Feeding hay

One of the drawbacks of having limited land is having to provide supplement food for the livestock earlier in the year than one would normally expect to.
Today I started to feed the sheep a small amount of hay. I was hoping the grass would last until the ewes went to a friend's holding, in a couple of weeks time, to run with the ram. However, yesterday, I had to remove the sheep from the orchard and put them back onto the paddock, before the grass really had time to rest. Fred the reject, bottle fed lamb, kept escaping from the orchard, no matter how hard we tried to secure the borders. Yesterday evening we found him in the garden of my late mother in laws house. This in itself wasn't a problem, but to be there he had fallen over a wall. Thankfully, other than a little stiffness in his back leg, he came to no harm.We can't take the chance again, so they are now on hay until I decide my next move. I could send the ewes away early, but after loosing one last year to liver fluke , I am reluctant to do so, even though this year they will be fully treated against it. I can't send Alfie, the ram lamb to slaughter yet as we have only just treated them all for worms and as for Fred....goodness knows what we are going to do with him !! So I guess it's extra hay for now and no doubt by the time I have stopped dithering it will be time to send the ewes away anyway, Alfie we will be big enough and clear to go to slaughter and Fred....yes well ....Fred.