The sheep have been with us for a little over a month. We have since ran out of grass from within the farm and up to 500m radius. As a result, we have to go out further to look for grass; most of the time that means along streams by the roadside.
Thankfully we have quite a bit within a 1 km radius. But there’s always lurking competition looking for the same by livestock farmers in the vicinity. There’s also always a safety concern for the source from where these fodder is obtained. We have to look for signs of no herbicide use and in this case, the stream by which the napiers is growing is devoid of any industrial activities.
An interesting thing I learnt from my worker is that wild creepers that snake their way up these stalks of napier are also edible by ruminants and they absolutely love it, especially when these are trifoliate (likely leguminous, hence with good protein content). I guess there’s no looking at wild road-side vegetation or weeds the same way ever again.
That’s what the sheep eat. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. 3 meals a day, with salt lick block and no pellets. 100% natural. I was told this is not the way to do it and that raising ruminants require a load of various commercial pellets, etc. That was what I was told about chickens too. 2 years on, my chickens are fine. I’m hoping the same for the sheep.
It’s another crazy experiment I’m doing. It seems, the commercial industry is always trying to sell you something on the pretext of the need to gain x amount in y time to make the effort “profitable and worthwhile”. Meanwhile, I’m trying with a different approach. Any perceived “loss” in time/profits is made up for in diversity of activities, which translates to resilience. That’s what permaculture is about anyway. Function stacking.
The vet officer from Seremban was impressed by the lack of “smell” and the well-fed state of the sheep. 100% grass fed and organically maintained with the weekly EM spray. Perhaps, the only thing left to do is to let the sheep free range. I’m unable to do that now due to lack of space and manpower. Perhaps, when labour problems are solved, I will be letting the sheep out a few times a week.
