This summer marked the forth summer in my house, which is pretty hard to believe! I was lucky to be able to purchase a house next door to my parents that came with a small barn and just over 10 acres of land. Four acres of that was a fallow field that we have been grazing the sheep on for the past few summers. I don't know when the last time it was actually seeded with a crop, so it was mostly native grasses with a lot of plantain and other weeds the sheep weren't too crazy about.

Since I bought the property, it has been my dream to seed it with an actual pasture mix. We have never actually seeded a pasture in the 15+ years I've been raising sheep. I've been doing some reading on the species I wanted to plant, but since we don't own equipment ourselves I needed to line up people to do the work for me. The summer of 2016 brought a bad drought and last summer (2017) was incredibly wet, both of which weren't ideal conditions for seeding a pasture. Finally, we decided this year was the year!

I work for a large farm, so I had access to some equipment that the average person working up a 4.5 acre field wouldn't need, but they were able to help me get the job done quickly and efficiently!

On July 23rd, after we had finally gotten some rain this summer, the farm I work for was in the area with the speed-tiller and stopped to work my field up. This implement is really useful for ripping up sod, as the disks are able to go fairly deep in the soil, while still maintaining a good speed with the tractor. As I mentioned, this is probably not an implement that a small farm would have access to without having a custom operator come in to do the work (as I did). Four times over the field left it nicely worked up, the sod chunks broken up and ready for the next step.

The next step was to cultimulch the field to put the "finishing touches" on before seeding. A cultipacker or cultimulcher is used after the field has been plowed and/or disked. The purpose is to crush soil clods and firm the soil surface. This levels the ground and prepares the field for planting.  A cultimulcher is an important implement for preparing seedbeds for grass and clover, which I planned to plant. The seeds of these plants are small and need firm contact with tilled soil for germination. Unfortunately for us, it started raining at the end of July and rained regularly throughout the month of August, making this task difficult to time. At the end of August I was able to line up a nearby dairy farm to help with the task. They came to do the first pass on August 26th. As you can see by the photo above, many weeds had started to grow, but two passes over the field were able to knock most of them down. I'm also hoping allowing the weeds to germinate during that month will reduce weed pressure this fall, which is the concept behind a stale seed bed.

We didn't have time to clean out the barns and apply manure to the field as a fertilizer source, so we decided to apply fertilizer. I wanted to make sure that as long as we were taking the time and money to do this project, that we were doing it well. Hopefully this pasture is a long term investment for my flock. I work with Carolina Eastern Crocker with work, so called them up to help formulate a blend. Ideally, I would've soil sampled the field to get an idea of what nutrients are out there, but just didn't have the time. They formulated a 10-20-20 fertilizer with some sulfur and calcium added. Applied at 200 lbs/ac, this should provide plenty of nutrients to get the grasses and clovers established. We were able to rent the spreader and they delivered the spreader full of fertilizer right to the farm. Following the fertilizer application, we went over the whole field again with the cultimulcher to work the fertilizer in. Then we were ready to plant!

I have gone back and forth over the last couple years, trying to figure out what blend I wanted to seed with when I finally got to this project. I've been doing some reading on what forages are best for sheep, trying to figure out what might do well in the areas of the pasture that are more wet, and which species/varieties would be the best value. White Clover Farm in the Finger Lakes has some interesting articles on which species he plants, which (as you can guess by his farm name) is mostly white clover. The farm I work for grows turfgrass and we have some great connections at Preferred Seed in Buffalo who were able to help me formulate a blend that would work for productivity, nutrition, be long-lasting, and grow in the wetter areas of the field. We ended up with a blend of orchardgrass, white clover, perennial ryegrass and Kentucky bluegrass.

• Orchardgrass: Tekapo variety- this is a New Zealand variety that has a low crown and is tolerant to low grazing, it also has a dense prostrate growth structure that helps it out compete weeds
• White clover: Huia- also a New Zealand variety, high in protein and energy, is a legume so provides natural N fertilizer for the field, high yielding
• White clover: Domino- thrives in cold, frost-prone areas, good persistence under grazing, less expensive than Huia
• Perennial Ryegrass: Calibra- good spring growth, can withstand cold winters, tolerant of wet areas of the field
• Kentucky Bluegrass: Balin- bred for high yields and intensive grazing, winterhardy, good spring and early summer growth, good for filling in gaps in the field

I am not an expert on grazing, and relied on Preferred Seed's knowledge of what works well in Western NY, knowing that I wanted the majority of the pasture to be orchardgrass and white clover. This blend is what they came up with for me, based on a description of the soil type, soil moisture, and my farm's grazing schedule. They would be a good resource for you if you are also looking to reseed a pasture, but every mix will look a little different.

To seed the pasture, I borrowed a Brillion Turfmaker from the farm I work for. This 1980's seeder was used for many years to seed our turfgrass fields and still works great. Those of you looking to seed can probably find one of these (or something similar) at a local farm or in someone's barn somewhere. Getting the calibration for the seed rate was a bit tricky. I knew I wanted to seed at 30 pounds/acre, but we set it conservatively low the first time over the field to make sure we would have enough seed. It took my dad three times over the field to use up all the seed. He was a little annoyed, but we went over the field 2 different directions to help with coverage. Normally, you'd want to go over the field with the cultimulcher again to get good seed-soil contact, but since the seeder has a small one built in and we went over the field 3 times, I didn't feel like a final pass was necessary.

A few days after seeding, we got 1.5"of beautiful, steady rain which couldn't have been more perfectly timed! Now we wait for the pasture to grow.

Please feel free to ask questions about my process. I am not an expert and relied on reading articles and consulting with people who are to help me figure out what I needed with regards to a species blend. I'd be happy to discuss my process further, share the financial investment it took, or answer questions for anyone who is interested. In the meantime, I'll keep you updated with the growth progress throughout the fall.

 I'd like to introduce you to this year's bottle lamb's: Norma and Hubert.

Norma is an adorable Lincoln/Hampshire ewe lamb whose mother was unfortunately not accepting of her. After several frustrating days of tying her mother up to let Norma nurse, holding the lamb to let the mother sniff her, and doing everything I could think of, her mother would still not accept her as her own. So, little Norma got put in her own tiny pen to be bottle fed. After a couple days, she  developed terrible bloody diarrhea at just a few days old. After consulting with a book called "Lamb Problems: Detecting, Diagnosing, Treating" by Laura Lawson, the best conclusion I could come to was an E. coli infection. I was sure she was going to die in her first week of life, but after diligently treating her with streptomycin, pepto bismol, electrolytes and mixing kefir for probiotics into her milk, she made a miraculous recovery and is still with us today! The way she got her name is a funny story. My friend, Brooke, was over one day helping with chores. She was looking at her ear (which was damaged by her mother) and said "Is this normal?". I heard her ask, "Is this Norma?", and the name just stuck. Norma is small, due to her early setbacks, and sometimes seems a bit confused by flock antics, but she will fit in just fine. 

Little Hubert's mother stopped producing milk when he was about a week old. She is an older ewe, so this sometimes happens. She was still very loving toward him so we decided to keep him with his mother and just supplemented him with milk replacer. He was named by my friend, Kim, who he will be going to live with soon. He is a lovable little ram lamb, though very persistent when it comes to wanting attention. When we separated the ewes from the lambs for weaning this past weekend, his mother went tearing out the door into the pasture by herself (which sheep never do) looking for him. And poor Hubert had a raspy "baa" by the morning. None of the other ewes seemed as bothered as they were. It's amazing to see how bonded they still were, despite the fact she was unable to feed him herself.

I mentioned the book "Lamb Problems: Detecting, Diagnosing, Treating" by Laura Lawson. This book and it's partner book, "Managing Your Ewe and Her Newborn Lambs", have been literal life savers and I highly recommend them to shepherds of any experience level! They have wonderful dichotomous keys to work through the symptoms, descriptions of ailments and treatment suggestions. This book saved Norma's life and has helped in many other situations as well!

Lastly, the last few years I have had several people ask if I have any "bottle lambs" for sale. While bottle lambs are friendly and cute, I do everything in my power to keep the lambs with their mothers. A true bottle lamb means that their mothers have died or have not accepted them, which is a situation a shepherd never wants! While there are always lambs that need a little bit of supplemented milk, Norma is my first true bottle lamb in a few years. Despite the fact she was ill, she never had to spend time in the house, and was able to be with other lambs and their mothers at less than 2 weeks of age. This is my goal as a shepherd, as sheep are happiest in the barn with their own kind. Any lamb or sheep will become friendly and lovable if you spend time working with it.

It's hard to believe that another lambing season has concluded. And it was probably the most successful crop of lambs I have ever had! Twenty one bred ewes yielded 34 lambs- 14 sets of twins and 7 singles. We also had probably the highest percentage of ewe lambs ever for a total of 20 ewe lambs! Sorry for all the statistics, it was just a very exciting year for us after several frustrating years of single ram lambs.

The beginning of January held snowy weather and negative temperatures, and with most of the ewes showing very large bellies and udders, we were quite worried about lambing during the storms. After several pep-talks to the ewes to hold on a little bit longer, we began lambing on January 8th. In a matter of days, we had 9 ewes lamb. We only have, at most, 6 jugs (lambing pens) so it was chaos for a few days with "makeshift" jugs out of hay bales and babies everywhere. Toward the end of the season we had a few stragglers and ended our lambing season on March 6th.

No lambing season is without it's tribulations, which are expected for a shepherd. There's always at least one midnight check where you find 2 ewes and 4 lambs just as confused as you are about who belongs to who. There's always at least one ewe who needs to be helped along, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. This year we also had a yearling ewe abort her first lambs, due to carrying a "mummy" (an undeveloped fetus). Despite the normal challenges and setbacks, I'm so thankful that we didn't lose a single lamb after being born. This is a huge encouragement after several disappointing years. We did have two bottle babies this year, who we affectionately have named Norma and Hubert. I'll do a blog post about them later this week!

Now that everyone is around 3 months old already, tails have been docked, ears have been tagged, vaccines have been given and the oldest lambs have been weaned. Lambs will begin going to their new homes in a matter of weeks. It's amazing to think how fast they are growing and fun to see the personalities they are developing. Many lambs are already sold, and I look forward to seeing how they grow at their new homes. Now it's time to wait for the arrival of spring and green pastures.

All photos are from Maria Victoria Savka, a friend who visited on a gorgeous day in January. Check out her beautiful artwork at: https://mariavictoriasavka.com/ You might even recognize a few of the sheep in her art...

This summer I had the opportunity to slaughter one of my own lambs. I have been raising sheep for 15 years, but had not eaten my own lamb until now. Some of you may think it's strange that I would even want to, while others are probably wondering what took me so long! My dad and I are the only ones in our family who are open to the idea of eating our own lamb, and I wasn't willing to pay to have someone else slaughter one for me. Now that I have my own house and freezer, and also have a friend who is a skilled butcher, I figured now was the time to try my own!

One day back in August, a few of my friends came over to help with the process. I had a little ram lamb picked out that wasn't going to make my show flock. He was adorable and thus, I couldn't watch the killing process. But, once that part was over I was fine! I'm sure many people find this hard to understand or comprehend, but I believe there is nothing wrong with eating meat and my little lamb met his demise in the quickest way possible. We decided to hang the lamb in my garage where we had a lot of room to work. There were four of us working to skin the lamb, cut it into pieces, and then package it. It was actually a fun process to see the different cuts of meat. I got around 40 lbs. of meat that is now in my freezer waiting to be cooked!

Since I didn't grow up eating lamb of my own, I've been doing a lot of searching for recipes and reading on how to best cook it. American Lamb has many great resources, as does Pinterest (of course!). Because of my love for my crockpot, I decided to start with a lamb stew. I was not disappointed! Absolutely delicious, very easy and filled with vegetables, this recipe is a keeper!

Do you have any favorite lamb recipes? If so, share them with me!

After returning from my UK trip, the editor of the Lincoln Longwool Sheep Breeder's Association (LLSBA), Chris Higgins, approached me about using some of my photos for their association newsletter in the UK. She said she was very impressed with my blog posts (yay!), and wanted to know if she could use some of the photos and descriptions for their newsletter.

This newsletter has great descriptions of the UK summer shows, beautiful photos of Lincoln fiber arts, and a history section. Enjoy!

One of my favorite parts about the New York Sheep and Wool Festival is the festival portion. While I love showing my sheep, I spend a lot of the weekend wandering barn after barn of crafts. If you've never been, it's a hard thing to explain. Picture your local county fairgrounds, only more beautiful, and picture every single barn filled with yarn, yarn, yarn, more yarn, needles, spinning wheels and things you never even knew existed as part of the fiber arts world! Huge, ancient, colorful maple trees line the walkways of the fairgounds and there are gardens at every corner. Vendor after vendor of gorgeous colors and textures. And it isn't just yarn, but hand woven towels, gorgeous felted purses, and goat soaps and cheeses. If you aren't into fiber arts, you can head up to the main exhibition hall where you can spend time sampling sauces, dips, cheeses, desserts, candies, fudge, wines and vodkas. While in the exhibition hall, you can also see the make it yourself with wool fashion competition or the photography contest. You can also cast your vote for next year's logo.

​The weekend after Columbus Day in October marks one of my favorite weekends of the year: The New York State Sheep and Wool Festival! This festival is held at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds, which has to be the most beautiful fairgrounds in the state. It consists of a sheep show, fiber vendors and contests, delicious food and more. This is the last time of the year that we show our sheep, and the last time we see many of our sheep friends before the winter. This year we took six sheep to show. Unfortunately, I had an interview on Sunday so I wasn't able to stay for the show, but my awesome friend Anna stayed with my parents to get the showing done. I was bummed, since this was the second show this fall I missed (I was in the UK during the Big E), but was glad I got one day to enjoy the festival and get the sheep ready.

Again, I apologize for the delay in posting about the last couple days of my trip!

Today, my last full day in the U.K. was the day I was looking forward to the most! I have been following the Risby Flock of Lincoln Longwools since I first heard about their flock after Louise's wool wedding dress made international news! Get ready for photo overload!

We headed from York to a little village in Lincolnshire called Market Rasen. This was just over an hour and half to the southeast. We headed over the Humber Bridge, a very large suspension bridge and into Lincolnshire. The views were amazing and the agriculture larger than other areas we traveled to throughout the week. We drove through the little village of Market Rasen and down several very small curvy roads before catching our first glimpse of Risby Grange. From what people who had been on this trip before said, finding them was much easier this time!

​Upon arriving at their drive, we headed up a long lane up a hill surrounded by sheep pastures. We got out of the bus and were on top of a hill overlooking Lincolnshire, with the Lincoln Cathedral peaking out of the horizon. I kept thinking (as I have been all week), “Is this even real???!!!”. When we first arrived, we had tea together and Louise shared with us the history of their flock.

​First of all, I apologize for the delay in this post! Exhaustion and the second leg of my trip got the better of me, followed by catching up on work upon my return. But I didn’t want everyone to miss out on my last two days. Next, I apologize for the technicality and numbers of this post! I learned SO MUCH from this day and wanted to record it all for U.S. producers who may be interested in how the U.K. wool marketing is done. We don’t have anything like this in the states, so I was fascinated by how organized and successful this system seems. Feel free to scroll through the photos if you’re not into the technicalities of wool marking!

​Today we headed south to the city of Bradford to visit the British Wool Marketing Board. This cooperative handles 90% of the wool in the UK through a series of depots throughout the country, but only makes up for 2% of the global market. The main depot and the Wool Board headquarters are located in Bradford. When we walked into the headquarters, there were beautiful wool products everywhere; a display with a wool suit, an amazing chair upholstered with knit wool fabric. We headed into a conference room to hear a presentation about the Wool Board, its history and its purpose.

Have you ever seen 4,000 sheep in one place? Today I did at the Melton Morbary Market auction. We travelled two hours south of York to Melton Morbary to view their market which happens every Tuesday. Keith Harding met us at the market to show us around and explain the process. Farmers bring their sheep, cattle, poultry and other animals to be sold via an auction. This time of year farms are selling the lambs they have raised all year, along with cull ewes and breeding ewes ready for tupping. Many of the fattened lambs are mules that Martyn showed us yesterday, the Swaledale x Border Leicester crosses. The sheep are separated into pens of mostly 10 sheep (some are 12 or 20, and other random assortments depending on age and size) and they are weighed for an average weight per head. The auctioneer then auctions each pen off by price per head. He will announce the average weight per pen (ie. 40 kilo), and the price the buyer pays is per head for the whole pen. It moved very quickly and was hard to follow!