Set up
Setting up the foundation for raising sheep, we started with 12 ewes for breeding stock with a goal of 20. The state of our acreage demanded low stocking ratios until the land could be cultivated to feed livestock without stripping the land. The sheep are on 10 acres able to be separated in 5 sections in order to rotate, with total pasture around 5 acres. Parameter fencing is all cattle paneling with anterior sectioning made up of both cattle panels and solar powered hotwire. For sustainability, only keep what your land can maintain after lambing, if not there is a good possibility you’ll be trying to sell fast and cheap to get the numbers back down to what the land can maintain. This helps avoid the need to buy more feed and deal with parasites, as well as, too many hungry sheep will destroy your pasture. Most years the pasture gets lime, along with every 2 or 3 years, fertilized. We have never sprayed the pastures with pesticides/chemicals.
Around the end of April all of the sheep are gathered in the feed pen for health checks, and again around end of September. Containing the sheep in a small are allows them to be caught one at a time to allow for: eyelid check, deworm if needed; hooves trimmed; shearing if needed. Lambs will get one CDT shot when they start grazing. Through the April to November months, their diet is whatever the pastures and woods can provide. Feed pellets are fed about once every 2 weeks to keep them trained to follow a bucket to the feeding pen for checks. Sheep mineral is left out year round for the herd to have access too. Around the end of November, the sheep switch to hay daily and pellets 2-3 times per week.
The property did not have pasture when we bought it, just woods with a lot of under growth. We hired a dozer operator to clear a lot of the thicker sections of Virginia pines. The land is made up of mostly hills with poor soil quality. The flattest spots on the land were cleared for pasture. We chose cattle panels as our main source of fencing because woven wire is hard to stretch across so many drops. Panels do cost more but with the ease of installation and never having an issue with coyotes or dogs they are worth it(for a small farm). This reliable fencing has also saved us the cost of having to keep and feed a Livestock Guardian Dog year round.
During winter when the grass is dormant the sheep are kept in the smallest section lot (Ram Lot). This is done to keep them from destroying the pasture during the winter. Spring and Summer they are rotated every 2-3 weeks between the pond lot and the back 2 lots. There is also shade grass sections in the woods of the barn lot, but is slow growing. They are occasional moved to that lot for a few weeks to graze throughout the year when undergrowth is getting high.
