I went to Greg Judy grazing school last May. You are 100% correct, his livestock are on hills. its terrible crop land, but great pasture land. He has to buy city water for a lot of his farms. But hIs grass was super green when all of the non regenerative farms were mud. It is quite amazing.
@@birchfieldfarming I took a lot of notes. The bottom line is that he is a business man first. He tried chickens, and goats but they were a lot of trouble and didn't pay in his area. So he sticks with what works on his land. He does not register his south poll animals because he is able to sell them. Also, he has a source for his dogs and does not necessarily do a good job training the ones he sells. Whats really cool about his farms, he has a lot of animals and not a lot of infrastructure and inputs. The 4wheeler is the most used piece of equipment on the farms. He modified it with racks and guards to save time. Hay unroller, electric fence, water systems, ponds. He does inoculate against some diseases. He tightly controls the breading schedule. Puts the bulls in with the cows in september. Puts the rams in with the ewes in december. He has professionally built cattle sorting chute. He stays away from the ewes when they are lambing. Its impressive. He does not own any hay equipement, but buys in whatever he uses over winter. Culling animals is the cashflow of the farm, so if an animal gets parasites, is aggressive or doesn't breed back, its gone.
@@greggmcclelland8430 That’s awesome you got to experience all that first hand! You have to hand it to him - he’s found a system that thrives in his location, which gives the rest of us hope. Thanks for sharing!
I saw a vid where his wife joked that she'd better stay useful. Miss dinner 2 nights in a row, and she might get processed to the happy hunting grounds.
Thank you for being so up front and honest that things aren't always sunshine and roses. We were fortunate in being unfortunate with our first experience with sheep. It went slightly better than Jurassic Park so it gave us pretty realistic views of how it could go. Thankfully, nothing died and the second time is going much better but it is so important to have realistic expectations.
I agree completely, and honestly, I think the realism and sheer raw challenge is mysteriously (to me anyway) something that simultaneously overwhelms and draws me, even going on 7 years of doing this. Jurassic Park…ha! My chickens do look & act as mini-t-Rex’s🤔
@birchfieldfarming yes! I'm here for the challenge too! And I've wanted to be a farmer since I first learned what farming was. Living the actual dream!
Independence from BIG SUGAR! 😄 St. Croix for the Win!!! We are in the Kansas City and have used "Sheep Trace Mineral Premix" from Premier1 with a 50 lbs bag of salt has worked great for us.
I like to listen to Greg Judy too. He's a great farmer . But your also right, what goes on in south west Mizouri isn't what goes on here in central New York.
My folks live just a couple hours North of us here in Ohio, and it always amazes me the climate differences between us, even as close as we are. For as unpredictable as the weather seems, they are always about a week behind us every Spring. I’ve been thinking lately, maybe these differences from place to place are a good thing, as no one person or small group of people can dominate the others. Keeps us all tuned to our local areas and paying attention, which I feel will be desperately needed in the times ahead. Thanks for watching and commenting, Tom.
Another good video. Got to get over there for some of that maple syrup. And you are correct about Greg’s area. Been looking for land to lease here in our area so we can expand our farm.and it’s been very difficult. Stay dry.
We’ll keep some on tap for ya! I’d say the next decade in agriculture will be interesting, but I feel that way about everything now. So much change needed. I hope we’re on the right side of things, friend.
Thanks for watching, Dan! We have a great local farm family that makes hay off our 26 acre hay field in the back. I go thru a dozen+ big round bales and a couple hundred squares each winter. Certainly our biggest expense. I’ve never grazed stockpile thru the winter, but the idea is intriguing. Our biggest challenge would be setting aside that ground in the fall and then figuring out winter water. Do you have experience with grazing stockpile in winter?
If you were in north Florida would you consider Florida cracker sheep? It’s another breed that is resistant to parasites but they do need shearing. My family just moved onto 30 acres, we are turning it into pasture now, researching.
Great question…I’ve never heard of cracker sheep! Many of the parasite resistant breeds have St Croix somewhere in the bloodline mix. Is that the case with that breed?
@@birchfieldfarming I was ready to try to find St Croix when ready. I’ve been watching Greg Judy and others for several years. When we finally found the land the neighbor to us has Florida Cracker sheep and Cows. Apparently they were released here in Florida by the Spanish a long time ago and left to fend for themselves in the rough pasture and undeveloped Florida wilds. They are on the breed conservation list. I talked to the neighbor he said he gets them sheared in June every year and is also doing a grass fed system. I’m afraid I don’t know much else yet. He says he does’t worm the Florida cracker cattle either. I guess there are breeders here in Florida.
Good Morning Dave, Depending on the season, we run between 15 and 20 head of St. Croix on between 4 and 5 acres, but they are grazed with 7 head of Red Devon cattle and around 250 chickens (200 broilers/50 layers), all on the same 5 acres. We’ve discovered with multi-species rotational grazing, we can just about double carrying capacity vs. regular set-stock grazing. We ran qty 10 of 1/4 acre paddocks, rotating every 3 days last year with chickens following behind cattle/sheep.
@@jay8443Depends on the grass growth. I like it best with sheep and cattle together and moving daily thru 1/4 acre paddocks, but that’s mostly during the grazing season. Over-wintering area with auto-water this time of year normally.
@@birchfieldfarming we have kathadin and kathadin/dorper cross sheep , no parasite deworming....yet. this is one pretty good ,easy (salatin uses) natural treatment ruclips.net/video/yAxW5pY5bRU/видео.html
I went to Greg Judy grazing school last May. You are 100% correct, his livestock are on hills. its terrible crop land, but great pasture land. He has to buy city water for a lot of his farms. But hIs grass was super green when all of the non regenerative farms were mud. It is quite amazing.
That’s awesome, and he’s one amazing dude! Hope I can meet him someday. How was the grazing school experience?
@@birchfieldfarming I took a lot of notes. The bottom line is that he is a business man first. He tried chickens, and goats but they were a lot of trouble and didn't pay in his area. So he sticks with what works on his land. He does not register his south poll animals because he is able to sell them. Also, he has a source for his dogs and does not necessarily do a good job training the ones he sells.
Whats really cool about his farms, he has a lot of animals and not a lot of infrastructure and inputs. The 4wheeler is the most used piece of equipment on the farms. He modified it with racks and guards to save time. Hay unroller, electric fence, water systems, ponds. He does inoculate against some diseases. He tightly controls the breading schedule. Puts the bulls in with the cows in september. Puts the rams in with the ewes in december. He has professionally built cattle sorting chute. He stays away from the ewes when they are lambing. Its impressive. He does not own any hay equipement, but buys in whatever he uses over winter. Culling animals is the cashflow of the farm, so if an animal gets parasites, is aggressive or doesn't breed back, its gone.
@@greggmcclelland8430 That’s awesome you got to experience all that first hand! You have to hand it to him - he’s found a system that thrives in his location, which gives the rest of us hope. Thanks for sharing!
I saw a vid where his wife joked that she'd better stay useful. Miss dinner 2 nights in a row, and she might get processed to the happy hunting grounds.
I have a flock of about 60 ewes in Northeast Pennsylvania from Greg's farm and I can confirm that everything in this video is 100% accurate.
That’s awesome!🤠
Thank you for being so up front and honest that things aren't always sunshine and roses. We were fortunate in being unfortunate with our first experience with sheep. It went slightly better than Jurassic Park so it gave us pretty realistic views of how it could go. Thankfully, nothing died and the second time is going much better but it is so important to have realistic expectations.
I agree completely, and honestly, I think the realism and sheer raw challenge is mysteriously (to me anyway) something that simultaneously overwhelms and draws me, even going on 7 years of doing this. Jurassic Park…ha! My chickens do look & act as mini-t-Rex’s🤔
@birchfieldfarming yes! I'm here for the challenge too! And I've wanted to be a farmer since I first learned what farming was. Living the actual dream!
Very informative. Thanks for this . 👍
You got it, thanks for watching!
Great video, thanks and god bless
Thanks Stewart
Independence from BIG SUGAR! 😄 St. Croix for the Win!!! We are in the Kansas City and have used "Sheep Trace Mineral Premix" from Premier1 with a 50 lbs bag of salt has worked great for us.
Great to know on the mineral, thanks for sharing!
@@birchfieldfarming ji
I like to listen to Greg Judy too. He's a great farmer . But your also right, what goes on in south west Mizouri isn't what goes on here in central New York.
My folks live just a couple hours North of us here in Ohio, and it always amazes me the climate differences between us, even as close as we are. For as unpredictable as the weather seems, they are always about a week behind us every Spring. I’ve been thinking lately, maybe these differences from place to place are a good thing, as no one person or small group of people can dominate the others. Keeps us all tuned to our local areas and paying attention, which I feel will be desperately needed in the times ahead. Thanks for watching and commenting, Tom.
Another good video. Got to get over there for some of that maple syrup. And you are correct about Greg’s area. Been looking for land to lease here in our area so we can expand our farm.and it’s been very difficult. Stay dry.
We’ll keep some on tap for ya! I’d say the next decade in agriculture will be interesting, but I feel that way about everything now. So much change needed. I hope we’re on the right side of things, friend.
Thanks for sharing your insights! How many acres do you hay, to get through the winter? Have you ever tried grazing stockpile through winter?
Thanks for watching, Dan! We have a great local farm family that makes hay off our 26 acre hay field in the back. I go thru a dozen+ big round bales and a couple hundred squares each winter. Certainly our biggest expense. I’ve never grazed stockpile thru the winter, but the idea is intriguing. Our biggest challenge would be setting aside that ground in the fall and then figuring out winter water. Do you have experience with grazing stockpile in winter?
If you were in north Florida would you consider Florida cracker sheep? It’s another breed that is resistant to parasites but they do need shearing. My family just moved onto 30 acres, we are turning it into pasture now, researching.
Great question…I’ve never heard of cracker sheep! Many of the parasite resistant breeds have St Croix somewhere in the bloodline mix. Is that the case with that breed?
@@birchfieldfarming I was ready to try to find St Croix when ready. I’ve been watching Greg Judy and others for several years. When we finally found the land the neighbor to us has Florida Cracker sheep and Cows. Apparently they were released here in Florida by the Spanish a long time ago and left to fend for themselves in the rough pasture and undeveloped Florida wilds. They are on the breed conservation list. I talked to the neighbor he said he gets them sheared in June every year and is also doing a grass fed system. I’m afraid I don’t know much else yet. He says he does’t worm the Florida cracker cattle either. I guess there are breeders here in Florida.
Good morning,
How many sheep are you running and on how many acres?
Thank you
Good Morning Dave,
Depending on the season, we run between 15 and 20 head of St. Croix on between 4 and 5 acres, but they are grazed with 7 head of Red Devon cattle and around 250 chickens (200 broilers/50 layers), all on the same 5 acres. We’ve discovered with multi-species rotational grazing, we can just about double carrying capacity vs. regular set-stock grazing. We ran qty 10 of 1/4 acre paddocks, rotating every 3 days last year with chickens following behind cattle/sheep.
How many sheep do you have that you rotate on those 1/4 acre paddocks
Depends on the season. After lambing we’ve had as many as 27, this time of year about half that.
@@birchfieldfarming and you keep them in the 1/4 acre paddock for how many days before moving
@@jay8443Depends on the grass growth. I like it best with sheep and cattle together and moving daily thru 1/4 acre paddocks, but that’s mostly during the grazing season. Over-wintering area with auto-water this time of year normally.
And how much grain and hay do you have to feed in winter
@@LuvtallhorsesZero grain, zero wormer, 3% body weight in hay a day, 120 day hay season
Do you sell sheep? I think you had a vid where you were trying to milk st croix?
Yes, we are a registered breeder and sell St Croix.
@@birchfieldfarming in western Ohio?
@@djja8844 Southwest…Oxford, Ohio.
I might eventually set up in Indiana.
@@djja8844 Some good ground over there👍
Those sherp look to boney and small. Poor looking. I like dorper. Lots of meat on the bone.
Good luck with your chemical deworming👍
@@birchfieldfarming we have kathadin and kathadin/dorper cross sheep , no parasite deworming....yet. this is one pretty good ,easy (salatin uses) natural treatment ruclips.net/video/yAxW5pY5bRU/видео.html