Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
3
and Facilities
MORE THAN 2.3 BILLION ACRES (913 million ha) of North America
can't be used effi ciently to grow anything other than grass, and all farms have
areas that aren't really suitable for crops. We can't eat this grass, but our sheep
sure can.
Sheep are really effi cient at converting grass into meat. For the shepherd
who is interested in low input and high profi t, grass is the key to success. In
the low-input, pasture-based system, sheep have their lambs on the pasture
in late spring, and the lambs grow to market age on the abundance of grass
during the summer. The lambs can then be sold in the late summer or early
fall, about the time the pastures begin to give out. This means that you don't
need to carry the animals through the winter on hay and grain.
Sheep are among the best grazing animals in the world. Even breeds with
“poor” foraging abilities are still good grazers, but they need high-quality,
tame pastures — they won't do well on rough, native pastures without sup-
plemental feed. Breeds that are excellent foragers produce nicely on those
rougher pastures.
For all shepherds, regardless of the breed they choose to raise, pasture
should be the cornerstone of their operation. In fact, we think of ourselves
as grass farmers, capturing solar energy in the grass of our pastures and con-
verting it to a product (food and fi ber) with our sheep. To be successful, a
grass farmer must learn to manage pasture for both the plants' and the ani-
mals' needs. Even on very small parcels of land, a shepherd can use managed
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