RainyJuneDay

MishMash (or at least a few pics of what's been happening)

Thirsty girls in the sun.  I love the way they eat grass (and apparently drink water) by wrapping their tongues around the blades, then ripping, rather than biting with their teeth.  It reminds me of an elephant trunk.

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 This was a beautiful thing because I was trying to get the cattle back to a paddock in the middle of the field--they could've run everywhere.  (Plus we'd just spend forever trying to untangle many yards of polywire that had gotten wrapped tight in and around one's hoof, so I was low on patience.)  But, they've learned to trust us, so when I called...they actually came as a GROUP!

 

They followed me right on up and into their paddock, without any cajoling, dog, other people, or lines to set up.  It's amazing when things work!!

 And back into the paddock.

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 Sometimes things don't always work out, but you still have to deal with them.  One of the girls at our place died sadly.  The buzzards found her before we did, which made for an even more unfortunate situation.  You can't just leave a dead animal in the field though.  So there we were, brother and sister (and dog) on a drizzly June day, armed with a tractor a truck and some gloves, figuring out how to (re)move a decomposing 800lb animal:(

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 Hillside/wooded grazing (always aware of the dogs too)

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Pretty views of the farm...we should all take more time to just enjoy where we are!

PyreneesExperiment--Follow Up

A while ago  I wrote about running the sheep and goats together in one field, and the question of putting together two pairs of livestock guardian dogs.  (One thing I wanted to point out was that at this leased property, the owner's goal is weed management, NOT pasture improvement, which is why we haven't implemented a rotational grazing plan with small paddocks and long rest periods.)  I said I'd follow up on the dogs, because we weren't sure how they'd react to sharing territory with another pair of dogs, or another herd.

...Aaaand there's not much to report!  They get along, as far as we can tell, aside from the occasional squabble over kibble.  The goats and sheep are sometimes nearer, sometimes further from each other.  When we need to bring them in to the handling area, or bring mineral, they move as separate herds (which was expected.)  The dogs seem to work what I think of as shifts--some mornings Bette, Bert and Beau will be anxiously awaiting kibble, with Barks on duty.  Then Beau will stick with the herds and Bette, Bert and Barks will be waiting to eat, etc.  As for their pairings, they seem to work together interchangeably, although I'd say more often than not they maintain the partnerships they had before.  I haven't seen any of them at night though, so I don't really know for sure what's happening.  The sheep and goats are well, and the dogs are happy, so I'd call it successful.  It's certainly much less work from the human end!

 

In this video, Lucy and Carla brought the sheep and goats in (the push), and Danny is leading by being in front, to keep them in a tighter, more manageable group. 

(I don't want to leave out the other two Pyrenees, Belle and Athena, so here are a few recent ones of them as well.)