Great Lakes Dairy Sheep Symposium - the Department of Animal ...

I have found that the most stable pastures and the ones on which the animals do best are
pastures with a wide diversity of species. Once we had two researchers from the USDA evaluate
the pasture species on two ten square meter areas. They found 35 varieties in one area and 65 in
another area. I find my sheep do especially well with a nice mix of orchard and bluegrass,
clovers, dandelion, and plantain.
My primary method of pasture improvement is to graze or crop the pastures often. This
causes the nutrients to cycle faster, generally making for more fertile forage. I try where possible
to mix haying and pasturing, both as a method of parasite control and a way to eliminate any
unproductive plants and allow the sun to penetrate to the roots, stimulating growth. Where I do
not hay, I do clip all but the steepest pastures once a year after the grasses have gone to seed. I
do this for my own sake; it helps me better judge how the sheep are grazing if I’m not looking
between tufts of dead grass stems, and it helps stimulate new palatable growth especially in those
areas mixed with sedges and rushes and other plants the sheep don’t like to eat later in the
season.
I also over wither sheep on pastures that need more fertility. This means that I feed them
hay on the snow, in different spots through the winter so that the entire area is covered in a thin
manure and straw pack by spring. Then I spread a little clover, orchard grass of other seed into
the pack a day or so before the sheep leave so that their hooves drill in the seed which combines
with the hay seed creates a five fertile pasture by mid-summer. Otherwise, I do not plow and
reseed pastures, I do not fertilize them, and the only way I eliminate weeds like thistle and
burdock is by hand; I do quite a bit of that on our many acres of pasture.
Sheep Health and Production
Now the sheep. You would think that the health and production of the sheep go hand in
hand. But this is not necessarily the case. In a basic way I have to balance one versus the other
as I make the farm decisions of the day. And I am always on the look out for tools to achieve
both maximum production and perfect health. We use 14 to 16 percent pellets to supplement the
dairy ewes in the parlor. The supplement is high in fiber and energy and we feed only 1/2 to 3/4
lb of it per day. We participated in a 3-year-long research project to help develop this feeding
program, and it was detailed at a previous dairy sheep conference. Interestingly enough, the fine,
intensively rotated pastures often seem so rich that the milkers get scours, acidosis and laminitis
or hoof problems. I have several methods for reducing these digestion issues. I give them a little
hay to nibble on when they come into the barn. Also I provide baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)
free choice next to the salt. And most important, I let the sward height of the pasture grow a
little higher, say 6-9 inches rather than 3-6.
Product Quality
We make a fine farmhouse cheese with an excellent reputation. Much of the flavor of the
cheese comes from the plants in the pastures. We keep careful track of what pasture the sheep
are grazing with each batch of cheese. Plainly, the flavors vary from batch to batch as the sheep
move from flat bridge field to the higher and drier hilltop. Our attempts to maintain varied and
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