Handling Sheep and Chickens

#bfrdpwy #aginternship #RightRisk

At the beginning of this week I started learning the normal chore routine on this operation. There are morning chores that are best to be done before it gets too hot later on in the day, water and feed being the most important in order to sustain the animals throughout the day. My host utilizes food waste and spent grains to feed the chickens, pigs and sheep.

The next task was learning how to graze the sheep during the cooler parts of the day and allowing them to be in shelter during warmer parts of the day. The sheep are moved into a sectioned off part of pasture with an electric fence. Moving the sections of fence is a task that can become frustrating in this landscape due to the sagebrush and cactus that catch the fence. A solar panel that is attached to a battery is used to make the fence hot in order to keep them in. The connections between the grounding rods and the battery must be secure and connected to the proper placing. I am still learning the best way to move the fence.

Another area I was learning about was the perimeter fence in progress. This plot did not have a perimeter fence when they bought it so their goal is to put one up that will keep the sheep in. We have been working on putting posts in throughout the week in order to prepare to put up the wire fencing. There will be a different set-up around the house. A challenging task is getting the old barb wire fence that was along the ground re-rolled up because barb wire does not re-rolled well.

On Thursday, we drove to Centennial in order to help someone butcher chickens. While I have butchered large animals before, and wild game, I have never been part of the process of butchering chickens. I learned the anatomy for sticking and the processing of plucking, which involves dipping into temperature controlled water in order to avoid cooking but enough to be able to pluck the feathers. Then the evisceration process took place; it was all an interesting process. Plucking was the most frustrating part because of time it takes and the feathers that don’t want to let go.

At the end of the week we were working towards finishing up small projects and daytime day-to-day tasks. The sheep fence was taken down and moved in order to allow the rule of thirds for vegetation. New mineral bunks were put up to allow the sheep to have access to that as needed. A new pen was prepared with straw bedding for the arrival of a boar in order to breed the sows on site. While also just cleaning up, collecting eggs, and preparing the trailer for transport.

Throughout the week, my host was willing to give me pointers on tasks I was not sure of, while also teaching me the commands in order to control the sheep dogs while herding the sheep back and forth from the pen to pasture. In addition to the sheep, I was able to learn a little bit about the online shop and process in order to market items. Currently we are preparing a list and a plan for what the booth set up will look like at the farmers market. It will be the first year that my host’s business is there. Overall, I learned many new things to begin my internship and settle me in for the next coming weeks.

Submitted by: Savannah May
Edits by: GrowinG Internship Team