Hay

all aspects

EweTube: The sounds of Soay feeding

No one believes me when I tell them our ewes are noisy eaters, much less that you can watch the hay level drop in the feeders when fully pregnant ewes are at the trough. Thanks to my dandy new video cam, I can now document our ill-mannered ladies. True, they are particularly eager eaters right […]

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The mystery of slow-growing Soay sheep lambs

The mystery of slow-growing Soay sheep lambs

When I started this blog, it was my intention to write only about subjects on which Steve and I felt we had a basic grasp of the research or professional writing about the problem confronting us.  This time, I am stumped and so is Steve, and we can rely only on our own observations of a number of our Soay sheep.  […]

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Even bummer lambs grow up, sigh

Even bummer lambs grow up, sigh

I have such mixed feelings about Patterdale, our first and only bottle baby.  She seemed so vulnerable when she first arrived and then as she started to grow in our breakfast nook, yattering away to be sure we knew she was there and needed milk — all the time.   Both Steve and I had to resist the urge to smother […]

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Feeding Soay Sheep in Winter:  A Sampler of Practical Solutions

Feeding Soay Sheep in Winter: A Sampler of Practical Solutions

For those of us lucky enough to have grass pastures in summer, feeding hay twice a day through the winter in the cold and rain is an annual reminder that not everything related to sheep-raising is fun.  In plain fact, it’s a nuisance having the animals’ dietary needs dictate our daily schedule.  How to keep […]

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Got hay for your Soay sheep?

Got hay for your Soay sheep?

The realization that lambing starts in five weeks sent Steve out to the barn today to count what’s left of our winter hay supply.  Do we have enough to last until the pastures green up?  When we put in our order last summer for winter hay, we factored in the extra needed for gestation and nursing, but the thought of […]

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