Grass Cutting Sheep Needed....?

[MW1LCR]

Hi
We have a field which is about 3 - 4 acres in size. We want to put a few sheep on the field to keep the grass down. The local farmer has offered to put some sheep on it, but we are reluctant to let him do this as, well frankly we don't trust him. So our other option is to put our own sheep on it.

What do you suggest to keep the grass down ? Maybe we should consider other animals as well ?

TIA

Adrian

[Camile]

Hello,

I would put a few sheep, 2 cows, a gaggle of geese ...

Camile

[Shirley]

I'd have sheep, geese, ducks and chooks... and a couple of goats too :)

:welcomeish: - whereabouts are you based??

[MW1LCR]

Thanks.

The only thing is......

I have to work to pay for the restoration of the place, and the other half is in charge of 14month toddler. I can't always be home during the week (work) so its left to the other half to look after any animals we may have.

So we're really looking for the easy option here !

We are VERY NEW to this, by the way ! (As if you hadn't guessed !)

Thanks

Adrian

[MW1LCR]

Hi
we have 6.5 Acres in North Wales. Outbuildings Cowshed, and a Stone Circle.

The house was built in 1610 and we are renovating it. (Well have been since May!) and just starting on the land.

[Camile]

Welcome by the way !

all these animals .. ie, sheep, cows, geese and all doesn't need so much time everyday if everything goes fine ..

the hardest part is the lambing season ... if you intend to have lambs of course ..

as for the goats .. they will eat some grass but they will clear the hedges more than anything else .. but they are so great that I would send in a few in there too ..

also you can divide your land in 2 or 3 plots ... in order to rotate them on it ... and you may want to cut some hay too for their winter feeding, when the grass runs down ..

Camile

[PurpleDragon]

Hi
we have 6.5 Acres in North Wales. Outbuildings Cowshed, and a Stone Circle.

The house was built in 1610 and we are renovating it. (Well have been since May!) and just starting on the land.

Oh, you lucky things! Sounds fantastic. I know renovation is hard work, but SO worth it.

Outbuildings. I'm green with envy.

[den_the_cat]

me too. I would kill for 6 acres and a house to restore. Lots of space to bury the bodies too....

Be careful not to overstock, 6.5 acres sounds a lot and its enough to support quite a bit but if you've ever seem a cow graze a partitioned field you'll realise how fast and how close they crop it - personally much as I like cows I think they'd be more hassle than they're worth on a smallholding, especially with a small child.

You can't transport them without a horsebox or similar, you have the whole milking issue and they're way more of a freezerfull if you butcher them, I would say sheep, goats or even pigs are much better for a toddler to grow up around, and you could probably even support a shetland if you think it'd be more fun than a climbing frame.

[red]

sheep are a bit more work then you would first imagine.. they need their feet attending too, they get footrot easily, think about fly strike in teh summer etc. we are in a a similar situation. have a couple of fields (bout 1.5 acres) not sure what to do with it. and we are both full time working/ occupied. cant afford both (ie not working and the land!!) and everyone says sheep... but as i said they are not necessarily as easy as all that....

[Camile]

Hi again ..

I have 1 sheep and 2 goats .. and work full time ..

and indeed you have to check their feet and all .. but unless you have 20 of them .. it's a fairly straight forward thing to do .. especially when the sheep is as tame as mine . you call her -> she comes ...

Sit her on her ass, check the feet, clean then and trim them if needed .. within something like 15 min. it's done ..

[red]

so which are easier goats or sheep?

[Camile]

regarding the care of them .. they are pretty similar ... feet trimming and all is the same ...

fencing is another story .. goats like to escape and it took me more than 2 month to make the field goat proof because I wanted them to have access the the hedges of the field (on wich goats will thrive) ...

and goat will eat grass but won't thrive as best as they could on it ... they are browser compared to sheep that are grazer ...

and regarding housing ... depending on the breed of sheep .. they can stay out all year around with a minimal shelter .. but goats like to have a place they can call their own where they usually go with it's raining or too cold ...

even though my goats stays out even when it's raining .. and they all go to bed together at night in the shed ...

[red]

but most breeds of sheep need to be sheared. my parents sheep - they have this mobile shearer guy comes round shears them in exchange for the fleece. not sure how it works out when you only have 1 or 2 - what do you do?

[Camile]

Hi Red,

Our sheep is a ewe lamd from this year so we didn't have to shear it ..

but there is some people down the road from us who have 2 sheep .. and they couldn't find anyone to actually shear them for them .. they heard we wanted to shear our lamb next year ourselves ... so we actually went me and my girlfriend and sheared them ourselves ..

it took us 1 hour 1/2 hour per sheep .. but the result wasn't that bad at all .. and all that with manual shears ... it was good fun ..

I'll try to find the pictures today and post them .. the first sheep the fleece was a mess .. but we actually got the second fleece in one piece !

Camile

[Shirley]

There are sheep that don't require shearing - they moult instead. I hadn't realised this until earlier this year when I witnessed it on the sheep across the road... I just thought that they were particularly scaggy looking sheep