Blue Eyed Grass

Annual Blue-eyed Grass - Sisyrinchium rosulatum  

Flowers of various forms are prevalent this time of year.  Many are quite small, like this blue-eyed-grass, but still impressive if closely examined.  In the upland open fields, where the summer grasses are still coming out of dormancy and not yet choking everything else out by their profuse growth, one finds small spring weeds making a go of it in the patches of bare dirt left between old summer grass residue.   

  

In the bahiagrass pastures, just starting to emerge from dormancy we find large patches of the little blue flowers of the blue-eyed-grass, along with its bright red seed pods.

Up close the pale blue flowers with a dark purple edge around a bright yellow center are quite stunning.  As are the small red globes containing next years seeds.  

Additional sources of information:

            AlabamaPlants.com describes it as a fast growing annual.

            iNaturalist provides an abundance of additional pictures.

            Wildflowers of Florida and the Southeast by Hall and Weber (2011) describe the annual blue-eyed grass as a "herbaceous grass-like winter annual", commonly found from Florida to Texas and north to Arkansas and North Carolina.  And, that it is native to South America.  Like many of the plants prevalent in the area, they've been imported from other places and established themselves in this hospitable environment. 

Meadow Garden

Long ago, growing up in California, I remember hillsides in spring that would be orange colored from the California poppies that covered them.  I understand that is not the case so much anymore. Still though, the California poppy is a stunning flower.  A few are coming up in the meadow garden we planted east of the house, to the side of the driveway coming in.  In the fall, I planted a large amount of seed, from a good variety of annual flowers.  A few California poppies have come up, but not much else so far.  From the quantity of seed I scattered out there, we expected a more colorful showing.  Not long after planting we had a severe rain, probably washing much of the seed away.  It is still early in the season and we signs of more coming; we will have to see how it turns out this year.

For the time being we will have to be satisfied with the few California poppies like this one below.  Quite stunning.

The meadow annual flower garden is mostly green so far, a few scattered California poppies.

Potting Shed

Joy is planting flower seeds in her potting area, which is the east side of the pole barn, sheltered from the afternoon sun.  Possum looks on.

Animal Crackers

Today, 2018-04-26, I walked the friendly ewe known as "1017" back to the flock using Animal Crackers as persuasion.  Strangely enough, the sheep really enjoy Animal Cracker snacks.

Several days ago I noticed that 1017 was limping quite severely on her front left foot, could actually just barely walk.  I got her separated from the flock and gradually walked her up to the barn where I could look at here better.  It looked like a mild case of foot scald, an infection between the toes.  I washed it with a Nolvasan solution and gave her an injection of LA300, an oxytetracycline long acting antibiotic formulation.  I have had fairly good success with various feet problems with some cleanup of the area and antibiotic injection.  Within about 2 days 1017 was no longer limping.  I had put her in holding pen 1 to give her special feed and keep her under observation.  

She stayed in recovery for several days, then I led here out the the south beaver field and the spring ewe flock using Animal Crackers.  These are a few pictures along the way.

She keeps a close eye on the bag with the crackers.

They seem to know to go after the cracker and not the fingers.

Out in the south beaver field, the sheep are lounging in the shade along with Kratos, their livestock guardian dog.

Kratos and the sheep.  Note these are Katahdin sheep, a type of hair sheep that shed the fleece they grow during the winter.  They never need shearing.

Feeding Weaned Lambs

    

On Saturday, 2018-04-21, we weaned nearly 400 lambs off of the spring ewes.  The ewes went to the south beaver field to dry their udders on hay and ryegrass stubble.  The lambs were opened to the NE blueberry field ryegrass (seen in background) and were fed grain in adjacent holding pen 3.  In foreground is SE blueberry field with ryegrass stubble grown back a few days.  The spring ewe flock with lambs was grazing here prior to weaning time.  Feeding the lambs in holding pen 3 is turning out to be kind of a mess, not only were they eating there, but lounging around while waiting to finish eating.  Area is going to become quite a mess.  So this morning, 2018-04-25, I moved the feeders into the SE blueberry field as shown below.  There are 5 rows of 4 feed troughs, a mobile hay feeder, and a mobile creep feeder.  The creep feeder, positioned on the right, without creep gates, can hold 400 lbs of feed on its left side.  On the right side I placed several mineral tubs.

I am feeding 400 lbs of 20% protein soybean hull-pellets/meal per day, about 1 lb/lamb/day.  They have access to the ryegrass in back through two open gates, hay, and the grain.  The plan is to move all the feeders forward each week about the field so that each feed spot does not get too worn down and polluted, and the fertilizer is spread around the field.  On sunny days like this, most  of the field would go in the troughs so all lambs can eat together. When it is likely to rain before they would consume it all, some to all of the feed would go in the creep feeder. 

Most of the lambs are out of the picture in this shot.

Ewes After Weaning Lambs

On Saturday Jeffrey and I separated the lambs from the spring ewe flock.   The weaned lambs stayed in the blueberry fields on ryegrass and feed.   The ewes were moved, eventually to the south beaver field to dry their udders eating hay and ryegrass stubble.  It took until Sunday evening to get them back there.  Since the alleyways are not all fully developed, we had to move them across the middle field,  but they did not want to leave from the vicinity of the lambs. We left them.  They got hungry and started wandering around through the woods, then on Sunday evening they heard us delivering hay to the feeders and came themselves into the proper field.   All is well.  Kratos is on guard duty.

This is a picture of the weaned lambs in holding pen 3.

Feed Trough Design

For many years at the farm, supplemental grain feeding of sheep in pasture areas has been part of the program.  Jeffrey built these first feed troughs that have been in service for many years.  Now some of the wood legs are starting to deteriorate and with increasing numbers of sheep, we need more troughs.  I just finished putting together some additional troughs.

Eight inch PVC water pipe is cut in half lengthwise.  I bought the pipe several years ago and made the cuts.  The cut pipe then languished in the barn for a couple years, collecting dust and being in the way. Finally the critical need for more troughs and more floor space in the barn forced me into action.

Earlier, I set up 4 troughs using treated 2x4 lumber.  They were so heavy I could barely move them around.  So for this set, I used treated 1x4 and 1x2 lumber.  The result seems spindly and insubstantial, but is lightweight and easier for me to move around.  We will see how long they last.  Next time I think I will use 2x2 instead of 1x2 lumber.  That would not add much weight and be a little bit more substantial at connection points.

Plans for the legs are sketched out below.  The legs and trough uprights are attached to the 1x4 horizontal support with two 1 1/4" deck screws.  The pipe is attached to the leg assembly at three points, pipe bottom (37.5" from end with 1 5/8" screw) and the two edges (36.75" from end with 1 1/4" screw).

The trough assemblies seem to stack well enough, facilitating transport.

Jeffrey's original design has lasted for years and most are still in good shape.  Some of the leg connection points are starting to loosen and the ground contact is starting to rot a bit.

My design of a couple years ago is very sturdy and stacks well, but is almost too heavy to move around.

The spring ewe flock is using all the feed troughs.  They don't care about the trough design; they just want to see feed in it.

Update:  I was right, my new design is too flimsy.  After a couple of days use, I found a couple leg assemblies that were starting to break apart.  The 1x material is more like 5/8 to 3/4 inches thick, I had to use 1 1/4 inch deck screws (1 5/8 inch would have poked through the other side) and did not provide enough purchase into the wood to hold well.  I need to use 2x2 lumber instead of 1x2 and I think that should work.

Hay Feeder

The hay feeder is also a lounging spot.  And sometimes a cushy dog house.   Kratos seems to enjoy the hay feeder with sheep around him rather than his official house.

Supplemental Grain Feeding Sheep

There are critical times of the year when the ewes sometimes need a little extra help with their feed intake.  Late in their pregnancy is one time.  And then, depending on forage available, while raising the lambs.  At lambing time we like to supplement with molasses based protein lick tubs since it causes less disruption to the flock.  When lambing has ceased and the lambs are about a month old, we switch to a 20% protein, soy hull pellet based feed that is poured out in the troughs shown below.  Here all the troughs are piled onto the tractor loader forks to move from the old feeding area to the next.  As we rotate the flock to new pasture areas, all the feeders need to be moved, which includes:  the feed troughs, the mineral feeder, and the hay feeder.  Water tub and dog house moves also.

The troughs are set up into an area adjacent to the pasture with the sheep.  This feeding area is often contained by putting up some net fencing so the sheep don't start wandering off into the adjacent pasture when they are done eating.  An adjacent pasture must be used so that the feed can be poured out without the sheep pushing in trying to get at it immediately.  The sheep can be, and usually are, very pushy in matters of feed.  They can also be quite irrational, on occasion with smaller groups I feed them in their pasture and often the sheep will follow along trying to get the fresh feed coming out of the bucket or bag instead of eating what is in the trough.  With a large number of sheep pushing in to get at the feed, it becomes quite impossible to pour it out.

Here the flock, ewes and lambs, are waiting impatiently for the gate to open so they can get at the feed.

With the gate open, the sheep crowd through going for the feed.  The livestock guardian dogs are also waiting for their morning feeding.  They crowd right in with the sheep.  Here you see Kratos and Zeus's tail.

Here is Zeus.

All lined up at the troughs, at this time the spring ewe flock consists of 242 ewes and 390 lambs.  With 22 orphan lambs being raised by Jackie, lambing success rate this year is about 170%.  This is quite reasonable for pasture lambing operations.  I am making more feed troughs to allow the sheep to spread out a bit more.  Within a few days we will be weaning the lambs off the ewes.  The lambs will then be on ryegrass pasture with 20% protein feed and the ewes will by drying down the udders for 2 weeks on a hay diet.

Moving To New Pasture

Moved the spring ewe flock from the beaver field to the blueberry fields today.   They came quite readily and the lambs followed along with the flock well.

See the YouTube link:  https://youtu.be/-F1iuw-8Scs

Eastern Gamagrass

2018-04-18

The eastern gamagrass test patch is 10 to 12 inches tall, much further along than the bahia grass at this time in the spring.  That is my hat for a height reference.   Earlier this spring the sheep were in on it and the ryegrass when the gamagrass was 3 to 4 inches.   The sheep cropped it down to the ground and since then it's has grown back this much.  In a day or two I will bring the sheep in here again to graze the ryegrass and this gamagrass test plot.

 

Around 11:00 AM the fall ewe flock moved into this field.  In addition to the small eastern gamagrass plot, there was an abundance of good ryegrass.

 

These next two pictures are at end of day.  The sheep have cropped down the gamagrass quite substantially.

By the following morning the ewes had pretty much finished with the eastern gamagrass.  They seemed to have no problems at all eating eastern gamagrass at this stage of development.  A mature 3 to 5-foot stand of eastern gamagrass may be more problematic. 

2018-05-06 Update 

It is now early May and the eastern gamagrass has grown back quite well since being cropped near to the ground on April 18, that is just about 2 1/2 weeks.  I fenced the eastern gamagrass patch off from the sheep when I brought them in to finish off the ryegrass.  The sheep are in the background on the other side of the electric net fence surrounding the eastern gamagrass.  Again, I use my hat for size reference in the second picture below.

Further updates will follow the development of eastern gamagrass in this test plot.

Tropical Soda Apple

We have a particularly noxious weed coming.  This is the tropical soda apple weed, a particularly nasty, invasive weed that seems to have come out of Florida relatively recently.  I  hoed out a small pile of them,  all that I saw.   You can see the thorns on the leaves and stems, the sheep won't have anything to do with them.  Definitely something to keep an eye out for and not let get started anywhere. 

Pitcher Plant Flowers

Touring the hillside bog area of the Pinelands today we found pitcher plants blooming.  The flowers still had their large petals attached, which they seem to shed after a while leaving just the flower pod.  What I am calling the pod is what we normally think of being the full flower.   Neither of us remembered seeing these large petals before.

Red Chokeberry

Early in the spring Joy and I were touring out in the Pinelands and found a large number brightly flowering shrubs.   After some research Joy determined these were Red Chokeberry.  Today we found them with lots of little berries.