Automatic Mowers

The ram flock is helping me to catch up on end of season mowing.

Gardener's Bane

At last, we have an invasive broadleaf weed that is nutritious and that the sheep like to eat.  The Chamber Bitter weed (Phyllanthus urinaria) is a warm season annual weed native to Asia, but that has spread across the tropics.  It seems to have become quite prevalent here in the past few years, growing in with the bahiagrass, in various bare spots and especially in areas that I sprayed with herbicide to kill cogongrass.  Unfortunately for gardeners, it rapidly establishes itself on bare earth and will become a dense matt choking out less vigorous plants. 

As described in Health Benefits Times.com the plant is considered to be an outstanding medicinal herb, especially for the treatment of kidney stones.  They list many other medicinal uses as well.  Scott Allen Davis in his Wild Edibles site calls Chamber Bitter a natural detoxifier with the plant  used: to remove kidney stones; for urinary tract infections; to treat liver problems, diabetes, flu, tumors, headache, and fever.  He says that it is a proven antihepatotoxic, antiviral, antibacterial, and hypoglycemic.

Chamber Bitter (Phyllanthus urinaria) is closely related to Phyllanthus amarus in its appearance, structure and constituents as reported in Phytochemical screening and nutrient analysis of Phyllanthus amarus .  They find P. amarus to have a crude protein content of 10.5%.  So, I expect that Chamber Bitter will have a similar composition.  While not as good as the protein level of clovers, it a bit better than the 8 to 9% protein of well grown bahia grass and probably double the protein level of poorly growing bahia grass, where it would most likely be found.

Health Benefits Times.com provides detailed descriptions of the growth characteristics and habit of the Chamber Bitter plant.  It grows in a variety of environments, rapidly establishing itself on bare patches and in the bare spots within weakly growing bahia grass.  It reproduces by means of the green to reddish fruits hanging underneath the leaf stems that you can see in these pictures I took in the southeast blueberry field to the north of our house.

This dense patch of Chamber Bitter is growing in the shade to the east of a large sweet gum tree in the SE Blueberry field.  The sheep have been fenced off from the area so far.

This shows a typical stalk of Chamber Weed before being exposed to sheep.

Once the sheep have been in a field, the Chamber Bitter stalk looks more like this.  Notice at each leaf node, a small leaf has sprouted.  If the sheep are rotated through a field, just as the grass has a chance to regrow, the Chamber Bitter looks like it will sprout out and regrow.

Herbicide

Sprayed out 100 gallons of imazapyr herbicide solution on cogongrass and Chinese tallow trees today.   Used the boomless nozzles and the hand spray wand.  Everything worked well.  Nice for a change.

New Moms

Four new ewe moms are trailing their lambs (2 sets of twins and 2 singles) down the alleyway towards the pen designated for ewes with lambs. There, they and their lambs will get supplemental feeding.  These ewes were separated from the main ewe flock when that flock went to a new pasture.   The ewes with lambs stayed behind and were diverted onto a new path.

Porch Dogs

Niobe and Whitie, on the left and right respectively, guard the porch.   To be fair, they do patrol around, bark and howl to let the coyotes know this territory is occupied.  Blue mist flower is blooming in the foreground with a couple of red cardinal vine flowers.

Zeus with Ewes

Zeus is in with the very pregnant ewes grazing the middle field.   Lambs should be coming any day now.

Getting Feed

Went to J&B Feed in Lucedale to get feed for the sheep.  They prepare a special blend of soybean meal and soybean hull pellets for me in 14% and 20% protein mixes.  Today I picked up 4 tons of the 14%.