I raise American blackbelly sheep, and they are an incredible breed. Like you have described, they are nearly bulletproof. I heard of one experienced rancher who lost 5 out of 12 sheep (he didn't specify the breed) on a single day. I have raised hundreds of blackbelly sheep, and I think I can count on one hand the number I have lost due to illness of any kind (including parasites). Plus, their meat is the best I've ever tasted. I may be a bit biased, since they're my own animals, but I don't think so; it's just incredible meat. Lastly, they're so beautiful. Seeing them out on the pasture never gets old (I'm in my 8th year raising them).
Charlize is an impressive person. Between the farming, the art, the history, I could listen to her all day. ❤ ps: sweet sourland syrup is perfection. NJ produces excellent maple syrup.
Okay so I need to plant some wild rose then for a screen! My bamboo isn’t growing as fast as I’d like. Maybe I can find some privet growing somewhere to transplant.
My grandpas cattle would eat stilt grass. So far my dairy sheep have turned their noses up at it. It may be bitter though since it grows in a damp area of my property
Question - I am doing silvopasture with sheep in NW Alabama and the problem I run into is the volume of leaves in the fall that don't allow for good grass growth. You seem to have no problem at all and have many more trees than I do. How are you keeping the leaves from smothering out your grass? thanks.
My first thought was how is there so much greenery under that canopy. That is a LOT of trees for that amount of green under them. They do look like younger trees though.
The leaves seem to compost enough for the invasive to come back up in the spring. They are not the "normal" grasses that are in our more open pastures.which may be why the damp forest is best for them.
