Water becoming a concern

The dry warm weather is great for lambing and calving. The young ones jump right up and suck right away and get off to good start.  Yesterday we got temperatures into the 80's.  I went out and started doing fieldwork.  Getting the ground ready to plant small grain.

But with the blessing of warm spring weather comes the curse of limited moisture for run off and moisture to grow grass and water livestock.

This is a picture of a dam to hold water for livestock water.  It is very low.  The water would not be knee deep.  We have pulled two ewes out of the mud that is around edge.  When the water gets low like this the dirt gets stickier.  Over the years dirt blows in the dam and dirt washes into the dam so it is a fine dirt that doesn't pack down and things get stuck easier.

We have started watering these sheep out of a steel water tank.  The hydrant needs to be turned on in the morning and turned off in the evening.  So it is just one more chore that needs done.  The March lambers have only about 11 left to lamb. So they are about done.  The big bunch of ewes and lambs now number about 100 pairs.  I will try to get a picture of these for the next blog.