My favorite day!

Yesterday was my favorite day of the year. Not a holiday. Not my birthday. Better than either of them, honestly. Yesterday was Turnout Day.

The sheep have been sneaking little tastes of spring for a couple of weeks now—an hour here, two hours there—but yesterday was the real thing: full-day access to grass.

You can’t just throw sheep onto rich spring pasture and hope for the best. Their rumens need time to adjust to all that lush forage, so every spring we ease into it gradually. Longer grazing periods, day by day, until finally both the sheep and the pasture are ready.

Or perhaps more accurately: the pasture is ready, and the sheep are long past ready.

The ewes know the routine. The moment they see me heading toward the paddock gate, they explode across the field like woolly racehorses. Lambs come barreling behind them, not entirely sure what’s happening but absolutely certain that it is Very Important.

And then the feast begins.

For the first ten minutes, it’s complete chaos. Everybody grabs giant mouthfuls as fast as possible, convinced that someone else has found better grass. A bite here, then a sprint over to see what Blaze is eating. Another bite, then a dash to investigate Juniper’s selection. Apparently the grass is always greener in the next mouthful.

Eventually things settle down into the rhythm that sheep were made for: graze, gorge, lie down, ruminate. Then get up and do it all over again.

Solar-powered protein production season has officially begun at Lucky Dog Farm.

Here’s to another season of sunshine and grass—
Farmer Judith & the flock at Lucky Dog Farm

Happy flock!

Big Bertha and her lambs, Betty and Banjo, getting down o business.