June 3, 2022
When grass begins to grow in the spring, its first mission is to grow more surface area with which to collect as much of the sun’s energy as possible. As if the grass is unfurling its very own solar collector, the blades of grass collect the sunshine, creating energy for the grass to grow. The more surface area it grows, the more sunshine it can collect and the more additional surface area it can grow…. It’s a wonderful thing!
When our sheep graze the grass, the cycle starts over again as the grass tries to recover as quickly as possible. The sheep’s grazing maintains the grass in a constant vegetative state which keeps it sweet and tender - just the way the sheep like it. Another wonderful thing!
In the Spring we move the sheep quickly from one pasture to the next, letting them graze the grass hard so it keeps growing, and then moving them on. At some point the pasture gets away from us and the grass starts to grow scruffy and tall.
Once it gets to its maximum height and the ambient temperatures tip towards summer, the grass starts to put all its energy into reproducing. Seed heads are formed and as soon as the heads begin to open, the plant starts to lose nutritional value as forage. The pasture rotations for us slow way down in the summer – but for farms that sell hay, the fun is just beginning.
They need to cut the hay when it’s in the “boot stage” - just as the seed heads are formed, but before they open. Once cut, the hay needs three days without rain for it to dry, be baled and safely stowed undercover. In New England, most farms plan on two cuttings a year and are now in the middle of their “first cutting”.
The first cutting is less nutritious than the second as the stems are coarser and harder to digest. Most horse owners insist on second cutting, but our sheep aren’t nearly as picky. So, for our winter hay supply I order “first cutting bales” because it has seed heads which the second cutting doesn’t. In the winter we spread the hay anywhere there is still bare ground in the brushy areas of our pasture. The sheep eat most of the seed heads, but they always miss some and the seeds get pushed into the earth with their hooves. It is a very low-tech way of reseeding a pasture, but it works.
In a couple years, when all our pasture seeding is done, I'll go with the second cutting as it's less likely to get embedded in the sheep’s wool. Since most of our income from our sheep is from the wool they produce, it’s in our best interest to keep their fleeces as clean as possible. Some shepherds put jackets on their sheep just to keep the wool clean. Call me old fashioned but I’m not likely to ever put a cotton jacket on any of my sheep. I’d rather spend an afternoon picking out the bits of chaff, and daydreaming about springtime grass.