In the continuing extra dry conditions for Tasmania, shepherding has once again become a priority. We’ve had less than half of our annual average rainfall over the last 12 months, and with the Indian Ocean Dipole at a record high, it doesn’t seem likely we’ll see much precipitation before early 2020 when the sea surface temperature pattern is expected to return to a more neutral configuration. (See my other farm journal, Yarns from the Farm, for a discussion of the IOD.) Knowing what’s causing the dry, and even when it’s likely to finally let up, is useful but doesn’t get us very far in terms of how to manage this gracefully.
Over the past couple of years, I’ve become a bit cavalier about regular shepherding. This is partly a result of the sheep knowing the property well enough to move on their own, and partly because with low stocking rate and good rainfall, the forage has been abundant and diverse.
That’s changed this year, with a vengeance. I still have enough forage “ahead” of the sheep in the rotation pattern, but it’s not anywhere near as abundant. The biodiversity has also diminished in the main parts of the grazing area as the sheep have munched the annual weeds. So most of the available biodiversity is in the reserves and odd corners where sheep seldom go.
I was pleased to find this bulbine lily today—often in dry times they just don’t show up.
My strategy is to return to a much more regular schedule of shepherding while we wait for rain.
For spring I normally have the flock in what I call the White Gum Wood grazing area—see the pink area on the map below. Biodiversity is concentrated in the green reserve areas, which are fenced off from the main paddocks, and on the steep hill on the north side Nan’s Paddock (named by stockman Davey, btw). I’m focusing on a couple of shepherding tracks, as noted in dark purple on the second map, and trying to get out every other day or so to move sheep.
Sheep like to settle at midday and again at night on relatively level areas at the tops of hills or in a saddle. These “camps” inevitably get overgrazed, and I’ve mostly stopped worrying about it. Getting them to move to the other areas during the day is the best way I know to even out the grazing pressure, and provide the diverse nutrition they need to stay healthy.
I’ll try to be a bit more frequent in my Come Shepherding reports so you can see the progress we make between now and Christmas, when it should rain. The video below was taken this morning.