We continue to be bone dry with some very hot days (40-45C). Despite that, the kikuyu continues to attempt to green up - see some photos below. This should get better over time as the lime we have added to correct the acidic soil at depth does its thing.
We have taken the lambs off one of our mobs, the Cleanskins, and put them in a gravel pit with an autofeeder. We added a 100+ old cull ewes to help the lambs learn there is food in the autofeeder. We're experimenting drenching these lambs with a backline concoction of ours. Poo samples will be taken in two weeks to see if it was worked. The ewes are about to start lambing from 25th March, so they did not get much respite between having a lamb feeding off them, and about to give birth to the next lamb. It is pretty tough on them in these tough conditions, but the majority are coping very well.
Our other main mob, the woollies, will have their lambs taken off them next week and they too will be put into the gravel pit to live off grain (lupins and barley) and straw. We intend to take as many ewes off the paddocks after that to let the kikuyu bulk up. We have a little bit of rain forecast next week (<10mm in total) and this will help the kikuyu significantly.
While on that, summer rain of 5-10mm adds no value to pasture production on a ryegrass/clover/medic pasture. It actually helps destroy the quality of the dry pasture. However, with kikuyu, it will get a boost and give an increase in pasture production. I do love our kikuyu. It is so resilient despite such a hot dry summer, and being constantly eaten to the ground every week. I've added some photos below of a paddock that has not been grazed for ~14 days. The kikuyu continues to green up when given a chance.
As we remove sheep onto feeders with grain, and straw provided ad-libitum, this will help the pastures get some bulk on. If we receive some decent rain, we will intensify the efforts to get all the sheep off the pastures for a few weeks. It will make a huge difference to the future pasture production.
One little thing we do with straw when given to sheep in the gravel pit, is to pour on a solution of molasses and some added goodies. It certainly gets the sheep interested in eating the low quality straw. The straw, roughage, is very important to have available when the sheep are living off a grain diet.








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