Baymule
Herd Master
Pond. Pond. Pond. Pond. Pond. Pond. Pond.
You need a pond!!!!!! LOL
You need a pond!!!!!! LOL
Recuperating Old Pasture (new project)
- Thread starter Tjcib
- Start date
- Thread starter
- #12
Tjcib
Ridin' The Range
Well the forestry mulcher came today. It was emotional seeing unusable land be turned into a field right before my eyes. He cleared 2/3rds of an acre in about 3 hours. There was perimeter and paddock t-posts throughout and he didn't hit a single one. Dude was a beast.
Here are some pics
Here are some pics
Baymule
Herd Master
Wow! That looks awesome! What a difference it makes!
Mini Horses
Herd Master
Looks great!! Worth every penny.
- Thread starter
- #15
Tjcib
Ridin' The Range
Here is my brainstorm for my paddock system in this new field. I guess this could be for any grazing animal, but right now we are doing American Guinea Hogs, so we'll keep that as the test group...
Field is 185' x 165'
20' x 20' "sacrifice" area in the center with permanent hog panel fencing, permanent shelter, water, wallow (cause pigs gonna pig)
16 paddocks
Each paddock is separated by electric wire (or mesh netting) which the pigs are already trained to. Of course, you only need three working runs at a time as you rotate them around
This gives each paddock just about 1900 sqft...which could last my 4 hogs a week without stressing the pasture too much.
So if I rotate them every week, they wouldn't touch the same grass for 4 months. In the summer I would probably have to mow, LOL.
Could this work with sheep rotating them daily? Or would a sheep pasture need longer than 2 weeks to recover from a day of grazing?
What am I missing?
Field is 185' x 165'
20' x 20' "sacrifice" area in the center with permanent hog panel fencing, permanent shelter, water, wallow (cause pigs gonna pig)
16 paddocks
Each paddock is separated by electric wire (or mesh netting) which the pigs are already trained to. Of course, you only need three working runs at a time as you rotate them around
This gives each paddock just about 1900 sqft...which could last my 4 hogs a week without stressing the pasture too much.
So if I rotate them every week, they wouldn't touch the same grass for 4 months. In the summer I would probably have to mow, LOL.
Could this work with sheep rotating them daily? Or would a sheep pasture need longer than 2 weeks to recover from a day of grazing?
What am I missing?
Alaskan
Herd Master
No matter what kind of rotational grazing system you have... you can't schedule the rotation.
How much grass you have will be determined by the weather, hot or cold and dry or wet.
There will be some periods of time when no grass will grow, so no animals should be grazed on it. This is often why there is one sacrificial pasture, where the animals can stay for a full month, or more. It is often most convenient to have the sacrificial pasture next to the barn, since clearly with zero grass, the animals will need feed daily.
Not sure those pastures are big enough for sheep....
How much grass you have will be determined by the weather, hot or cold and dry or wet.
There will be some periods of time when no grass will grow, so no animals should be grazed on it. This is often why there is one sacrificial pasture, where the animals can stay for a full month, or more. It is often most convenient to have the sacrificial pasture next to the barn, since clearly with zero grass, the animals will need feed daily.
Not sure those pastures are big enough for sheep....
Baymule
Herd Master
Would you set up a different pasture for sheep? I’ve always heard not to run goats or sheep behind pigs because of the parasites the pigs have. Have not experienced that myself.
- Thread starter
- #18
Tjcib
Ridin' The Range
Great point! We only have 4 AGHs right now, so I think that sacrifice area would suffice for keeping them medium term.
Our barn is actually adjacent to this pasture on the bottom side, I just didn't include it for simplicity's sake. So we could easily adjust if conditions required it. The plan is to have as much portable as possible since AGHs are pretty easy to handle and don't really challenge the infrastructure.
Brand new to sheep so haven't done much research. Good to know and appreciate the input. Honestly, my wife just wants the milk, so maybe we could run just two of them
Edit: I realize it is NEVER "just two" LOL
- Thread starter
- #19
Tjcib
Ridin' The Range
They definitely wouldn't share the pasture and I would let it rest and recuperate before putting a new species on it. The only thing I run behind any other animal is letting the egg layers do their work behind...well...everything and every one... They clean it all up...
Baymule
Herd Master
Sheep and goats do well going behind cattle and horses. They do not share parasites and are dead end hosts. Just thought I’d throw that out there.
