Pasture is improving

With the non-wetting soil problem we were having, things became rather tight with the pasture available in front of the sheep. So we took a few weeks off in bringing in more trade sheep to allow soil wetters used during sowing of the clover, and some patches sprayed over the top, to wet up the soil and give the pasture a chance to recover.

As you can see in the photos below, which are all from the same paddock and taken within half an hour of each other while I was shifting the sheep into the next paddock (we call this mob The Dregs), things are starting to improve again. We still have non-wetting patches, but they are getting smaller and wetter each day.

This paddock (Bravo) received four times the rate of fertiliser about two months ago (deliberately done to show what is waiting to grow). It is paying dividends, but all pastures are now rapidly improving. It was time for the sheep to move out of Bravo, even though as you can see, they have not eaten it down enough.

This coming week, we will weigh and sell more of the skinny merinos we have left, and seek to purchase more skinny lambs that need fattening up to make as much profit on them as we can.

All five photos below are from the same paddock. This one is where the worst non-wetting patch is. It is getting better by the day now. I find it interesting on the genetic colouring of lambs from black faced ewes. This one has two white lambs....

...this lamb looks just like its mum...

...and this ewe has produced a near ebony and ivory set of twins. Several other ewes produced near perfect black and white twins, but sadly, all of them have succumbed to predation or death by unknown means.

A closer view of the pasture left ungrazed as I was moving them into the next paddock. Time was up. Sheep must not remain on a paddock for more than 7-days.

And a photo of clover markings I am not familiar with. Looks like balansa but does anyone know what variety it might be? It was not one we sowed this year.