Congratulations on the LSU post. First, Jeff Landry is elected governor. Then you're welcomed into the university system. Next thing we know, common sense and a resurgent Hippocratic oath are breaking out all over the state.
I do so love your Homesteading posts! I live vicariously through you and these posts! And what an education, although I’ll never make use of the information in a practical sense, I may win a trivia contest someday! 🤗. Congrats on your LSU post. How in the world will you find time to do all this? You are our Superman!
I bought an East Friesian/Lacaune cross ewe, Meryl, a year ago that had 2 lambs at her side that were 1 week old, Ram Dass and Fleecy Cloud. This is a milk producing breed which we bought from a dairy farm. Meryl arrived rather dubious about human contact but within a week was coming when she was called and seemed happy enough to be loved over. She did make a lot of noise and I speculated that the lambs were not providing her with enough companionship so purchased 2 Navajo Churro sheep. A pregnant female and a wether. I called them Thing 1 and Thing 2 or Wild Thing. Yes, a different kettle of fish (?). They did hang with the matriarch, Meryl, so were easy enough to handle. I would open the gate to their pen and they would wander around the farm munching here and there and when they tired of that they would head back to their pen for an afternoon snooze. Now Thing 1 and Ram Dass are in the freezer but the 3 pregnant ladies continue the same routine. I have found them much easier to handle than goats. The milk is creamy and sweet with a wonderful nutritional profile and the leg of lamb we enjoyed last week was the best I have ever had. So, I am a big fan of sheep!
Store bought organic or (heaven forbid!) non-organic bananas can taste heavenly if you peel and freeze them. Then, slice and eat slightly frozen or put into fruit salad, muffins, etc. Their sweetness and creaminess are so much better than fresh.
Spiney pigweed's seed heads are eaten by our cows and livestock. In the old days, they were considered a dewormer. How true that is, I'm not sure. Maybe they're high in tannins.
We don't spray any kinds of "-cides" on our farm. All weed management is either by getting ahead of things by disk harrow for seedbed prep or by plant competition in our favor. My suggestion to you for cover crop would be hairy vetch - it smothers everything if let go to flower stage, which our cows, horses and sheep like. It flowers later spring. It is a cool season legume, so we plant it in the fall. Now is the perfect time. We have very effectively smothered toxic KY 31 fescue as well as tropical smut grass. I agree, it may take a few cool seasons (like for the KY 31 fescue) but the smut grass was decimated from one fall planting of hairy vetch.
Spiney red root pigweed indeed loves fertile areas. And it comes on mainly in mid to late summer. Planting a warm season annual, like millet (safe for your horses) can also reduce spiney red root pigweed due to enormous volume of vegetation and hindering sunlight from getting down to young pigweed plants.
Note that smooth pigweed (also an amaranth) is highly nutritious and palatable for ruminants.
That's how we take care of unwanted weeds: competition that's in our favor!
You're in the same general climate as we are here in north central NC.
For a decade, I made a Wheatgrass indoor growing operation to supply Austin's and Whole Foods central Texas juice bars. Heck, you've probably had a shot of my stuff. Last year I chewed some tender winter rye from a friend's yard. Lo and behold, it had the same tastes as the Wheatgrass but the juice is darker and stronger. Throughout the decades, I often chewed it while working my landscape contracts. We charged $8 for 8 oz of harvested Wheatgrass. A person can fill a battery operated mower bag with 5 lbs of tender rye clippings in a few minutes. I juiced it in the masticating juicer and BAHHH! What a kick that was!
People sell dehydrated Wheatgrass and Barleygrass juice powders as if it were gold.
Just sayin', you can choke out that Amaranth with a dense temporary turf, have a product that nobody knows about yet and enjoy some Put-Put in your spare time if you plant 20 lbs/1,000sf and bury a soup can.
Might be too rich for the cows? I don't know. But planted that dense, you'd have to mow it regularly like they do on the golf course. I don't think the cows would overdose.
Yes! as long as there is a thick green vegetative covering (as the earth always seeks to do), it can smother competition effectively. We plant oats for pasture in the autumn (drilled in) and broadcast rye (probably does better drilled in a swell)(. Our neighbors grow wheat for wheatlage (fermented and the cows like it). I remember a guy up in Lancaster when I worked closely with the Anish there that sold a bunch of wheat grass juice in the early 2000's.
I was tied down to the grow rooms for 10 years with twice a week planting and deliveries plus daily monitoring and maintenance, but inside of an old non-roadworthy 24’ freezer truck trailer, I had up to 200 cafeteria tray “flats” at a time on shelves. I felt sorry for the outdoor Texas growers who struggled to get a load of food to the docks. I began growing 30 years ago when I had a Hep-C diagnosis 30 years ago. I knew that a twinge of fear in my mind causes the microcosm of the cellular life to constrict and interrupt the song-like communication that they do. They become afraid. That may sound woo woo to some, but it is a virus.
Happiness is healing. Growing made me happy. If you infect a population of any species with a virus and keep half of them happy and peaceful while you scare the shit out of the other half 24-7-365, watch what happens.
That’s why a LOT of people died from a common cold that got PCR mis-labeled as COVID. They were literally scared to death.
I had learned that Hep-C, rarely, but sometimes, is defeated by the immune system. I decided that there must be a way to do that. Now that there is some new Hep-C drug treatment, I applied for it just to perhaps wipe out any remaining virus just so I could be sure to not ever accidentally infect anyone by any means. Well the insurance companies denied me because the bad liver finders with all their machines and tests resulted that I have the “liver of a baby” with not a spot of hardening or symptom.
Yeah I’m quite woo woo when it comes to mind, matter and miracles, but I don’t use doctors. I’m 68, still pop off “The 5 Rites” Tibetan Yoga routine daily and out-work most of the 35 year old kids. My brain may be turning to sand though. Brain health is my next extraordinary adventure.
Dr. Amen is a psychiatrist- his answer to Tucker's Q about Altz is so a nuttin burger. If you haven't read up on Aluminum in regards to the brain yet, check the world's expert, Dr. Chris Exley, aka Mr. Aluminum. His decades of expertise on Aluminum was halted when he linked Alum to Autism and Alzheimer's - via brain tissue findings. I am pretty sure he's behind the scenes now, working with RFKjr. Telling the world about all the harms of Aluminum is a BIGGIE, maybe bigger than the Pharma Cabal is the Alum Cabal, so I've heard. https://drchristopherexley.substack.com?utm_source=navbar&utm_medium=web
Dr. Malone, it seems as though I have been cancelled or something. I realized this morning that I have not received your substack in over a week. I have posted several times to see if indeed I have been banned or if there is a glitch.
Yes and no. An equine vet colleague of mine said that it can be eaten in small amounts, like in a diverse pasture mix (which is what we always plant actually - never straight hairy vetch). Like sorghum-sudan grass, horses can eat it to some degree (ours do) but most horse folks simply won't go near it because of the occasional problems. By the way, most photo-sensitization occurs in white-furred areas of livestock.
We have had bananas in our front/east facing yard for YEARS. (HB, SOCA) The original pup was a gift from a coworker of my hubby. The stalks are confined by a sidewalk and the house in a nice squarish area shared by some ginger plants good for flowers, but not the roots--those gingers are in pots in the back). I laughed at your comment about how long they take to ripen. I watch from my upstairs windows especially close after the clusters have shed the bulb. Once any single piece of fruit starts to look yellow, the whole bunch needs to be cut, because of what I will call biological/chemical inertia. My hubby cuts the fruit down , I cut the individuals off, and freeze them or share with neighbors with kids--the fruit are half the size of store bought with twice the flavor--slightly nutty. None go to waste. They are a favorite part of my breakfast. Now and then I will make banana tea bread.
The hardest work is cutting down and chopping up and digging up the stalks that only bare one cluster. We live in the suburbs and compost, but these are not something our system can handle so my hubby has to deposit pieces into our bins bit by bit because the stalks are so heavy. The stalks' water/sap also stains ones' clothes mercilessly.
OMG I haven't laughed so hard in a long time, that video you posted about the sheep, following your own personal introduction (which was also hilarious...)
"Managing sheep is a little like trying to manage a flock of cabbages with the ability to outrun or jump anything but a highly trained dog - at a moment’s notice, en masse. And yet, somehow, with very little brain power will manage to find trouble in all the wrong places.
“I fucken hate sheep.”
Thank you, Dr. Malone, I needed that laugh today. My sheep days are over, saints be praised, and I greatly enjoy your homestead posts. You and Jill have created heaven on earth.
Enjoyable read! Down on the Farm! Good diversion from the medical mess that dominates my daily life. The Malone's 40 Acre? spread reminds me they are the American version of the The Strawbridge's that live in the Le Chateau in France. Malones and Strawbridge's should get to know each other. Would be a great conversation about how to grow real food.
Ah - sheep ... Well, sheep have a leading ewe which all others follow. If she doesn't know her way around, in e.g. a new environment like Jeremy Clarkson's or yours, mayhem will ensue. That's why having sheep without a trained border collie is asking for trouble. Sheep farmers with established flocks rely on leading ewes and their collies.
Then there are the semi-feral sheep which stay outdoors all the time: they know their way around and in Wales, are only moved from summer pasture in the hills to winter pasture down at sea level. And yeah, can't and won't happen without trained border collies ...
As for pigweed: awful! Mind you, North-American ragweed (thanks for introducing it to the UK!) is equally horrible for livestock - and worse for humans with pollen allergies.
Sorry to be so scathing about your sheep trouble ...
Always positive about sheep, I'm glad to hear the support. My impression is they need to be sheared and this can be very demanding, particularly if they are on the wild side?
The semi-feral ones can and do partially shed their fleece. One can find clumps of fleece stuck on shrubs and even stone walls. In medieval times, people collected those clumps of wool for spinning and weaving.
Other hardy sheep are shorn, and even 'before technology', you can find stone walling on English and Welsh hills which show how sheep farmers drove their sheep to be singled out - and yes, they can and will be shorn. one famous species with hardy wool are the Herdwicke, famous in the English uplands.
Me, i do love sheep and loved knitting the wool from different species. Jacobs sheep have wonderfully soft wool, generally a brownish-grey when left 'as is'.
We have ragweed on our property, & it is not extremely invasive, but something I found out this summer, I’m very allergic to! I was pulling up ragweed’s, & began sneezing constantly, then noticed bumps & red blotches on my arms, which were exposed! Fortunately, after washing my arms, the bumps did go away! Something funny happened this September when I had a Leaf Filter representative out to give me an estimate for gutters; as we walked around my building, the rep said, “it smells like marijuana out here”! I had to show him the ragweed, & smell it! I made sure he realized what the strong odor was!
I feel your angst over the invasives Dr. Malone. Thank goodness I personally don't have a problem with pigweed here in Ct. But we are battling Japanese Stilt grass, which is taking over our pasture.
BTW we love Clarksons' Farm! Talk about crazy UK regulations micromanaging everything.
Yaaaa we know that pigweed. It's truly obnoxious, particularly if it gets to full size. It's much easier to control the ironweed and jimsonweed with mowing than the pigweed.
"We have kept sheep. Personally, I don’t ever want to have a flock of sheep again. Managing sheep is a little like trying to manage a flock of cabbages with the ability to outrun or jump anything but a highly trained dog - at a moment’s notice, en masse."
Pigs are clever, but as I've noted previously, are not to be trusted. They are known to hang around the back of the barn selling dime bags of what the sheep think is weed, but is nothing more than oregano. The pigs of course save the weed for themselves; they indulge the munchies, lay around in the wallow, stare up at the sky, and contemplate the cosmos. The sheep, on the other hand; so dumb. The shepherd dogs, when on break, sometimes commiserate about their sheep farm owners: "Really? This is what he gives us to work with? I've seen smarter leafy vegetables."
Great suggestion to burn the dry vegetation. My spiny pigweed gets only a few inches tall. I didn't have a problem with it while I still had a herd of about 30 goats. They ate the poison ivy too. Problem started when neighboring farmer planted soybeans. It was a dry year and they decided they liked soybeans too. I then discovered what the old timers said was true. If a fence will hold water, it will hold a goat. Instead of building fence and chasing goats, I sold the goats. Now I'm back to fighting weeds, brush and poison ivy. And wishing I still had goats.
Great article, thanks! I will follow your pig weed drama closely. I have 2 horses on 8 acres and we are pig weed heaven in the very areas you describe. I'm not willing to do what you are going to do but I'm very curious if it works. My technique is simply mowing them down with the Bush hog as often as possible but that is less than ideal. And I'm really jealous about your bananas. During the scamdemic for fun I planted a banana tree, but given that we are in zone 7, willingly and knowingly bought a variety that will never fruit. But is growing like gangbusters- past 2nd story ( until frost). Before the Grands arrive, i run to store, buy bananas, come home and hang them on my tree! The Grands love it and still believe. 🤣🍌
But there you are far north of us, having bananas and I'm really jealous. But I'm thinking you leave them in your greenhouse, Is correct? I've read it takes 11 warm months to set banana fruit. We simply cannot do that outside, but sone years we do get close- but my winter hardy strain does not fruit.
Thanks and good luck with all. Yes it is all nonstop and really hard when you travel.
We have a Black Angus farm in central Alabama. After more than 50 years farming, I can positively state you can't keep a neat, weed-free farm in the South without herbicides. Pigweed (we call them Careless Weeds) is a bane of our existence, along with Cockleburs and Thistles. Cockleburs make the little seed pods that look like baby porcupines that readily attach to a passing cow or calf and spread it to the next pasture they are rotated to. Grrrrrr. My task was to keep Pigweeds, Cockleburs, and Thistles from going to seed. I carried a mattock in my utility vehicle so I could leap out and dig up the offending weed, throw it in the back, and take it to the burn pile. If you leave it in the pasture where you have dug it up, it often continues to go to seed.
I sprayed for many decades with Roundup. I was careful, wore long sleeves, paid attention to which way the wind was blowing (trying not to spray on a windy day), and became a sharpshooter with my spray wand. As I was spraying fence lines I would watch for stray bad plants in the pasture and could zap one dead without harming the surrounding grass. It gave me great satisfaction. When Grazon came out I could use the big drum sprayer and go over the entire pasture because Grazon only killed broadleaf plants, not grass. Voila, no Thistles, Pigweed, or Cocklebur, or other weeds. Grazon Next was not as strong but did the job. We cut hay, and a hayfield must be sprayed if you don't want undesirable weeds. Thistles love hayfields and the extra fertilizer and will happily make huge seed heads for succeeding years. I have dug many by hand.
I'm 83 now and my spraying and weed digging days are behind me, although I still oversee the farm and do feeding chores. If I have any ill effects from all the years of careful spraying, I'm not aware of them. I immediately showered and put my clothing in the wash. Take precautions, and spray where needed. I sympathize. Blessings.
Who knew the association between Big Mike & bananas had multiple meanings.
LOL!
Congratulations on the LSU post. First, Jeff Landry is elected governor. Then you're welcomed into the university system. Next thing we know, common sense and a resurgent Hippocratic oath are breaking out all over the state.
And maybe a model for other universities in other parts of the country!
I do so love your Homesteading posts! I live vicariously through you and these posts! And what an education, although I’ll never make use of the information in a practical sense, I may win a trivia contest someday! 🤗. Congrats on your LSU post. How in the world will you find time to do all this? You are our Superman!
Malone Homesteading Trivia board game. Docs Malone Reality TV Show: Homestead/Farm Task Competition. and Not Free.
Great ideas!!!
I bought an East Friesian/Lacaune cross ewe, Meryl, a year ago that had 2 lambs at her side that were 1 week old, Ram Dass and Fleecy Cloud. This is a milk producing breed which we bought from a dairy farm. Meryl arrived rather dubious about human contact but within a week was coming when she was called and seemed happy enough to be loved over. She did make a lot of noise and I speculated that the lambs were not providing her with enough companionship so purchased 2 Navajo Churro sheep. A pregnant female and a wether. I called them Thing 1 and Thing 2 or Wild Thing. Yes, a different kettle of fish (?). They did hang with the matriarch, Meryl, so were easy enough to handle. I would open the gate to their pen and they would wander around the farm munching here and there and when they tired of that they would head back to their pen for an afternoon snooze. Now Thing 1 and Ram Dass are in the freezer but the 3 pregnant ladies continue the same routine. I have found them much easier to handle than goats. The milk is creamy and sweet with a wonderful nutritional profile and the leg of lamb we enjoyed last week was the best I have ever had. So, I am a big fan of sheep!
LOL: "Ram Dass" + Ram Adan...Also Ram...
Store bought organic or (heaven forbid!) non-organic bananas can taste heavenly if you peel and freeze them. Then, slice and eat slightly frozen or put into fruit salad, muffins, etc. Their sweetness and creaminess are so much better than fresh.
❄️❄️❄️🍌🍌🍌😋😋😋🍌🍌🍌😇😇😇
Spiney pigweed's seed heads are eaten by our cows and livestock. In the old days, they were considered a dewormer. How true that is, I'm not sure. Maybe they're high in tannins.
We don't spray any kinds of "-cides" on our farm. All weed management is either by getting ahead of things by disk harrow for seedbed prep or by plant competition in our favor. My suggestion to you for cover crop would be hairy vetch - it smothers everything if let go to flower stage, which our cows, horses and sheep like. It flowers later spring. It is a cool season legume, so we plant it in the fall. Now is the perfect time. We have very effectively smothered toxic KY 31 fescue as well as tropical smut grass. I agree, it may take a few cool seasons (like for the KY 31 fescue) but the smut grass was decimated from one fall planting of hairy vetch.
Spiney red root pigweed indeed loves fertile areas. And it comes on mainly in mid to late summer. Planting a warm season annual, like millet (safe for your horses) can also reduce spiney red root pigweed due to enormous volume of vegetation and hindering sunlight from getting down to young pigweed plants.
Note that smooth pigweed (also an amaranth) is highly nutritious and palatable for ruminants.
That's how we take care of unwanted weeds: competition that's in our favor!
You're in the same general climate as we are here in north central NC.
Give it a try on a few acres🙂
We don't use hairy vetch - it is purported to cause a hypersensitivity reaction in some horses and is not recommended. Unfortunately.
For a decade, I made a Wheatgrass indoor growing operation to supply Austin's and Whole Foods central Texas juice bars. Heck, you've probably had a shot of my stuff. Last year I chewed some tender winter rye from a friend's yard. Lo and behold, it had the same tastes as the Wheatgrass but the juice is darker and stronger. Throughout the decades, I often chewed it while working my landscape contracts. We charged $8 for 8 oz of harvested Wheatgrass. A person can fill a battery operated mower bag with 5 lbs of tender rye clippings in a few minutes. I juiced it in the masticating juicer and BAHHH! What a kick that was!
People sell dehydrated Wheatgrass and Barleygrass juice powders as if it were gold.
Just sayin', you can choke out that Amaranth with a dense temporary turf, have a product that nobody knows about yet and enjoy some Put-Put in your spare time if you plant 20 lbs/1,000sf and bury a soup can.
Might be too rich for the cows? I don't know. But planted that dense, you'd have to mow it regularly like they do on the golf course. I don't think the cows would overdose.
Yes! as long as there is a thick green vegetative covering (as the earth always seeks to do), it can smother competition effectively. We plant oats for pasture in the autumn (drilled in) and broadcast rye (probably does better drilled in a swell)(. Our neighbors grow wheat for wheatlage (fermented and the cows like it). I remember a guy up in Lancaster when I worked closely with the Anish there that sold a bunch of wheat grass juice in the early 2000's.
I was tied down to the grow rooms for 10 years with twice a week planting and deliveries plus daily monitoring and maintenance, but inside of an old non-roadworthy 24’ freezer truck trailer, I had up to 200 cafeteria tray “flats” at a time on shelves. I felt sorry for the outdoor Texas growers who struggled to get a load of food to the docks. I began growing 30 years ago when I had a Hep-C diagnosis 30 years ago. I knew that a twinge of fear in my mind causes the microcosm of the cellular life to constrict and interrupt the song-like communication that they do. They become afraid. That may sound woo woo to some, but it is a virus.
Happiness is healing. Growing made me happy. If you infect a population of any species with a virus and keep half of them happy and peaceful while you scare the shit out of the other half 24-7-365, watch what happens.
That’s why a LOT of people died from a common cold that got PCR mis-labeled as COVID. They were literally scared to death.
I had learned that Hep-C, rarely, but sometimes, is defeated by the immune system. I decided that there must be a way to do that. Now that there is some new Hep-C drug treatment, I applied for it just to perhaps wipe out any remaining virus just so I could be sure to not ever accidentally infect anyone by any means. Well the insurance companies denied me because the bad liver finders with all their machines and tests resulted that I have the “liver of a baby” with not a spot of hardening or symptom.
Yeah I’m quite woo woo when it comes to mind, matter and miracles, but I don’t use doctors. I’m 68, still pop off “The 5 Rites” Tibetan Yoga routine daily and out-work most of the 35 year old kids. My brain may be turning to sand though. Brain health is my next extraordinary adventure.
I’ll let you know how that shakes out. This interview is new frontier for me and perhaps everyone.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wSSAJKmZ1k
Alio, Yes - fear kills, same as hate...are both suicidal, personally and collectively. Happily, other choices are readily available.
Dr. Amen is a psychiatrist- his answer to Tucker's Q about Altz is so a nuttin burger. If you haven't read up on Aluminum in regards to the brain yet, check the world's expert, Dr. Chris Exley, aka Mr. Aluminum. His decades of expertise on Aluminum was halted when he linked Alum to Autism and Alzheimer's - via brain tissue findings. I am pretty sure he's behind the scenes now, working with RFKjr. Telling the world about all the harms of Aluminum is a BIGGIE, maybe bigger than the Pharma Cabal is the Alum Cabal, so I've heard. https://drchristopherexley.substack.com?utm_source=navbar&utm_medium=web
Dr. Malone, it seems as though I have been cancelled or something. I realized this morning that I have not received your substack in over a week. I have posted several times to see if indeed I have been banned or if there is a glitch.
Yes and no. An equine vet colleague of mine said that it can be eaten in small amounts, like in a diverse pasture mix (which is what we always plant actually - never straight hairy vetch). Like sorghum-sudan grass, horses can eat it to some degree (ours do) but most horse folks simply won't go near it because of the occasional problems. By the way, most photo-sensitization occurs in white-furred areas of livestock.
We have had bananas in our front/east facing yard for YEARS. (HB, SOCA) The original pup was a gift from a coworker of my hubby. The stalks are confined by a sidewalk and the house in a nice squarish area shared by some ginger plants good for flowers, but not the roots--those gingers are in pots in the back). I laughed at your comment about how long they take to ripen. I watch from my upstairs windows especially close after the clusters have shed the bulb. Once any single piece of fruit starts to look yellow, the whole bunch needs to be cut, because of what I will call biological/chemical inertia. My hubby cuts the fruit down , I cut the individuals off, and freeze them or share with neighbors with kids--the fruit are half the size of store bought with twice the flavor--slightly nutty. None go to waste. They are a favorite part of my breakfast. Now and then I will make banana tea bread.
The hardest work is cutting down and chopping up and digging up the stalks that only bare one cluster. We live in the suburbs and compost, but these are not something our system can handle so my hubby has to deposit pieces into our bins bit by bit because the stalks are so heavy. The stalks' water/sap also stains ones' clothes mercilessly.
OMG I haven't laughed so hard in a long time, that video you posted about the sheep, following your own personal introduction (which was also hilarious...)
"Managing sheep is a little like trying to manage a flock of cabbages with the ability to outrun or jump anything but a highly trained dog - at a moment’s notice, en masse. And yet, somehow, with very little brain power will manage to find trouble in all the wrong places.
“I fucken hate sheep.”
Thank you, Dr. Malone, I needed that laugh today. My sheep days are over, saints be praised, and I greatly enjoy your homestead posts. You and Jill have created heaven on earth.
Enjoyable read! Down on the Farm! Good diversion from the medical mess that dominates my daily life. The Malone's 40 Acre? spread reminds me they are the American version of the The Strawbridge's that live in the Le Chateau in France. Malones and Strawbridge's should get to know each other. Would be a great conversation about how to grow real food.
Ah - sheep ... Well, sheep have a leading ewe which all others follow. If she doesn't know her way around, in e.g. a new environment like Jeremy Clarkson's or yours, mayhem will ensue. That's why having sheep without a trained border collie is asking for trouble. Sheep farmers with established flocks rely on leading ewes and their collies.
Then there are the semi-feral sheep which stay outdoors all the time: they know their way around and in Wales, are only moved from summer pasture in the hills to winter pasture down at sea level. And yeah, can't and won't happen without trained border collies ...
As for pigweed: awful! Mind you, North-American ragweed (thanks for introducing it to the UK!) is equally horrible for livestock - and worse for humans with pollen allergies.
Sorry to be so scathing about your sheep trouble ...
Always positive about sheep, I'm glad to hear the support. My impression is they need to be sheared and this can be very demanding, particularly if they are on the wild side?
The semi-feral ones can and do partially shed their fleece. One can find clumps of fleece stuck on shrubs and even stone walls. In medieval times, people collected those clumps of wool for spinning and weaving.
Other hardy sheep are shorn, and even 'before technology', you can find stone walling on English and Welsh hills which show how sheep farmers drove their sheep to be singled out - and yes, they can and will be shorn. one famous species with hardy wool are the Herdwicke, famous in the English uplands.
Me, i do love sheep and loved knitting the wool from different species. Jacobs sheep have wonderfully soft wool, generally a brownish-grey when left 'as is'.
We have ragweed on our property, & it is not extremely invasive, but something I found out this summer, I’m very allergic to! I was pulling up ragweed’s, & began sneezing constantly, then noticed bumps & red blotches on my arms, which were exposed! Fortunately, after washing my arms, the bumps did go away! Something funny happened this September when I had a Leaf Filter representative out to give me an estimate for gutters; as we walked around my building, the rep said, “it smells like marijuana out here”! I had to show him the ragweed, & smell it! I made sure he realized what the strong odor was!
I feel your angst over the invasives Dr. Malone. Thank goodness I personally don't have a problem with pigweed here in Ct. But we are battling Japanese Stilt grass, which is taking over our pasture.
BTW we love Clarksons' Farm! Talk about crazy UK regulations micromanaging everything.
Thank Drs Malone! I love your homestead articles… always learn something new!
PS: sorry to hear about your pigweed situation 🙃
Yaaaa we know that pigweed. It's truly obnoxious, particularly if it gets to full size. It's much easier to control the ironweed and jimsonweed with mowing than the pigweed.
"We have kept sheep. Personally, I don’t ever want to have a flock of sheep again. Managing sheep is a little like trying to manage a flock of cabbages with the ability to outrun or jump anything but a highly trained dog - at a moment’s notice, en masse."
Pigs are clever, but as I've noted previously, are not to be trusted. They are known to hang around the back of the barn selling dime bags of what the sheep think is weed, but is nothing more than oregano. The pigs of course save the weed for themselves; they indulge the munchies, lay around in the wallow, stare up at the sky, and contemplate the cosmos. The sheep, on the other hand; so dumb. The shepherd dogs, when on break, sometimes commiserate about their sheep farm owners: "Really? This is what he gives us to work with? I've seen smarter leafy vegetables."
Before plowing down your pigweed patches, I would recommend hand-burning the dry vegetation and seedheads with a propane weed burner.
There is no point in adding to the already abundant weed-seedbank in the soil.
Great suggestion to burn the dry vegetation. My spiny pigweed gets only a few inches tall. I didn't have a problem with it while I still had a herd of about 30 goats. They ate the poison ivy too. Problem started when neighboring farmer planted soybeans. It was a dry year and they decided they liked soybeans too. I then discovered what the old timers said was true. If a fence will hold water, it will hold a goat. Instead of building fence and chasing goats, I sold the goats. Now I'm back to fighting weeds, brush and poison ivy. And wishing I still had goats.
Great article, thanks! I will follow your pig weed drama closely. I have 2 horses on 8 acres and we are pig weed heaven in the very areas you describe. I'm not willing to do what you are going to do but I'm very curious if it works. My technique is simply mowing them down with the Bush hog as often as possible but that is less than ideal. And I'm really jealous about your bananas. During the scamdemic for fun I planted a banana tree, but given that we are in zone 7, willingly and knowingly bought a variety that will never fruit. But is growing like gangbusters- past 2nd story ( until frost). Before the Grands arrive, i run to store, buy bananas, come home and hang them on my tree! The Grands love it and still believe. 🤣🍌
But there you are far north of us, having bananas and I'm really jealous. But I'm thinking you leave them in your greenhouse, Is correct? I've read it takes 11 warm months to set banana fruit. We simply cannot do that outside, but sone years we do get close- but my winter hardy strain does not fruit.
Thanks and good luck with all. Yes it is all nonstop and really hard when you travel.
We have a Black Angus farm in central Alabama. After more than 50 years farming, I can positively state you can't keep a neat, weed-free farm in the South without herbicides. Pigweed (we call them Careless Weeds) is a bane of our existence, along with Cockleburs and Thistles. Cockleburs make the little seed pods that look like baby porcupines that readily attach to a passing cow or calf and spread it to the next pasture they are rotated to. Grrrrrr. My task was to keep Pigweeds, Cockleburs, and Thistles from going to seed. I carried a mattock in my utility vehicle so I could leap out and dig up the offending weed, throw it in the back, and take it to the burn pile. If you leave it in the pasture where you have dug it up, it often continues to go to seed.
I sprayed for many decades with Roundup. I was careful, wore long sleeves, paid attention to which way the wind was blowing (trying not to spray on a windy day), and became a sharpshooter with my spray wand. As I was spraying fence lines I would watch for stray bad plants in the pasture and could zap one dead without harming the surrounding grass. It gave me great satisfaction. When Grazon came out I could use the big drum sprayer and go over the entire pasture because Grazon only killed broadleaf plants, not grass. Voila, no Thistles, Pigweed, or Cocklebur, or other weeds. Grazon Next was not as strong but did the job. We cut hay, and a hayfield must be sprayed if you don't want undesirable weeds. Thistles love hayfields and the extra fertilizer and will happily make huge seed heads for succeeding years. I have dug many by hand.
I'm 83 now and my spraying and weed digging days are behind me, although I still oversee the farm and do feeding chores. If I have any ill effects from all the years of careful spraying, I'm not aware of them. I immediately showered and put my clothing in the wash. Take precautions, and spray where needed. I sympathize. Blessings.