Saturday, May 8, 2010

Talk on pasture management

It was a great talk on pasture management at the Ontario Katahdin Sheep Association's AGM held near Midland, Ontario. It was a three and a half hour drive for us to get there, but it was well worth the effort.
Jack Kyle who is a pasture specialist with the department of Agriculture, gave a very interesting and informed presentation. He suggested a formula for figuring out how many sheep could be kept on how much pasture for what length of time.
A good way to tell when to change pastures, he said, is to go out in the morning and see if the bottoms of your pants are wet from the dew. If they are, the grass is about six inches high and it is a good pasture for grazing. If only the shoes are wet, then it is time to switch to another pasture. He felt that most of our pastures are too big and should be divided up with an electric fence. Water should be taken to the pasture with a hose or using a water wagon on wheels, so that sheep do not have to expend extra energy walking back and forth to the barn for water.