Separating the Boys and Girls

Farming is all logistics. The flerd (flock and herd) needs to get separated into two groups, boys and girls, ideally before the summer solstice.

I keep my boys intact i.e. they get to keep all of their parts. It helps them grow faster, but it also means they shouldn't be kept with the girls to prevent any hanky panky.

​When the days start getting shorter after June 20th that signals the sheep that it is time for hanky panky and I am trying to avoid very young ewes from getting bred when they're too little and I have no intention of having baby lambs this winter.

Rotational grazing requires that you use portable electric fencing and only two out of three of my energizers are functional right now

This is what the fencing looks like.

The batteries in one of the energizers won't hold a charge anymore because I accidentally let them freeze. It took trying three different chargers, calling the manufacturer and reading the manual to figure it all out. New batteries are on their way.

The fence charger looks like a metal suitcase with solar panels on the outside and big batteries on the inside.

The water trough moves every three days with the flerd when they move to new grass.

3. I'm also building the water system as I'm grazing. There's the main line that runs along the top of the hill and I need to put in junctions so that the hose can plug in at different points along the line. I ended up buying the some wrong fittings and had to reorder the right ones.  But now I have all the parts I need so that I can have water access at two different points in the pasture. 

As soon as the batteries arrive we will be in business for separating the boys and girls!

---