Schultz Strives to Get More Out of His Pastures

By Jane Fyksen Crops Editor
Thursday, October 9, 2008 7:38 AM CDT

Jim and Ruth Ann Schultz

Jim and Ruth Ann Schultz confess initially thinking how easy it would be to just turn their sheep onto grass and “let them do all the work, while we leaned on the fence” and enjoyed the pastoral setting. It didn’t occur to them how much “mental work” it actually takes to maintain that idyllic image. Grazing is both “art” and “science,” they say.

These veteran sheep graziers from Clintonville met the challenge, and today, maintain that managing ewes and lambs on pasture can not only be “pleasurable” but also “profitable” when shepherds learn to balance the needs of the pasture with the needs of the sheep.

While these shepherds, like other experienced sheep graziers, admit that profits are tough to attain in today’s climate of climbing costs, going to pasture with the flock is at least going to give producers a fighting chance at profit compared to higher-overhead, dry-lot feeding. Grazing is, though, more complex, requiring “critical analysis” and “creativity”.

While 200 ewes on 60 acres have brought in extra income for Schultz, whose other career is teaching school, he admits he’s in the “survival mode” this year, thinking about downsizing by selling breeding stock so as not to have to buy as much hay for winter feeding. Speaking at Spooner Sheep Day this year, Schultz noted that sheep on grass have been a “good thing up until now.” He admitted his flock has to make money; he’s not into hobby sheep production (i.e. supported by off-farm income) like many are others are in Wisconsin.

A grass farmer must understand the “solar collectors” he’s using to harvest energy and protein for his animals. Knowing the life cycle of your main forage species allows for harvest (by the sheep) at peak nutritional value, yet still maintaining optimum production. It’s trying to hit the balance point between optimal yield and quality.

Schultz admits as a novice grazier his biggest mistake was to graze too closely. Removing too much top growth requires plants to use root reserves to replace leaves before starting to collect solar energy again. This stresses some desirable species, making it tough to compete with less desirable ones like bluegrass, which tolerates close grazing. Paddocks will also have a longer recovery period before they can be grazed again.

Conversely, when a sward is grazed too tall, the solar collectors are shaded and become less productive. Turning sheep in when the forage is too tall also results in trampling and waste. At that point, it’d be better to make hay off of it. But, he advises, “realize how expensive it is” with the cost of fuel and machinery today.

Schultz maintains his primary job as a grazier is to “prevent grass from having sex,” which is the “single-minded goal of most plants.” A grazier must prevent that from happening, because nutritional quality decreases once flowering starts and vegetative growth is greatly reduced. That said, he admits he’s yet to figure out how to prevent bluegrass from going to seed.

Weather and sheep numbers must be in tune, “which rarely happens,” says Schultz, only half in jest. Thus, he believes sheep producers should consider clipping for more productive pastures. Once the seed heads are removed, most species remain vegetative for the rest of the growing season. (An alternative would be to follow the sheep with beef cattle that’ll remove coarse growth ewes and lambs can’t easily eat n and help manage parasites). The downside is the risk of introducing Johne’s disease to the flock.

Schultz says to worry first about fencing and then what species to plant for the “best” pasture. “The way a paddock is grazed ultimately determines its species composition,” he says of the “controlled manner” of harvesting pasture that fencing affords. They have five-strand high-tensile electric perimeter with semi-permanent three-wire poly fences to define fields, and moveable electric netting to further subdivide into paddocks that’ll last 24 hours. By having sheep on a given paddock only one day, they mimic machine harvest. If forced to graze competitively, they do a much better job of evenly removing the forage, versus grazing the most desirable species first, eventually removing them from the sward and leaving over-mature and non-nutritious weeds.

Further, manure is more evenly distributed, instead of heavy-use areas (where there’s shade or water) turning into the most fertile areas and least productive portions of your pasture. He teases that he’s found shade difficult to remove, married as he is to a gal from treeless southwestern Minnesota.

Schultz says regrowth starts within five days, so sheep should never be left on the same paddock more than four days, tops.

Once you’re set up to control grazing, then it’s time to improve species in the pasture if need be. While these producers have native white clover in their pastures, they use a spin-seeder in early spring to put on 5 pounds of red clover and 2 pounds of ladino in the spring and then run the ewes across to trample it in. While legumes are higher in protein and more productive in hot weather than cool season grasses, they also increase the risk of bloat. Before letting their sheep into a paddock with a high percentage of legumes, they add dishwasher soap to the mineral on the advice from their veterinarian. The sheep are also moved with the foliage is dry.

Because about half their farm is Plainfield sand, it’s tough to maintain clovers. Quackgrass is the forage of choice on their sandy soil, and that’s here they feed hay during dry conditions in the summer and during winter. Because nitrogen is becoming cost-prohibitive, Schultz says it may be time to covert some of those paddocks to alfalfa/orchard grass, which will do well on sandy soil and won’t require he buy N.

Their aim is to match the growth curve of the forage with the nutritional needs of the flock. Late gestation and lactating ewes have the highest nutritional needs and forage has the highest nutrition and growth rate during May and June. “If you were to lamb in March or earlier, peak lactation would be over and pastured ewes would be getting feed far better than they need,” says Schultz, who lambs starting the second week of May on pasture.

They feed their ewes 11 percent protein, low potassium hay during mid and into late gestation. Grazing typically starts mid-April, giving the ewes excellent feed the last three weeks of gestation. They don’t feed corn during gestation or lactation. Before lambing, the flock is moved daily through all paddocks just to remove the tops, which prompts more tillers and thickens up the sward. This is also when the ewes “plant” his clover.

When lambing starts, ewes are divided into groups of fifty and spread out in four fields, which have been subdivided into three or four paddocks. He opens the fence to the next paddock and ewes and newborn lambs find their way into the new grass. With good weather, they’re able to set aside a third of their pasture to make hay on in early June. Those paddocks are then added into the rotation.

In August, lambs are weaned; their average 90-day weaning weight is 70 pounds. Ewes are fed poor-quality hay on a paddock that needs improving, while the lambs get the best quality grass. After about two weeks, the ewes follow the lambs in the rotation. They stockpile pasture as much as they can for flushing and breeding in December. Lambs are kept on grass until mid-October, weighing 85 to 90 pounds. That’s when the grass loses its “kick,” he mentions.

They’re selling the lambs at a good price as feeders at that time, but high corn prices have made selling feeders an “iffy proposition,” according to Schultz.

The other necessities of grazing are controlling parasites, protecting the flock from predation (they use llamas with good results against coyotes) and having a good herding dog.

“The only way I know to make money in sheep is to feed grass as long as possible,” says Schultz, who admits he’s pessimistic this year, however, due in large part to the skyrocketing price of fertilizer.

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