It's Beginning to Feel Like Spring

As I sit here and listen to the meadow larks singing, I know that spring is really trying to come to Montana. We have just finished lambing and kidding, one of our female Great Pyrenees had a litter of puppies, and our heifer just had a calf.  We all love to spend time watching the antics of the baby animals. They are so cute and sometimes so hilarious. It is truly a joy to watch them. With the change of the seasons come a few challenges on our small ranch. Spring in our neck of the woods generally means volatile temperature fluctuations, lots of wind and usually some precipitation in the forms of rain or snow. This can mean troubles with pneumonia in our livestock. It seems no matter how hard we try we usually have a loss or two, especially of lambs or goat kids, due to spring weather. It requires keeping a vigilant eye on the animals, making sure they have adequate shelter and wind breaks. We are always alert and on the lookout for any animal who looks droopy or is standing off by themselves and acting lethargic or off feed. If caught soon enough you can usually save them. An ounce of prevention is truly worth a pound of cure. Springtime is also the time for getting out the grooming tools and grooming the Great Pyrenees, helping to rid them of their heavy winter coats. We don't cut or shave their fur as it helps to keep them cool in the summer months, but we do like to brush them weekly to keep their fur from getting matted and full of bugs and burs. That way also if they come rub up against you, they don't leave you covered in hair. Other projects for this season are planting the garden and seeding/overseeding our pastures. We have a lot of weeds and not much in the line of good grass in our pastures. In March we overseeded some dryland, wheat grass varieties on our range land. The next project is to seed roughly 60 acres to Sainfoin. Our hope is to use the Sainfoin for grazing, but we may also experiment with haying it as well, once it's established. I guess we'll decide that when the time comes. We hope you have a great and productive Spring!