Category: Farming

Hanging Gates

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These pictures have been sitting around for a while, as I finished hanging gates in the first field months ago. But, since I had a hard time developing a strategy for hanging big gates, I thought I’d share what I came up with.

The first time I tried it, I found the gates to be very awkward and unwieldy to handle. Trying to  hold them up to the posts and just mark where they should go does not work! Especially if you are doing it solo and don’t have a helper, which is often the case for me. I needed a more accurate system. Uneven ground increased the challenge: I prefer my gates to be fairly low to the ground so the dogs can’t get under, but they need to be high enough to swing easily, even over time as they sag.

What I found worked well was to use a “string level” to determine where I wanted to position the bottom of the gate. These are inexpensive tiny levels that hang on a piece of string, as shown in the picture.

They aren’t perfectly accurate, but if you position it roughly in the middle of the stretch of string, it’s good enough guidance to let you visualize where the bottom of the gate will be. Once I decided where the bottoms of each gate post went, I marked that on the posts. Then I measured up to where the bottom bracket should be in relation to the bottom of the gate posts, and drilled a hole for that bracket’s hanging bolt. From that bolt, I’d measure upwards to determine the position of the top bracket’s bolt. Here is a picture of the string level marking the gate’s bottom:

The trick with most of these gate hinges is they are intended for the bolt “finials” (this is not the right word, but I’m not sure what the correct term should be…) point towards each other. This is counter-intuitive to some, and if you don’t plan right, you won’t end up being able to achieve this. The biggest reason for them pointing towards each other is: if, for example, a strong cow got her horns hooked in the gate and pulled upwards, you wouldn’t want her to be able to slide the gate right off the bolts. So, having the top “finial” point downwards prevents the gate from being removable in this fashion. (You could imagine that it makes it less trivial for thieves to break in too, but it’s still simple for them to break in: they can just unscrew the hinge bolts, or snip right through your fence wire!)

To make sure you can have the top finial pointing downward, it’s important to place the top bolt high enough that you can have the hinge positioned lower on the gate that the bolt’s “finial” and then slide it up onto the “finial”. Err on the side of putting the bolt too high than too low. Once the hinge bracket is on the finial,  you tighten the bolts down, and the weight of the gate is actually pulling mostly sideways against this “finial” (thus it doesn’t need to sit “down” on an upward-pointing “finial”- only the bottom hinge needs to do that). I had a couple of cases where I didn’t plan right, or had another object in the way, and ended up with the top “finial” pointing upwards. It turns out, it works OK as long as the gate is a big one– the weight of the gate still “binds” it plenty on the hinge bolt to where even a lot of force won’t slide it up and off the bolts. But, this would not be true for smaller gates.

Here are two gates where I was pretty happy with their final hanging height and smooth ability to swing in both directions. I had one gate opening that ended up being too narrow, so the gate only opens inward. I can live with that, but much prefer them to go both ways. It just makes it convenient to get vehicles and animals in and out when the gate can move in the direction that’s most accommodating to the flow of movement.

In case my use of the word “finial” isn’t clear, here is a photo of the part of the bolt I’m referring to (in the red circle). In this photo, the hinge and bolt are positioned as they are when you purchase the gate, such that they won’t fall off during transport. You have to swing the hinge around 180°, which can be tricky. I find that I need to bring several extra tools down to the field for this purpose: a big screwdriver for leverage, some channel locks, extra pliers and a hammer. It seems it’s worse on these mesh gates, as sometimes the hinge gets hung up on the wire. On some I had to completely remove it and then re-attach it in the other direction. It takes a lot of force to bend them enough to get them off, and then narrow them back up again to re-bolt them in their final position.

Salt Lick Holder

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My sheep book had handy advice for making a salt holder, this is a modification of the book’s design, because I had an extra piece of 1×8 laying around. You just cut off a square from the end of the board, split the rest of the board in half, and cut those two pieces into sides and angled edges to hold the box up. Nifty!

The sheep immediately went for their new salt, they seem to like to snack on it midway through their grain meals.

Grain Line and More Hoof Trimming

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This was what I was going for with the grain feeding and ewe “flushing”- a perfect line with each ewe eating out of her own bucket. That way I can manage how much each one eats, and prevent the big ewes from hogging most of the grain. It only took about a week of effort for them to learn to come for grain, and seek out their own bowls. The bowls break my “no plastic” rule a little bit, but these were cheap paint buckets from Home Depot.

I worked on the ram’s hooves tonight, they also needed some work. They had some splits and pockets, but were generally having a healthy response. I prefer to see them a little cracked and dried rather than moist and soft. Bacteria has a harder time attacking in the former. Here is one hoof, with one side trimmed, the other side not. You can see how the sides are curling over, and need to be removed and flattened so they don’t create a place for material to compact.

 Here are the hoof trimmers I like to use. Though even garden pruners will do, I like these straight and pointy cutters. They can really dig in and open up tiny crevices.

Flushing Ewes

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So far, I have one book on sheep husbandry, “Raising Sheep the Modern Way” by Paula Simmons. The women who sold me sheep to me agreed it was a good book. It advises “flushing” ewes before breeding, which is a method of giving them ever-increasing amounts of grain the 17 days prior to when you expose them to the ram. Research has shown this makes them more likely to drop two eggs and give multiple births.

But, when I’ve asked around, I’ve learned a lot of people don’t bother with this and still get multiple births. And one lady I met who does do flushing often gets singleton lambs. So, I’ve waffled on whether or not to do it.

The nice lady at the feed store co-op had me talked out of it, as she’s one of the ones who has luck without it. But, then I started thinking it would be nice to grain-train the ewes, for moments when I don’t want to use a dog to get the sheep to follow me. And, poor Hershey the ram is stuck in his pen, eating hay, for another week and a half. So, I bought some grain.

It turns out Hershey is already grain-trained and will follow me anywhere for it and eat out of my hand. The ewes know what a shaking bucket sound means, but they won’t come. They wait until I’ve left the bucket and am long gone. So, though I think I’d like to flush them, I have no way to control how much each one of them gets.

So, I’ve settled for leaving a little bit of grain out in six small buckets by the ram pen. And, feeding Hershey out of my hand so that he stays acting like a good boy.

Hoof Trimming

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Monday night, I caught the lame ewe to work on her feet. I took Gene, my 5-year-old Border Collie, down to  help catch her. It took about 20 mintes to catch the ewe, both because the sheep aren’t dogged, and because Gene can act like a idiot sometimes. Her lack of confidence always manifests in squirrely behavior and the sheep figuring out they don’t need to take her seriously.

But, I do find that after she gets tired and yelled at quite a bit, she starts to settle down and work nicely. The tiredness makes her choose to work more efficiently, and me taking her self esteem down a few notches softens her demeanor so the sheep respond better to her. We got the job done; and to give her credit, I don’t think there are many farm dogs that can help single an undogged sheep in an open field! We cheated a bit by putting them into the corner, but still, it’s a trick that can’t be done by yourself without a good stock dog for sure.

So, the feet… I used to work my dogs at a place where the sheep had really bad feet, and I spent a bit of time every day I was there trimming hooves to try  to ease their discomfort and make them more workable for the dogs. A friend of mine who has an animal sciences degree showed me the basics. I find that not only do you have to create a good flat foot surface so they walk right, you have to be ruthless about hacking away diseased tissue. Making them bleed is actually good, as the blood washes out the wound and encourages fresh tissue to grow. And, you have to open up the bacteria-laden pockets to the air so they can dry out. I also find that the more you  trim, the harder the hoof works to recover, and it’ll grow very rapidly. The body wants to heal, after all.

On this girl, only her front feet were bad. Here is one hoof beforehand: you can see the side edges of the hoof curling over. This creates a pocket in which material tends to pack and retain moisture, and then works its way upwards, splitting the hoof. I thought this might be all there was, but as I trimmed, I could see that much of the hoof wall was detached, which is relatively useless. And, where there are tiny holes, if you work the points of your trimmers into those and start opening them up, usually you find lots of “stuff” in there, and a bad smell to boot.

Here is the “after” photo–I’ll take off more material in a week or so, but this was all I wanted to do in one sitting. Despite having a lot of raw, exposed tissue, she was walking better already. Before I let her go, I sprayed her feet with Shreiner’s Herbal Solution. I really like this stuff, it’s a very old-fashioned, natural wound dressing spray that I use on absolutely everything, including myself (though it’s not labeled for humans, so don’t tell them I said that! 🙂 ). I learned about it from a pig farmer, and get it at my local feed store.

We are Sheep Farmers!

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Today the sheep got dropped off. They all look very nice, except one who has hoof rot bad enough that she’s walking on her knees a lot. But, the seller did disclose that in advance, I decided to take her, since I’m pretty good at healing hoof problems and she was lower priced. It helps to have the dogs, who can hold the sheep I want to catch and treat. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to treat and handle sheep without dogs, I guess you just have to grain-train them and still do a lot of wrestling.

Here is the ram, he is six-year-old “Hershey.”

 

Here are the six ewes:

 

They are settled in well and enjoying the nice pasture. Heshey is locked up for 17 days in a mini-pen inside the pasture, the “magic number” of days to kick all of the girls back into heat. Three might already be bred, so I need to ensure that enough time passes before he covers them to be sure I know which sire goes with which lambs. The pre-bred ewes should lamb by Feb 19th, and the ones bred later won’t lamb until after March 1st.

I have yet to decide if I’m going to “flush” the ewes–grain them up until the ram is let out. Supposedly, that helps ensure twinning; but the sellers assure me these girls twin and triplet regularly just on grass. I’ll figure it out tomorrow!

I let Maggie work them just a tiny bit, just push them gently around. They were very calm, much less reactionary than I expected for non-dog-broke shep. Here she is, “meeting” the ram and doing her best to be brave and show him who’s boss! She was a little chicken, though, I’ll confess!

Sheep on the Way

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I made a deal on some sheep last night: two ladies who live close to each other, and about 2.5 hours away from me, are selling me six ewes and one ram, all registered Katahdins. The prices seemed very average for registered animals. And it’s a breeding set that will have me organized for a couple of years: three of the ewes are already pregnant from a different ram, and the ram I’m getting can be bred to all of them.

 

Normally, I’d go inspect the sheep first, but I’ve decided to gamble this time for a few reasons. First, I’ve seen the websites of both women, and their operations and animals in general look pretty clean in the photos. Second, it’s a long drive for me to go down there just to look, and since I don’t yet have a way to haul livestock, I’d still have to arrange for them to deliver the animals on another day.

 

Third, one of the ladies regularly shows her sheep, so this gives me greater confidence that she surrounds herself with a knowledgeable peer group, keeps quality animals, and spends a lot of time with them. Fourth, in reading the website of the other woman, she and I are like-minded in a naturalness philosophy: no vaccine, clean food, etc. So, I’m going with my gut: I think I’m going to like these women and learn to rely on their advice in the long run.

 

I had to chuckle at the serendipity of the match of these ladies to me. I can be really indecisive. I had already been corresponding with one of the women for a few weeks, and have probably reviewed her website a hundred times. I talked to her friend on Tuesday night, outlined my goals: registered animals, and a starter flock of about eight animals that would set me up for a breeding program for meat production.

 

She called back the next night, and started out the conversation with “ok, we’ll be there around noon on Sunday, we’re bringing you x, y, z animals at these prices, yadda yadda, and you should be all set!” She did give me a chance to confirm later in the conversation that I did want them, 🙂 but it took me a little by surprise because mentally, I was still at step one. Left up to me, I may have waffled and been arranging the details until Christmas!

 

So, I realized it was exactly what I needed, and was unconsciously looking for—someone to mentor me a little bit in this, help me make a decision, and then just say “we’re bringing them up in two days, be ready.” Phew!

My Ducks Are Too Noisy

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Only the new ones, though. They are the most obnoxious sounding ducks I’ve ever heard, they honk not unlike geese. They chatter continuously, not just when there is something to quack about. They are way noisier than the older Magpies I have, the crossbreds, and the Runners I used to have. My mom took care of them over the weekend and also commented on their sound, saying they were way different sounding than hers as well.

I’m keeping my eye on them, if I can identify one or two that are louder than the rest, I’m seriously thinking they are destined for the dinner table. I certainly don’t want noisy duck genes going into future generations. 

On the bright side, predation has not been an issue in several months, so the one instance I had was hopefuly an isolated one. And, they are all flocking nicely together; and the young ones are starting to breed. They are sticking close to the house, which is good from the standpoint of staying safe, but annoying because they are messing that area up, and eating out of the container garden. I’d like to move their houses soon, to get them to hang out somwhere else.

I’m switching their feed to a lower fat poultry diet, because the one adult I have is not laying much, and I think she may be too fat. I gave her the benefit of the doubt that maybe she was moulting, but her performance this whole year has really been poor. The crossbreds are just four months old, so hopefully will start laying soon.

No Wensley’s for Now…

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Well, I did make the Wensleydale sheep owner an offer, but she could not give up her dog for any price, and I just feel too squeamish making such a big investment without a guardian dog. And, her price wasn’t consistent with what she originally led me to understand either, so that firmed me up on deciding these weren’t right for me at the moment.

I snooped around on the Web a bit to assess how accessible adult, working LGDs are. Not very! A friend of mine did tell me she purchased one, so they do exist, but I think they are hard to find. There was one listed on craiglist from a woman who was getting out of farming due to health reasons. But, when I emailed her, she said the response for the dog was overwhelming. So as I expected, they are in high demand, low supply. So that’s not going to help me with the Wensleydales.

So, I’m back to considering Katahdins again, there are a few options of them on the market from some good breeders. I like the idea of buying from an active breeder, because I know I can rely on that person for advice and support in the future as I learn the ropes. Though Katahdins are kinda plain looking, they are very practical– good feed converters, no shearing hassles, and they are fairly easy to find, so I shouldn’t have trouble maintaining a breeding program.

Decision Now Required on Sheep Purchase!

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We went to see the Wensleydales yesterday. They are lovely sheep, the wool is luxurious for certain! The animals had sound temperaments, they looked healthy, and the one I was able to catch had good feet and teeth. They weren’t quite as big as I expected based on photos I’d seen, but when I caught one, it was still a substantial and tall sheep. They were mildly flighty, but not freaky; they’d be easy to work with.

I pressed a little for more details on how much, precisely, the owner makes on an average year from this flock; but she seemed reluctant to talk specifics, as many people are when it comes to disclosing income. But, in a roundabout way, she cited expenses, how much she gets for wool, how much others have been getting for lambs, etc. So, I think (I hope?) I have a pretty good picture. I think that this may be a good wave to catch–while this breed is early in development here, it’s in high and growing demand. That may change in another decade, but there is a certain fad phenomenon with new breeds, I think, that can be most profitable at the beginning.

The biggest snag is this: I was hoping the owners would be willing to part with one or both of their livestock guardian dogs. I was figuring that since they are liquidating their livestock, they might not mind throwing a dog into the package too. But, when I inquired, she indicated they are very attached to the dogs, and had already decided not to sell them.

This is a conundrum for me: if I’m going to buy really expensive sheep, I want the best insurance policy against coyotes I can get. I had originally planned on trying out a llama or donkey, and I’d still do that if I were buying $100 sheep, because I prefer those to dealing with a big dog. But I think it’s too much to risk with expensive animals. And, it doesn’t appear that you can just pick up an adult, trained, fully-functioning LGD just anywhere. I think you pretty much have to buy your own pup and raise it up (and thoughtfully too, so it doesn’t learn bad habits).

So, I think I may have to tell the seller that one dog is a required part of the deal for me. I don’t mean to drive a hard bargain, but it’s a lot of money for me to lay down knowing that coyotes or loose dogs could destroy a large part of the investment in a one-hour spree.

I have such a hard time making big decisions, I’ve been waffling back and forth on this, dreaming about it, boring other people with the details about it! 🙂 But, I think my mind is made up that I want to at least make an offer on them, so the only thing left to decide is how much.

As a side note, the town where the sheep owner lives is a very tiny, old Northwest town. We had a greasy, but tasty lunch in a hole-in-the-wall diner there where the waitress sat down with us at our table to take our order. I was highly amused to observe and overhear some locals talking loudly and with strong opinion about the presidential election. It made me smile– a real piece of Americana– very ordinary people talking about their main concerns over the candidates. They weren’t discussing foreign policy, health care reform, the national deficit or the war– they were mostly concerned with Obama’s former pastor, Palin’s five kids and past beauty pageant win, and to which church denomination each candidate belonged. I love it.