, or too dry, or if they are in danger of overgrazing. You keep them in the sacrifice area, and feed them hay, until the rest of the pasture recovers completely- the strategy being that you sacrifice one area of the pasture for the betterment of the rest.
We generally only use our sacrifice area during the winter months, but because of this summer's drought we took the sheep off pasture in August (3 months early) and they've been confined to one pasture ever since. It seems only fitting that our sheep like everyone else in the world should have experienced a travel ban in 2020... However the same drought that severely affected our pastures also affected our local hay supply, as well. We are now getting hay delivered from Pennsylvania. It's expensive and the 3 months we had to feed the sheep instead of grazing them, translated to an additional 600 bales of hay we hadn't planned or budgeted for. 2020 lives on!
On a completely inconsequential note - Anne and I went “shed hunting”, which is another ominous name for an otherwise peaceful and relaxing endeavor. Beginning in January, at the end of deer breeding season, the bucks start to shed their antlers. We have some pretty spectacular bucks on the property, and it's a challenge to try to locate the “sheds” before they get devoured by all the calcium starved forest dwellers (mice, porcupines, coyotes). Looking for sheds involves a lot of bush-wacking and deer trail traversing - visiting all the favorite places that the bucks like to hang out. There is a grove of small hemlock trees that they bed down in, the stream where they drink, an oak tree that blew down with acorns to feast on – and of course that lovely pasture with all the overpriced hay... We didn't have any luck this time, but we had fun looking.
There has also been a noticeable uptick in coyote activity in the past couple weeks - so it seems that as the deer (and sheep) breeding seasons wind down the coyotes are just starting to feel the love.