Nate Davis

I would imagine it's reed canarygrass? Crabgrass doesn't like wet soil very much, nimbewill might though. If it's still green it's definitely not crabgrass or nimbewill since it would have died with a frost. Reed canary is very aggressive, it's what you'll tend to see growing in thickets out of wet ditches or around ponds. It spreads by rhizomes and paradoxically is both very wet and drought adapted, probably because its roots are so deep.

Whatever the plant is, the way to deal with it is either starting from a clean slate by complete smothering or tillage, or incorporating it is a groundcover and establishing plants during its period of greatest weakness. For example if it's reed canary, you could mow it repeatedly throughout spring to weaken its root reserves, then once it starts to get hot transplant something that grows quickly and loves sun and heat. Sweet potatoes, tomatoes, corn, squash, sunflowers, etc.

If it's crabgrass it is an annual so simply mowing or pulling once it emerges in late spring to early summer should keep it at bay. Nimbewill is perennial but shouldn't spread so aggressively so I imagine that's not it.

I don't think any particular breed of sheep is more or less hard on fences. I suppose horned breeds are more likely to get caught in a fence and break something. If you put up woven wire perimeter it will be plenty enough to hold any sheep so long as it is built properly and there are no gaps in the ground that they can crawl underneath.

High-tensile with at least 6 strands can work if it's nice and hot and the bottom wire is low enough to the ground, <6 inches I'd say. The important thing is training them to it after they've been shorn and keeping it hot. Not allowing them to go more than a day without good forage of course helps.

In regards to stocking rate - on good pasture you should be able to keep 6 on 2 acres in general, but it very much depends on your location. Parasites are also a huge concern because Icelandics are a very geographically isolated breed and thus have not developed resistance to many of the parasites that other breeds have. Definitely check them regularly and give de-wormers to any showing symptoms.

I believe the problem is that it has been programmed into us since kindergarten to focus on developing a career in a specific niche rather than building a skillset that can adapt to a rapidly changing environment. Because that is indeed what we're faced with - an environment that changes at astronomical speed compared to what humans are used to. Not to mention that it benefits the power that be to have highly specialized workers that can work with specific technology, only to be disposed of once their pay is deemed too high. This arrangement however is no good for common folk who want to have a decent life - to spend years honing their career only to see it disintegrate practically overnight. Automation of white collar work with AI is only the latest iteration. It has happened in just about every line of work and will not relent any time soon.

I personally enrolled in uni despite not really wanting to, because I succumbed to pressure from my parents and teachers who said I was "too smart" not to and that trade school is for losers. After extensive research I enrolled in a field that I wasn't particularly interested in but had very good pay and career prospects. Although I was lucky enough to get a couple years of gainful employment, by then the labor market was turned on its head due to a myriad of factors such as the pandemic, AI innovations, off-shoring, etc. and I was laid off. So, in just 6 years the career prospects went from one of the best to quite dismal.

I've since been working whatever odd jobs I can find - in farming, carpentry, restaurants, etc. on top of attending workshops to accumulate as many skills as I can that would be useful on a homestead. While there is little money in such work, which can at times be discouraging, what I remind myself is that sooner or later money will be of little value while these skills will be needed virtually everywhere. If I want to take a break from work, I can because my expenses are low, and I can put the skills I've been learning to use on my own little piece of land - even if it's land I don't own but rather lease from an old farmer who has no use for it. If I start to run short on money, it's trivial to find a job of some sort utilizing such skills. The power is not in the earning potential, but in the flexibility it allows to live the life I want. I don't see any other way to survive with the way the economy is going.

I had a flock of Katahdin and St Croix that would thrive on either grass-legume pasture, forb-rich meadows or thick brush. Upon letting them into a diverse creekside thicket, the first plants they would go for was always goldenrod, blackberry and multi-flora rose. I suppose the selection criteria of their breed makes them behave more like goats than the woolly breeds of sheep.

This depends on many factors. I assume you want to grow forage for ruminants like cows or sheep.

You want plants that will grow a good yield of nice leafy biomass that stays leafy long enough for your animals to enjoy. You also want species and cultivars that will grow well in your climate and soil conditions.

A very important question to ask is do you want seeds that will:
A) grow perennial plants that are the final succession in your pasture, or
B) seeds that will help progress succession to what you want, and grow lots of tasty forage in the mean time.

I find people tend to pick A, but they do not take intake account the state their pasture is in and whether the perennials would do well. If the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio is very low aka very bacterial dominated soil, or low organic matter, compaction, low or high PH, any of these will cause typical perennial forages to struggle.

The best way to tell is by what's already growing there. If there are lots of weeds especially annuals like thistle, ragweed, pigweed, then it is likely an indication of soil conditions that are more optimal for weed-like annual forages than perennials. And these weeds are not necessarily bad! Cattle and sheep especially can gain a taste for them with enough exposure, and they can be nutritious in the right stage of growth. But it is important to see what is already growing as these will be an indicator of the soil conditions. A soil test will help to confirm.

If there are less than optimal conditions for perennial forages, I recommend growing robust annual forages that will produce a good yield of palatable biomass while moving soil conditions to what you want. You can even throw in some less palatable species that have benefits for the soil, just don't add much to avoid them taking over the pasture. To choose which seeds I highly recommend the SmartMix tool that can be found here: https://smartmix.greencoverseed.com/. It allows you to choose both your goals and growing conditions to choose a suitable seed mix.

Whether you grow weeds or introduce annuals simply letting them grow will do a lot to improve soil conditions and advance plant succession. After just a couple years of doing this you may even see conditions change enough that seeds in the latent soil seed bank will emerge and you may be very surprised by what comes up. Once you see this then it is a good time to consider which perennials you may want to seed.

Here's a splendid old cow I hand milk. She just calved a couple weeks ago. She has been known to be stubborn in letting her milk down when her calf is around, but I tried a procedure as Adam Klaus does - massaging the udder, cleaning and softly brushing her leg and udder, bumping up on her like her calf does, humming to her ( okay some of that might be just me) and alas she has started to release her milk even before her calf comes in. Even so I'm sure to leave some for him, then he stays with her until evening. Until he's ready to be weaned, he needs the milk to grow big and strong to breed many ladies.

I made maple syrup for the first time. Collected about 10 gallons from a single tree, spent a day boiling it down and ended up with two pints of syrupy goodness.

Vickey McDonald wrote:This sounds very interesting. I wonder if they are cold hardy or not? Would be nice if they could handle my Alaska winters.

Interestingly Miscanthus is among the most cold hardy of the C4 photosynthesis plants. However it is still a C4 aka warm season plant so it thrives in high temperatures, I'm not sure it would do better than a productive C3 plant anywhere in Alaska.

I think whole grains are the best since any milled grains will have long since oxidized and lost much of their nutrients. They may be a bit less digestible but when taking into account the added cost (energy) of milled grains it is negligible. If you buy bulk organic grains and mix your own tmr vs the few organic chicken feeds around, it's no contest.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:

Nate Davis wrote:I suppose it's possible for there to still be some herbicides but they didn't quite kill the legumes. However if there are a lot of legumes and they look relatively healthy surely this is a sign of no herbicides, even more so if there's other "weeds" in the hay. Does this sound right? I want to use a bunch of leftover hay for mulch/hugelkultur this year so I want to be sure.

It's always "thin ice" when discussing this, but it's a practical fact that we have to deal with potential contaminants.

Personally, I think you're doing the same visual checks I would do. If the mixed grasses and broadleaf plants look like they were pretty green before baling, I can't think of a reason to believe they've been sprayed with herbicide.

I don't have access to hay, only wheat straw and that might have traces of The Unspeakable Molecule. Before using it for garden mulch, I ferment the bale in a tub that has water, living dirt and compost tea. Haven't had any problems. This also seems to kill of latent mold spores.

Interesting how you ferment your straw. I know glyphosate breaks down much quicker than other herbicides, especially in healthy soils. It honestly seems the lesser evil in comparison to atrazine. That stuff is nightmare fuel to me.

Another thing people will do is a germination test. They mix the hay/straw with good soil and sprout some seeds in it. If the seedlings struggle then that's a sign of contamination. If they look green and vibrant as can be then it should be okay.