SageHill Ranch Journal

[SageHill]

Obie is fantastic! Peeing a trail for Zo to follow. Outstanding performance! 👏👏
So sad that grazing time is ending. I’m glad I don’t have foxtails or filaree.

I opened a new small field in the front field yesterday for the ewes and lambs to graze. They got full bellies fast and went to the shade of their hoop shelter to ruminate.

I’m looking at other spots I can try like paved road sides. Areas where there aren’t foxtails are places the sheep aren’t interested in. I might squeak out some extra graze time - though it’ll be short lived.

 

[Ridgetop]

Green grass in east Texas!

 

[SageHill]

Green grass in east Texas!

Of course, it's on the other side of the fence !

 

[SageHill]

@Baymule you don't have foxtails?!!!! WOAH!! 👍 👍

 

[Ridgetop]

No foxtails in east Texas either, just lots of summer Bermuda and Bahia hay. Winter/spring grass is 24" deep winter rye.

 

[SageHill]

No foxtails in east Texas either, just lots of summer Bermuda and Bahia hay. Winter/spring grass is 24" deep winter rye.

Dang, dang ,dang! I forgot what life was like w/o those damn foxtails (I know they're not in northern IL).
But --- do you have mosquitos ??

 

[Baymule]

We have tiny buzzing skeeters that are annoying as all git out. And big swamp skeeters that won’t carry you back to the swamp because the big boys will take away their prize. (You) 🤪🤪🤪🤪

 

[Ridgetop]

Yes, but we have them here in southern California too. In Texas they come out in the evenings. If you take Vitamin B they don't seem to bite you as much. Put fish in your pond that will eat the larva. Add bleach (chlorine) to large field water troughs if necessary.

 

[farmerjan]

Don't be so fanatical about keeping the water troughs "spotless"... get bigger ones (the long metal ones that hold like 100 gallons or something) and let them get some algae and put a few feeder goldfish in them... they will eat the mosquito larvae, work on some of the algae... and many even will breed and give you tons of little goldfish... It actually will cut the mosquito population down some overall...no bleach, no scrubbing out but maybe once a year or if the algae gets bad... you add water regularly for them to drink and the goldfish actually keep it somewhat palatable... I use them... both in the water troughs at the barn and in the spring and well water fed troughs in the pastures with the cows... unfortunately, sometimes the herons will get some of them... I try to put some sort of an old "tile/pipe" they can go in/under... have an old cement block in one trough and they scoot into the holes in the block....The troughs at the barn get a little too hot in the summer unless I am hauling water... only put them in the troughs inside the barn lot that the calves have access to... and it's not ideal for them... but some survive...

 

[SageHill]

I grew up in the northern IL - and I’m a skeeter magnet/pincushion. Having lived here in So Cal 35 yrs now, I have yet to encounter the buggers. We just have a different sort of “bloodsucker” 😳
Though I do miss the lightning bugs.