A question I still can't answer.
Thought I'd share my plan and randomness with you guys for no apparent reason.
2 horses and 2 minis on 2.5 acres is too much land.
8 mini sheep on 2 acres, too much land.
8 mini sheep on 1/2 acre, still too much land.
8 mini sheep on 1/3 acre, you guessed it, too much land!
lol
I've even put the 8 ewes with 10 lambs and 1 large ewe sheep on 0.09 of an acre, they couldn't keep it down.
Sooo, I've either have super thrifty sheep that don't need to eat much, too tiny of sheep, too fast growing grass or all three!
I'm about to fence off roughly 1 acre from the horses to give to my ewes. Since I rehomed the big horse, now I just have 3 air ferns that do not need all that green. The horses live with the adult rams and weaned ram/wether lambs.
It's mostly hilly property, too, see pictures. And I'm thinking that these numbers aren't reflecting the true surface space. So maybe instead of 5 acres, there's somehow 6 because of all the waves, who knows. Heck, we're supposed to also have a section of creek and land on the other side. But who the heck will pay to have that fenced? =/ Not me! There's a round section I would prefer to get, just trade the other bit for the flat section, IDK if we'll ever get around to asking about it though.
Anywho!
(Pasture B) There is one flat spot that they can keep up with, it's 0.128 of an acre.
(Above pasture B, not pictured) Then the backyard is roughly the same size, but has a hill along one side and the grass grows more thick. They cannot keep up with this yard.
(Pasture A) The long pasture is 0.09 of an acre, going down a hill, then up a little at the end. Another bit they can't really keep up with. Gate at the bottom end is sealed off. Used to be a gravel easement, no one uses it for that now, though.
It's all pretty nuts to me that they can't keep up with this. But I haven't kept them in the pastures long enough or strictly enough, so I'll be making 5 more pastures and then I'll rotate them and see how long it takes. Though, I have a feeling I need 10-15 more mini sheep just to really see the difference...Summer will soon be over as well, so that's a bummer and I don't want to mow the smaller pastures, kind of a big part of making them smaller is to have the sheep do the work. This question may not be answered for another couple years, lol.
I currently have -
2 adult breeding rams
1 breeding ram lamb
2 retired ewes
6 breeding ewes
2 breeding ewe lambs
1 Cheviot breeding ewe (only full size sheep)
Here's the layout with current pastures along with new ones that will be made.
Bold black line is the perimeter fence, 2 silos and the connected barn. Sheep have the right side of the barn, divided long ways in the middle. I will be dividing the barn on the left side perpendicular to the current division to make 2 square sections. Top section for horses, bottom for sheep.
Bold Pink marks are gates. Both current and future gate locations.
Current pastures are divided into A, B, C, D & E. With pastures C & D currently one big area.
The current pastures will be further divided into C1, C2, D1, D2, E1 & E2.
Pasture E is currently used by the horses. The fence dividing D & E is field fencing. On the other side, top, of E is just 3 strands of hot wire to rotate horses on. Rams slip under. I will be putting up a permanent field fence where the current hot fence is. E used to be divided into E1 & E2 via 3 hot wire strands, but this was again, for the horses use.
After that, E will be divided into two via 4-6 strands of hot wire. Where the old division used to be.
Pasture D will be divided into two via 4-6 strands of hot wire. Becoming D1 & D2.
Pasture C will be divided into two via 4-6 strands of hot wire. Becoming C1 & C2.
Fence between C & D was recently taken down. It was 6 strands of hot wire. It will be replaced by field fencing.
New gates will be short cattle panels.
An ewe on Pasture A.
The plan
Flock with lambs on Pasture D, mostly on the D1 section.
Big sheep on Pasture C, C1. With Pasture D behind.
Thought I'd share my plan and randomness with you guys for no apparent reason.
2 horses and 2 minis on 2.5 acres is too much land.
8 mini sheep on 2 acres, too much land.
8 mini sheep on 1/2 acre, still too much land.
8 mini sheep on 1/3 acre, you guessed it, too much land!
lol
I've even put the 8 ewes with 10 lambs and 1 large ewe sheep on 0.09 of an acre, they couldn't keep it down.
Sooo, I've either have super thrifty sheep that don't need to eat much, too tiny of sheep, too fast growing grass or all three!
I'm about to fence off roughly 1 acre from the horses to give to my ewes. Since I rehomed the big horse, now I just have 3 air ferns that do not need all that green. The horses live with the adult rams and weaned ram/wether lambs.
It's mostly hilly property, too, see pictures. And I'm thinking that these numbers aren't reflecting the true surface space. So maybe instead of 5 acres, there's somehow 6 because of all the waves, who knows. Heck, we're supposed to also have a section of creek and land on the other side. But who the heck will pay to have that fenced? =/ Not me! There's a round section I would prefer to get, just trade the other bit for the flat section, IDK if we'll ever get around to asking about it though.
Anywho!
(Pasture B) There is one flat spot that they can keep up with, it's 0.128 of an acre.
(Above pasture B, not pictured) Then the backyard is roughly the same size, but has a hill along one side and the grass grows more thick. They cannot keep up with this yard.
(Pasture A) The long pasture is 0.09 of an acre, going down a hill, then up a little at the end. Another bit they can't really keep up with. Gate at the bottom end is sealed off. Used to be a gravel easement, no one uses it for that now, though.
It's all pretty nuts to me that they can't keep up with this. But I haven't kept them in the pastures long enough or strictly enough, so I'll be making 5 more pastures and then I'll rotate them and see how long it takes. Though, I have a feeling I need 10-15 more mini sheep just to really see the difference...Summer will soon be over as well, so that's a bummer and I don't want to mow the smaller pastures, kind of a big part of making them smaller is to have the sheep do the work. This question may not be answered for another couple years, lol.
I currently have -
2 adult breeding rams
1 breeding ram lamb
2 retired ewes
6 breeding ewes
2 breeding ewe lambs
1 Cheviot breeding ewe (only full size sheep)
Here's the layout with current pastures along with new ones that will be made.
Bold black line is the perimeter fence, 2 silos and the connected barn. Sheep have the right side of the barn, divided long ways in the middle. I will be dividing the barn on the left side perpendicular to the current division to make 2 square sections. Top section for horses, bottom for sheep.
Bold Pink marks are gates. Both current and future gate locations.
Current pastures are divided into A, B, C, D & E. With pastures C & D currently one big area.
The current pastures will be further divided into C1, C2, D1, D2, E1 & E2.
Pasture E is currently used by the horses. The fence dividing D & E is field fencing. On the other side, top, of E is just 3 strands of hot wire to rotate horses on. Rams slip under. I will be putting up a permanent field fence where the current hot fence is. E used to be divided into E1 & E2 via 3 hot wire strands, but this was again, for the horses use.
After that, E will be divided into two via 4-6 strands of hot wire. Where the old division used to be.
Pasture D will be divided into two via 4-6 strands of hot wire. Becoming D1 & D2.
Pasture C will be divided into two via 4-6 strands of hot wire. Becoming C1 & C2.
Fence between C & D was recently taken down. It was 6 strands of hot wire. It will be replaced by field fencing.
New gates will be short cattle panels.
An ewe on Pasture A.
The plan
Flock with lambs on Pasture D, mostly on the D1 section.
Big sheep on Pasture C, C1. With Pasture D behind.
