That Feel Good Feeling...

You know that feeling you get when something you try allows you to reap the benefits? That feeling where you have a little smile that just cannot be wiped off your face, coupled with what could be described as a full heart, and a puffed up ego. Think Toyota ads but not quite as corny... (I don't think I'm generally an egotistical person, but there are times when you have to stand up and take credit for the good things you've done.) 

Why did I have that feel good feeling? Well, this is a little bit of a shout out to my father as it wasn't me that instigated this farm management practice, I'm just lucky enough to learn from what he's succeeded in doing. See these big boofy wethers settling into their new paddock after a tasty orange drench? 

The paddock they're in is known as 40 acres, which is actually 24 hectares (Ha), ironic I know! It's a small area of land adjoining three different paddocks. The beauty of this paddock is that it consists of what were the low lying sections of each of the three surrounding paddocks. Now it's a low lying paddock that we've carefully tended to keep the kikuyu (lawn), clover and ryegrass growing prolifically in.
The clover and ryegrass goes ballistic in the winter period, as it's got such great moisture to set it's roots into. Then summer comes along and the kike, as we affectionately call it, goes nuts in amongst all the ryegrass and clover that's grown during winter. Kike is a summer pasture, it thrives on the heat and the small rains we get thoughout summer time. Ever noticed how your lawn doesn't grow much in winter? It basically becomes dormant in those cold months.

The long and leant over dry matter you can see here is the ryegrass. In reality it's almost knee height, but it falls over once it hays off. The dark dots through it are clover burr which sheep absolutely love to munch on! Finally, the green is the kike which, as you can imagine, is really quite tall when you think about the fact that it's growing through a few inches of ryegrass already. 

The feel good feeling comes from knowing that our farm practices have allowed us to lock up a paddock like this during winter. Granted, we can only lock up a paddock like this when we have a season that provides enough feed elsewhere to sustain our sheep. However, this year we can and did do it. Cropping this section of land is just not viable as the heavier winter seasons do waterlog it, but watching happy, healthy wethers stick their heads down and have a good feed on great tucker is just a good feeling. You can't beat that satisfaction, knowing that you've utilised the area of land to what could be it's full potential and that the sheep have the best possible condition. I won't say it's full potential as you never know what new innovations may come along. So, thanks Dad for showing me just what is possible when you think outside the box, or the fence lines in this case.