The grass still needs a few more days of sunshine to really come up. We’re conserving the north and south pasture, but I’ve let the sheep and donkeys into the back pasture. If the grass is too low, the sheep and donkeys will pull it up by the roots, and it won’t grow back.
The grass never gets as lush in the back pasture, and there’s a lot of brush and tall plants. The donkeys were feasting on newly sprouting Japanese Honeysuckle and the sheep wandering in the denser areas.
Suzy came back to the barnyard dragging a long thick branch with thorns on it caught in her wool. I had to put on heavy rubber gloves to pull it off of her. And Asher had a small branch of begger ticks stuck like velcro to his back.
This is a good reminder not to let the sheep graze the back pasture a week or two before shearing. I want their wool as clean as possible. Hopefully, by then, they’ll be able to graze in the side pastures.
Of course, I could just close off all the pastures and continue to feed the animals hay till the grass is ready. But I’m a bit of a sucker when I Fanny and Lulu and all the sheep are standing at the gate baaing and braying to get to the grass.
