Splitting up my 7 acres

[mystang89]

As the title says, this is about splitting up my 7 acres so that I have the best system for what I'm doing. As you probably know from http://www.backyardherds.com/threads/new-to-shepherding.34738/ I'm trying to get ready for raising milk sheep. As per some reading on here and about 7000 other comments, it'll be best if I rotate the sheep through some fenced off areas. I'm having a hard time figuring out how to set this up with what I want to do so I decided to make a picture of it posted below.

I'd like to have a goat with the sheep. One goat. no more. We would like to have 2 horses as well if possible on what we have. Once I get all that down to a routine I'd like to try my hand at baco...I mean pigs. Not many, just Mr and Mrs Pig. What they produce will be culled. I say all this so you know exactly where I'm wanting to go with all this eventually. Eventually being key word so please don't think that I am doing all this within the next near or even 3.

For fencing I will probably be using 4' tall http://www.fleetfarm.com/detail/Iow...Mugm4EvA6VDgRAwJU-ZDm_xukwLKpFnEvLBoCcAnw_wcB and have electric wire running on top and at knee height.

How can I split this up for my sheep which I will be getting first? I'm thinking about having to split my nursing ewes, weening lambs, and rams so that's why I'm posting this.

In the picture each of those squares is 1 acre but the shape isn't set in stone so let me know what you think and how you'd do this if it was yours.

 

[Bruce]

No personal experience but I think you want to do something that creates an alley with pastures on either side. Otherwise it will be a PITA to get the animals out to the gray and the dark blue pastures. Unless of course you have some great herding dogs.

How many sheepies? What happens if you run the light blue line parallel to the barn up to where the gray and dark blue pastures meet the yellow one and put the alley on that line? That would make the light blue one and the yellow one somewhat smaller but would give you an additional pasture. You can always move the animals a day or 3 earlier than you would if they had a full acre. And since you are planning to have 3 groups, you likely don't need as much space in a single pasture, especially for the rams since you won't have many of them.

 

[mystang89]

No personal experience but I think you want to do something that creates an alley with pastures on either side. Otherwise it will be a PITA to get the animals out to the gray and the dark blue pastures. Unless of course you have some great herding dogs.

How many sheepies? What happens if you run the light blue line parallel to the barn up to where the gray and dark blue pastures meet the yellow one and put the alley on that line? That would make the light blue one and the yellow one somewhat smaller but would give you an additional pasture. You can always move the animals a day or 3 earlier than you would if they had a full acre. And since you are planning to have 3 groups, you likely don't need as much space in a single pasture, especially for the rams since you won't have many of them.

Great suggestion! I hadn't thought about how difficult that was going to be so I'm very glad you mentioned that.

I went back to the drawing board again based on your suggestion and came up with another one. The blue lines going through there are the natural springs running through the property.

I was going to try to start out with 5 sheep at first and see how that went. Two rams; 3 ewes.

 

[Baymule]

Where is your barn or shelter for your sheep?

 

[Baymule]

I wouldn't use the field fence. A horse can hang it's hoof in it and rip a big hole in it. The holes are big enough for a small dog to get through, and your sheep/goat can get their heads through it. Goat wire has holes that are only 4" square.

http://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/goat-fence-48-in-x-330-ft

The driveway ends at what looks to be the garage/carport and house. The structure right above that, is that a barn and will it be used for the sheep shelter?

I think cutting the pastures down to a half acre would give you more rotation to let the pasture rest. I like the second layout. Gates. Gates to the alley and gates from pasture to pasture. If you want to move them from one pasture to another, open the gate and call them. If you want to move them back to the barn for the night, open the alley gate and call them. Mine come running to me like dogs.

 

[mystang89]

The barn is the building beside the .60 acres.

I read that welded wire had a tendency to break when it was stretched. With the link that I had posted I wasn't sure how big the holes were in it. Did you notice that they were large? I wish the info was a bit clearer for me ;/

 

[Baymule]

I like the way you have it divided. Walk the property. Walk every imaginary fenceline and "open" the gates. Picture the movement of livestock and make mental notes. Get fencing string and "build" the pastures with T-posts and the string. If you can get a visual, it makes more sense to you and you can see if it will work the way you want it to.

Make sure each pasture has shade. Dogs and sheep need the shade in the hot part of the day.

 

[Latestarter]

You've already made adjustments as recommended by Babs (Edit to say it was Bruce, not Babs... sorry Bruce)... I would make a further adjustment and make an open area (shrinking down the .6 area) to leave a nice wide open area around the barn. The area open to the barn on the right should be about the same as the open area on the left & above it. You'll need maneuver room for tractors and trailers and moving hay bales and such around the barn. It looks like it would be a really tight fit between the garage and barn for machinery... You could then use the smaller pasture as the full time residence for the ram and a wether for companionship. Just build a small run-in shelter for them right in the pasture and they won't need to come/go from the barn. You can treat that as a year round dry lot for the "boys". You can then either bring the ewes for conjugal visits to his place, or take him out and add him in with the ewes in their pasture when the time comes.

Another thing is you'll need to connect the fencing to the barn with (large!) gates at some point to prevent the animals from just walking out and down the driveway when you release them from the barn/pasture(s).

You want to make sure that you leave the "walking paths" between pastures wide enough that you can easily get your tractor/lawn mower throughout the property. You will still need to do pasture maintenance and you want to make sure the equipment can get to and into/out of the pastures without tearing up fencing. If you do it right, the "walking" path to the other pastures and the area around the barn itself can actually be used (with the actual pasture gates closed) as a short term pasture all on its own. <-- I hope that made sense...

 

[farmerjan]

First thing I would do is fence the perimeter. With whatever kind of fence you choose. Baymule is right, try to lay out or somehow walk and try out different spots for the gates etc. Then, invest in a couple of rolls of electric netting and see how well your proposed fencing lines will work with the animals actually in them. You can put it up to mimic the fence around each "acre pasture" and see where you find it easiest to have "gates" to be able to move the animals. If you are only thinking 5 sheep, then 1/2 acre pastures will give you alot more flexibility; that said you can use the electric netting to split up a one acre field for rotational purposes. Gates should be directly across from each other with the laneway between, to be able to move animals "across the road". Also, if the pastures have permanent fences then gates between the connecting pastures would be helpful. 12 ft gates minimum to move equipment in and out, even 16 ft or 2 8ft gates.
As soon as you get a permanent crossfence up you will say oh it should have been 20 ft this way or something so try it out with moveable/portable fencing.
One question, if you are only planning to have 3 ewes to start, why 2 rams? Will it be hard to find or replace a ram if something happens to him? Ratio of 1 ram to 15-25 ewes to get them bred in a 30-45 day period so 2 will be overkill unless there is a reason, genetics, etc....Get an extra ewe and then invest in a 2nd ram 2 years later....

 

[Baymule]

With equipment and gates, you need swing room, or turning room.