Got an acreage, ready to begin!

[nbatter]

Hey All,

I own 5 acres of mostly forested property. It's hilly. I am able to clear the forest, and its mostly smaller trees, and there is moderate ground cover in areas. Can sheep graze freely on forest undergrowth, or should I really clear out some forest so that all their available space is pasture? I already have about 1/2 acre of pasture they can use.

I've also searched the site without much fruit -- wheres the best info on fencing options?

Thanks!

 

[fortheloveofgoats]

Goats would be great to help clear out the area, and they would help with getting the acreage healthy for the sheep you want. Just a suggestion. Congrats on the 5 acres, you are so very lucky. Can't wait to hear what all you do, oh and we love pictures.

 

[carolinagirl]

Goats will clear it out nicely, just be aware that goats LOVE tree bark. They will strip a tree clean of it's bark and kill it. They like some trees better than others.

 

[secuono]

Goats can also be heck to fence in.
What kind of sheep do you have/want to get?

 

[nbatter]

We went to the big New York State sheep and wool fest this fall, and really liked the Merinos and Romneys -- though admittedly for completely superficial reasons. We'd like to harvest the wool primarily, but also want something with meat that is at least edible. Thanks for the tip on the goats. Is there a good resource on what bark they tend to favor? The area I am thinking about clearing has a lot of young evergreen, but I have another area on the other side of the property that has mature deciduous trees and the ground is almost exclusively nettles. We had some sheep when I was very young growing up and I remember an emergency with them getting bloated, so I'd like to be as safe as I can and get the best grazing space I can prepared for them. Thanks for the insight!

 

[Cornish Heritage]

In my experience goats will kill all young trees. Goats can be very mischievous & you had better have very good secure fencing if you do not want to be chasing them home every 5 mins.

Not sure what kind of predators you have where you are but whatever fencing you put up it needs to keep predators out. We have a real distaste for barbed wire - that stuff is nasty - not only does it cut us up but it cuts up the animals. Woven wire is a good perimeter fence but if you use the regular stuff then you will need to run electric at nose height on the inside. We are gradually going to replace all our perimeter fencing with HI-Tensile woven wire - will take us years!

Internal fence is completely different. You really should rotate your pastures/woods so polywire is a good choice as you can use temporary posts & just move it when you want to. Electric fence just teaches the animals to respect fence & not tear through it.

Liz

 

[autumnprairie]

looking forward to reading your journal