Down here in the Shenandoah Valley we haven't gotten rain for almost 2 months so this week I am grateful for our sprinklers. Normally we spend the spring furiously planting and trying to stay ahead of the weeks over taking our garden but this year we are more in danger of our tender transplants dying from thirst than from weed suppression. Thankfully with our many sprinklers we can keep our gardens watered and I am forced to cool down every day with a fun sprinkler run.
Even the grass in our pastures have stopped growing, leaving us without that normal spring weight gain for our cattle and sheep. We are lucky to not be pushing our grazing capacity this year but many of our neighbors who farm more conventionally are worried that they won't have enough grass to feed all their cattle throughout the summer since we are getting any rain this spring. We are running a pretty small herd of cows this year over our 350 acres and since we practice rotational grazing our cows get moved to fresh pasture almost every day. We limit the size of their paddocks so they have to eat uniformly, not just pick and choose their favorite grass. They get the full nutritional value from each paddock but since we move them so often we never risk overgrazing our grass down to the dirt. I never thought yodeling would be part of my job description but to move our herd from paddock to paddock we have a cow call that sounds a whole lot like a yodel.
If you all are wondering how you can help us get through this drought know that we will accept any and all rain dances over the next couple weeks. Send us videos of your family dancing for rain or running through sprinklers and maybe the rain clouds will get the message!
