>Will warm season grass grow where you are?
Not very well. It does grow down valley from us but at our altitude
we always get cool to even cold nights except for about 2 weeks in
August. There are some trials going on at the research station that
is just down valley, they should have some preliminary data this ear
as we had both an average summer to establish but more importantly a
hard winter and so can determine winter kill.
>With smaller sheep, how they going to get around in 3' of snow?
They can't. Heck we just found 3 dead cows under the snowpack as it
finally melted. Killed by coyotes in our back pasture where we
couldn't go all winter. 2 of them are known range cattle that have
been wild in the valley for about a year the other we think is the
cow that one rancher was missing this year but she's pretty much
gone, no hide left to check the brand. In any case with our winters
we will still have to have stored forages and bring the sheep in to
the winter corrals for the worst of winter.
>The warm
>seasons are slow to establish, seed cost is high, you wouldn't get a full
>seasons grazing out of it if you deferred august, and you'd still need to
>supplement protein.
OK Will do more checking for it.
>Sheep do not pug anywhere near as much as cattle do.
Correct but they still will and between the rocks the soil here is
clay and caliche. We've got one of the highest organic matter ratings
in the valley for pastures at 4% or so. Most places are much lower.
--
Eugenie (Oogie) McGuire - oogiem@desertweyr.com
Desert Weyr - CMK Arabian Horses, Black Welsh Mountain Sheep and Pilgrim Geese
http://www.desertweyr.com/
Paonia, CO USA
