Tag Archives: irrigated pasture

Hedgerow, Grazing, and Citrus

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We’re still in the gray gloom of drizzly fog, but we accomplished some outdoor tasks that make me feel as through I accomplished something.

Green pasture with net fence separating two paddocks.

These photos were taken on Wednesday, and on Monday I had moved the sheep from the northwest paddocks to the southeast along the road. This is Paddock 20-21 (numbers assigned to indicate the irrigation valves and checks). I had just fenced off the hedgerow we planted two weeks ago (blog post).

Green pasture with white net fence separating it in half. Sheep are grazing on the left.

This that same fence but from the south. You might notice that it looks as though the fence is leaning the same direction but this is the opposite view. I have developed the habit of leaning my net fence away from the field the sheep will be in. It is rare that a sheep gets tangled in the net fence, but if that happens there is often a bad outcome. I think it is less likely for those upright horns to snag the fence and cause the sheep to panic if the fence is tipped slightly away when the sheep may be grazing close to the fence, as in a field with this much growth. (The previous photo shows how closely the sheep were grazing to the fence on the other side.) It’s also more likely when the charge on the fence is on the low end, and we need to do some troubleshooting on the connections in this field. So I always tip the fence.

Harmony, one of the ewes whose coat was changed recently (last post).

You all know Jade, the oldest sheep here, and a big pet. The plants you’re seeing are chicory and clover.

Orange tree growing through a wooden fence.

After morning chores I was looking for the wheelbarrow to use in the later project of working on the hedgerow. It was near the shop where I had been raking leaves, and I thought that, since it was here. I should rake up fallen lemons before I took the wheelbarrow away.

This tree has been here since we moved to this property in1999. I don’t know anything about growing citrus, but I think the tree may have been a combination of a few different citrus on a common rootstock. Maybe it’s always been just one variety, but I got confused with the different looks that seem to show up at other seasons. In any case, I was paying attention this month when we had loads of fruit on the ground. They sure looked like lemons, but were nothing I wanted to use. Lemons are not supposed to be sweet but I would describe these lemons as nasty. You can see a lot of fruit on the tree now, but it is not nearly ripe, and I know those are oranges. I just looked up lemon rootstock for orange trees and found this video about pruning out those rootstock suckers, which in this case had grown taller than the tree. I was right. The branches that had started as suckers but we hadn’t trimmed were taller than the tree. Do you see that empty spot on top and the one on the right? That is where branches had reached through the rest of the tree and were producing fruit. It was quite a job to cut those away as the branches had grown through other branches and they are very thorny. It took me a couple of hours to finish that job and by then it was about time for Raquel to come.

Raquel is a Farm Club member who went out of her way to help figure out how to order what was needed to install a drip system to irrigate our newly planted hedgerow. I had also picked up more cardboard from a friend so we could continue the mulching that we started. We rolled out 250′ of 3/4″ tubing and secured it with u-shaped wires.

This is the tool that is used to poke holes at the appropriate places in the tube and then insert the emitters.

We had cardboard and straw mulch around the plants, but with the new cardboard we were able to cover space between the plants.

We finished the job…sort of. We used all the 250′ I had ordered. Someone (that would be me) had not measured correctly–a fact which I realized when I installed the new electric net fence for this strip. I thought we had a 250′ hedgerow, but it turns out I was 40′ short of fence. So we knew when we started on this yesterday we would run out of the main tube. We wanted to get as much done as we could though. I have ordered more tubing and all we have to do is connect it to this one and install more emitters and we’ll be good to go. It’s so damp and drizzly now that I don’t have to worry about more water on these plants right away.

Grazing in December

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The title is significant. I don’t know that we have ever grazed into December. There wasn’t enough feed and the ground was too soggy. Now we have lots of green feed and need to keep the sheep eating it. The downside is that the rain seems to have stopped and we will need more.

Three Jacob sheep standing in grazed field with net fence as the border.

This is Paddock #1 (west property line) after two days of grazing.

Thick tall chicory and grass covering the bottom wire of a 3-wire fence.

This is Paddock #1 North, just across that fence. Notice that my boot is under the bottom wire, but it’s pretty well buried in foliage. I walked along this stretch of fence to clear that bottom wire.

Jacob sheep eating leaves of chicory in green pasture.

Happy sheep.

More happy sheep. The last time we grazed this paddock was three months ago on September 1.

Sheep eating chicory leaves in thick pasture.

The big leafy plant is chicory and so is the one with blue flowers. It took me a long time to accept that they are the same plant.

After looking it up online I found:
“Forage Chicory: Perennial broadleaf. Up to 18” (flower stalks up to 6′). Tap-rooted broadleaf perennial with bright blue flowers suited to well-drained moderately acidic soils. As annual or perennial forage: well-managed stands may persist 5 years or longer, but also valuable in annual stands for pasture or green chop. Very high digestibility and protein levels up to 50% higher than alfalfa. Digestibility is reduced if plants are allowed to bolt, but the flowers are very attractive! Research shows reduced parasite loads in animals fed or pastured on chicory. “

Green pasture plants after a day of grazing and trampling.

This photo is after grazing Paddock 1N for three days. A lot is trampled, but they were still eating out here this morning.

View down the fence line of a grazed field on the left and not grazed field on the right. Sheep were just turned into the right field.

I opened the fence to let them into the next paddock. I have video and I just spent time on iMovie after not using it for a long time. Let’s see if I can share this on YouTube. Here is the link.

Two four-horned Jaco sheep in tall grass and clover with blue sky behind.

Back to regular blogging. More happy sheep.

Jacob sheep grazing field full of green grass.

This view is interesting to me because this is the area where ryegrass completely overwhelmed the clover last spring. This post is one of several I wrote about that situation. If you pursue the Grazing posts you’ll see the whole story. This is good feed here, but it is patchy, more so than in the rest of the paddocks.

Four horned Jacob ewe in green pasture with blue sky behind.

This ewe, Meridian Pecan, isn’t bothered by any of those details. She’s happy to have fresh green feed.

Grazing – Gray Fog but Green Pasture

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We’re almost to the last check in the south pasture. Well, we are at it but that is today and this blog post is about yesterday.

This is looking south and Paddock 2 on the right. That is the one the sheep were just grazing for two days, after grazing Paddock 3 (left) for two days. You can see how this looked two days ago here.

Anther view of that same fence line.

Moving west, this is the fenceline between #3 and #2. I had to move that net fence from the division between #3 and 4 to the division between #2 and 1.

The fence line between #’s 2 and 1, neither yet grazed

The sheep grazing #2 on the first day (yesterday)

Jasmine.

Rose.

Jade.

Grazing – Foggy Morning and Moving to Fresh Pasture

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Jacob sheep on pasture grazed and trampled. A foggy morning.

The sheep were out when I went to the barn yesterday morning. The paddocks are numbered from west to east, 1 to 21. Every other check has a permanent 3-wire fence, visible in this photo on the left. In the summer I grazed two at a time and 4 days seemed about right. After we got measurable rain I noticed significant trailing down the border check between the two paddocks they were grazing. The check is a raised strip running north to south that guides the water when we irrigate. I thought I’d better put a fence along that check so that they wouldn’t impact it as much. So that’s the way I’ve been grazing for the last few weeks. When Farm Club helped to measured net fences to make sure I had the correct fences where I needed them (blog post here) I had left 3 lengths of e-net that we measured to be the correct length for just this need. You can see the net fence on the right of this photo.

Jacob sheep in pasture that has just been grazed while there are lush plants on the other side of the white e-net fence.

The sheep grazed this paddock (#4) for two days. This is the third morning and they need to move to #3. The fence is on the border check and you can see how they have grazed right up to it. The fence is purposely tipped away from the grazed paddock because I think the 4-horned sheep are less likely to get horns caught when they graze near the fence.

Jacob sheep walking towards me to move to a new pasture.

The sheep were anxious to get to fresh feed.

White electric net fence with sheep on the left and fresh pasture on the right.

I was able to move the fence that was blocking access to the next paddock and they all came around the end.

Fresh pasture on the right with sheep grazing. White e-net fence down the middle and grazed pasture on the left.

This is the view before I reset the net fence. I find it interesting to see how the sheep ate the leaves as far as they could reach on the chicory. By the way, the leafy plant that looks like we’re growing a crop of lettuce or chard is chicory. That was one of the three forbs in the seed mix we planted last fall. It didn’t grow as much as the clover until later in the summer, but it is sure evident now.

Close up of grazed leafless stalks of chicory with sheep on the other side of the fence in fresh pasture.

Another view of the fence before I moved it, and more chicory stalks.

Sheep grazing chicory and clover on a foggy morning.

The sheep are happy on this new paddock. This is quite a contrast from the one grazed for only two days.

White net fence in the middle with grazed field on the right and not grazed on the left.

View to the north after re-setting most of the net fence.

Foggy view.

Chicory flower at the end of the season.

Irrigated Pasture

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I am in Michigan now (more on that in a future post), but having a chance to go through photos for planned blog posts. I took these photos last week when I switched the sheep to the last paddock on the west.

Irrigated pasture full of clover in bloom.

A view of the pasture with lots of clover. Most is white clover, but there is some strawberry clover as well. The dry grass is annual rye which has dried out. I have written extensively about the pasture project, seeding, and what is growing. If you’re interested search posts from November 2024 through spring 2025.

Interior view of an owl box. No owls, but evidence from feathers and pellets

Part of the pasture project included two owl boxes. I can’t see inside them without a ladder. However, I can open the door on this one and hold my camera up high enough to take a photo of the inside. It’s obvious that it has been used, but I don’t know if it is used currently or not.

Blue chicory flower with bee in the center.

Chicory is one of the plants that was in our seed mix but I don’t see as much of it as I do the clover. After reading articles about native bees I think this is probably one of them.

Pasture with tall dry grass.

There have been challenges on the north pasture. The annual ryegrass, which was not part of the seed mix, grew so quickly that it took over some areas. There is clover growing, but a lot was shaded out by the ryegrass that was trampled as the sheep were turned out.

Tall dry grass in foreground with green clover growing beyond.

These are patches that I lifted up to show how tall the grass is. It has effectively mulched parts of the field. Dan recently mowed this area to try and break up this thick grass. We’ll try hand seeding some of these areas before irrigating next week.

Sheep on pasture with orchard in background.

Back to the south pasture. You can still see the dry ryegrass, but it was mowed or grazed before it got as tall as that in the north pasture. There is plenty of clover thriving under it.

Jacob sheep grazing green clover and dry grass.

Another view of this paddock.

Close up view of green clover plants with white flowers

And a close up.

Jacob ewe with four horns in pasture.

Sheep are finding plenty to eat.

Grazing and Irrigation – 1 – April 20

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Way back in January I wrote the 14th Pasture and Irrigation Renovation post. I like my posts to be in order, but now I have skipped some important updates. Too many photos. Too confusing. Too much other stuff going on–lambing, teaching, deadlines, etc. The whole point of this renovation was to feed sheep and make it easier and more efficient to do so. If you look back at that linked post you’ll see plants growing, but they are small and there is a lot of bare ground. Fast forward past winter rain, warming temps, and 3 months. I’ll change the name of this series to Grazing and Irrigation.

The original plan when we applied for funding was that we might not be grazing for a year. It was evident by April that the pasture needed to be grazed NOW. I was committed to a teaching gig at the end of April and was going to put off grazing until I got back. Dan was not able to work on this only two weeks after a knee replacement. My brother, Dave, knowing how important it was to get started with this, offered to help set up the grazing before I left and handle it while I was gone.

A major problem was that all the permanent interior fencing had been removed at the beginning of this project. We would have to rely on electric net fencing. We gathered all the lengths of net fence that were stored in the barn.

We spread these out to figure out what we had and in what condition it was.

Dave made a plan and laid out fence, beginning in the northwest pasture, the one we call the Horse Pasture. Grazing started April 20.

This gives an idea of how thick the grass was. The seed mix we used had three forbs (clover, birdsfoot trefoil, and chicory) and three perennial grasses. There is a lot of clover and a moderate amount of trefoil. I don’t identify any chicory and all the visible grass is annual rye.The seed already in the soil completely overwhelmed any perennial grasses that might have started to grow and was covering the clover as well. This is one reason we needed to get going on the grazing.

Dave made strips going north-south and we blocked the sheep into a portion of the first strip. The idea is to get them to eat one area down more thoroughly before moving them to the next.

With no fences left in the pasture Dave had to create a lane to direct the sheep from the barn to where we wanted them.

You can see in this photo how the tall grass is trampled more than eaten.

This ewe may have not got the message about eating the grass instead of wearing it.

There is no drinking water in the pasture so at some point the sheep go back to the barn for water. This is something we have to work on.