Comments on: Thinking Local Part I: Bringing the Sheep Back

By: Texicali

Texicali — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 15:59:10 +0000

Greenpa,
experiments are being conducted in California with very small sheep and vineyards. The baby dolls sound about right, I don’t recall specifically. When training they spray the lower leaves of the vines with a substance that makes the sheep temporarily ill when ingested. Once they begin to associate the grape leaves with illness they are no longer interested. I imagine something similar would work with goats.

By: NM

NM — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 02:16:24 +0000

Changes in store in the Pacific NW, too; a lot of residents don’t realize that water, regarded as overabundant here, is over-allocated in Oregon and formerly dependable well levels are dropping in consequence; city officials are very worried about the next few decades, and some farmers are starting to put in giant tanks, to catch rainfall off metal pole barn roofs. Plus, it does not rain here from July through September, sometimes longer. Long dry, for a wet climate …
Mountain snowmelt used to provide plenty of summer water, but of late, it’s not so dependable anymore, thanks to climate change …
They used to grow hard wheat here a hundred years back, but at some point in the past decided the yields weren’t high enough, so now grass seed, for golf courses and such, is very big … and the pollen allergy levels in the Willamette Valley are dreadful as a result. Now a few people are starting to try hard wheat again (they never stopped growing soft wheat, but export 80 percent of it) … and after years of hearing that you Can’t grow hard wheat here, they’re finding that it grows just fine. (!) … desperately hoping that it picks up and replaces the grass seed fields — which are burned over in the late summer, adding another whole level of pollution, although more and more restrictions have been going in against that, ever since some years back the smoke went across a highway and caused a massive chain wreck that killed several people. When I was a teenager the smoke would cover the valley and turn entire days cool and cloudy (and smoky-smelling). Doesn’t happen so much anymore, at least up at the north end.

By: Heather G

Heather G — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 19:32:02 +0000

Berkshire, we share your (and other folks) concern about woods in the NE! We have some woods as part of the farm (well, my in-laws do — me and my husband who’s one of their kids, rent the second floor and help out here and there). Some of it is used for firewood, but that’s essentially made up of dead and damaged trees, and we only sell some of that. We’re maple sugarers too, and all the family believes that healthy woods should have variety. We may actually have to create a _little_ space here and there though — seems there’s so much growing up there that there isn’t enough light for locust to grow up on the hill anymore.

We’re over in Franklin Cty, at 1,000 ft. above sea level, and I think even that much is a vast improvement over living in the valley during the summer time. My asthma agrees! Good luck with the building project.

By: Lee Johnson

Lee Johnson — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 19:19:26 +0000

We’re planning on starting a flock of sheep within the next year and we’ve been going to local sheep and fiber festivals to get ideas regarding breeds. Different breeds are good for different areas no doubt, but here in the northwest the Shetland and Navajo-Churro breeds both look very promising. Both are low input, multi-purpose breeds that don’t need a lot of supplements and will eat brush and weeds other sheep won’t touch. Shetland sheep have very soft wool, not quite Merino but close, and are people-friendly more like goats. Navajo-Churro sheep have coarser faster-growing wool and very low lanolin levels which gives their meat a very mild flavor. Just some thoughts for people researching breeds.

If you are seriously considering getting sheep, I’d suggest buying a breed that is pretty easy to find in your area. Having multiple sources for breeding stock and people familiar with the animals is a big help when you are getting started.

By: homebrewlibrarian

homebrewlibrarian — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:34:06 +0000

Sharon; it will be your fault if my friend with 80 acres and a herd of Cashmere goats ends up with Icelandic sheep!

With all this talk of sheep and that I just finished reading “Hit by a farm” (a GREAT book which includes way more about sheep birthing than most memoirs ever mention), I looked up Icelandic sheep in Alaska and they seem to be gaining popularity rapidly.

So I call my friend with land and goats to talk about wool batt insulation and, BOOM! We’re off and running talking about adding sheep to her holding. She had already been casually looking into sheep and sheep breeds but now we’re GALVANIZED. Not that sheep are imminent – first she needs a LGD (after a scare involving a grizzly sow and two yearling cubs, acquiring a LGD leaped to the top of the priority list) and had decided on the Turkish Kangal Shepherd mostly because they are not afraid of bears and can work with different types of livestock. Sheep are at least two years out at this point but that gives her (us) lots of time to plan.

I swear that practically every “out there” idea I get comes from your blog!

Kerri in AK

By: Greenpa

Greenpa — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:21:21 +0000

Sharon- thanks for the words on Icelandics. Now I’ve spent like SIX hours googling- and finding breeders… And I’m starting to threaten my family with impending sheep.

HeatherB- Very interesting. In fact, I long ago started putting out mineral blocks for our whitetail deer- for exactly that reason; but hadn’t thought about it in regard to goats. Thanks!

By: heatherB

heatherB — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:30:09 +0000

And I’m really tail end charlie on this post! Oz often identifies itself as “made on the sheeps back” , so a sprinkling of comments: natural untreated wool insulation is already moth proof – just bung the fleece in as is. Wiltshire Horns dont need shearing, they kinda shed, no good for spinning, great for insulation, felting and dinner, we have a local cheesemaker using only sheep milk (apparently higher protein content per lt, which means twice as much cheese per lt as cows milk) and finally for Greenpa, if he reads this, Pat Coleby, an aussie author on goats and grazing stock makes the point that goats are browsers by nature and as such have a far higher mineral requirement than grazers. She gives a recipe for a mineral lick and if they have access to this (or something similar) they are far less likely to destroy your trees in a desperate attempt to satisfy their nutritional requirements. Fabulous books for goat owners if you can get them in USA.

By: Berkshire

Berkshire — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:39:56 +0000

I’ll throw in a few more thoughts on what might be a strategy going forward.

Dairy and beef are ideal on our hilly and boulder strewn fields. They don’t damage the fields and hay is easily grown here. My grandfather had a dairy farm a few miles from my home here in the 20s / 30s. They were almost totally self sufficient with no electricity. It was a hard life but it worked.

I’m building out my south facing walk out cellar. I estimate that I would need at most a half cord of wood for the winter. The magic of below ground living with a modern insulated structure.

By: Berkshire

Berkshire — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:21:41 +0000

Sharon,

I totally agree and have told a few folks, only half jokingly, that I feared I would be sitting out in the woods guarding the last stand of trees in western Mass. with my old 12 guage single shot. I’m past retirement age so that only gives me a few years for my prediction to come true. Any bets?

The hard woods being cut now will be replaced by more southern species changing this place forever. Yes desertification is a real possibility.

I am at 1600 feet and suggest to all that average temperature drops 3.4 degrees F. for every 1000 feet gain in altitude. Folks might consider altitude as a survival strategy as climate change accelerates. It seems it is always wetter on the west side of a mountain.

By: Sharon

Sharon — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:15:43 +0000

Yup – Berkshire, my great fear for this region is that we kill the forests in our quest to keep warm, and then, as climate change moves north, the area actually desertifies. I don’t think that’s totally out of the question if we strip the trees off. Which is why I think the sheep, integrated in with woody agriculture and vegiculture offer one of the best possible ways of balancing. We are going to farm more, and we are going to build new local industries – and none of our choices, given population density and reality, will be perfect. So I’m looking for “best we can do, with least harm.”

Sharon, who lives just south of the Adirondacks, where the record of overlogging is still written into the landscape.