LAWNS OR MEADOWS;What do you have?

[freemotion]

And Freemotion is a Goat Enabler Extraordinaire!!! She suckered me into it with Blackbirds help!!! Thank you to both of you!!!

Bwahahahahahahahaha!!!!

 

[nsanywhere]

We have electric netting and are rotating the goat pasture on our little farm (less than 1 acre) The goats are teaching us that they don't want to nibble the weeds down all that low. It is fairly easy to move the netting to include some new taller stuff and they go right for it.
We plan on rotating the pasture through our whole lot throughout the year.

I'm thinking about electric netting for my gang of 3 sheep. Does it work well for you? Easy to move? Set up cost? Would love to hear your experience.

 

[ksalvagno]

I think it comes down to more and more people have a little acreage and they find that they don't want to keep up with the grass. There are a lot more suburbanites moving to the country on 2-5 acre lots and aren't true farmers. They moved out to the country to have a different life and want to be a bit more self sufficient. So they get some chickens and maybe some goats or sheep. While I wouldn't call any of them lawns, they are grass pastures and that is what the sheep and goats live on. May not be the absolute perfect thing but at least some goats and sheep have a good home and some nice pastures to be out in even if it isn't the diverse mix of grasses/weeds/brush etc.

I think a lot of America just doesn't have the diverse stuff anymore. I have 6 acres and it is basically all grass. We don't try to keep weeds out or anything but we certainly don't have the diverse brush and natural plants that probably used to be around. But does that mean that I shouldn't own livestock because I don't have the perfect natural habitat?

 

[TheSheepGirl]

The only way to convince dad to get sheep was to promise him he wouldn't have to mow very often, if at all. The sheep have done a marvelous job of that, since i have about an acre of "pasture" AKA, my yard, for them to graze. They stay in a graveled, well drained pen for most of the time and I take them for walks to graze or set them out in a dog exercise pen for a couple of hours. They love it and I love it.

 

[Bossroo]

A not so fun never ending annual task ! I use Roundup to spot spray poisonous plants every spring such as fiddleneck, lupen,star thistle, oleander, etc. when the gd@*%n clouds of blackbirds ( like one per square foot of pasture morning and evening for 2 weeks straight... looks like a black oil slick on water) bring in their seeds in their poop every fall. I even had to kill, maim, and destroy, then replant my entire 20 acres of pastures twice now ( 14 and 3 years ago) to combat these poisonous plants.

 

[patandchickens]

I'm thinking about electric netting for my gang of 3 sheep. Does it work well for you? Easy to move? Set up cost? Would love to hear your experience.

Super easy to move. Does require that you really scalp down the grass under where the fenceline will go though, and keep after it as the grass grows back up, otherwise you lose too much charge and can get into problems. Plan on tying back the corners to tentpegs or step-in posts, especially if you are in a windy site but even if you're not. (It's real fast and easy to do). You do need a decent charger, as compared to any other fence of the same length an electronet requires considerably more "oomph" to keep it adequately charged (especially if your fence is sagging a bit, as is hard to prevent, and your grass is starting to grow up)

On the whole though I would say three thumbs up, and it works MUCH better than several strands of electric tape which my shetland ewe quickly discovered she could just dive through Is also easier to set up and move than the several-strand electric tape version.

IIRC it is currently running at about $1.20-1.50 per running foot for the fence (for Premier's, anyhow, which I highly recommend), plus you need a charger if you haven't already got a fence charger you can tap off. How much you'd spend on the charger is a personal decision, depends on your situation and your tastes/philosophies, would be hard to do for less than $60 but you could easily get into the multiple hundreds of dollars. You can tap off an existing electric fence, of course, provided that charger has excess capacity to run the electronet. CHECK IT WITH A DIGITAL CHARGER EVERY DAY OR TWO, especially if dogs or coyotes are a threat.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[TheSheepGirl]

I just use 4 foot woven wire fencing. It keeps them in and dogs out without all the hassle of chargers and grass trimming and all that stuff. Plus I hate getting zapped by eletric fencing and I like being able open my gate without having to be extra careful and intricate about it to avoid getting zapped.

It is cheaper depending on the posts and the type of woven wire you purchase.

 

[The Old Ram-Australia]

G,gay all and thank you all for your posts,as a postscript to the topic I thought it my be worthwhile to post a couple of our photos.........

The first one is taken from our porch and our "red steel ram "called TORO,comes in about twice a year and cleans it up.

The next one is a pasture paddock showing late summer re-growth ,in the late spring we lambed 150 ewes on this paddock

Hope you all enjoy ..............By the way the "view" in the first picture is a bonus...................................T.O.R

 

[Beekissed]

Beautiful land, TOR! Doesn't look much different than some parts of the states, which is a surprise for me. I guess I expected more dust and desert.

 

[dottysfarm]

I replied in your other thread about my pasture (speeding up diversity in a young pasture by bringing in local weed seeds and plants) but I will comment on my suburban lawn in the yard around my house.....as long as it is green, I'm happy! Although I don't water the lawn in drought, I save watering for the veg gardens and the flowers. The food plants are slowly taking over my lawn area, though, as I expand the borders of my gardens and plant more herbs, strawberries, raspberries, and this year it will be currants, gooseberries, and grapes.

Sorry if I am taking over the thread but could you please post or pm me the link to the thread you are mentioning here?

Thanks