How to keep 1500 ewes

[McDaniel]

Greetings. I've decided to reach out and see if I can gather some ideas about any aspects of keeping 1,500 sheep you care to discuss.
I'm in the Northeast US. I've had 120 +/- ewes for the last 5 years and now looking to expand to 1,500 for a solar park grazing contract.
Winters are wet and cold and there's no grass for about 6 months. Land is very expensive and limited. So I must build winter housing.
I feed alfalfa/lucerne haylage by hand twice a day and some corn/maize by bucket. I own 70 acres in alfalfa/grass mix. Might be able to rent two adjacent farms as they go to the highest bidder.
My primary concerns are how to store hay (as in individual wrapped bales, tubeline, pit silage, ag bag etc), how to feed it out, what kind of winter housing is going to be affordable and low labor, and how to creep feed 2,500+ lambs.
The sheep are hair type so no need to shear.
Advice? Thoughts?

 

[haybob]

Wrap individual bales here. would a poly tunnel work for shelter with part outside penned area for dry days for a bit of fresh air. We only feed creep to triplets. Think I'd rather keep less sheep and have them out more rather than building housing for 6 months. Sheep are designed to live outside. Careful new grass leys may not carry sheep like a old ley would so go steady with predictions in first year!

 

[Frank-the-Wool]

You will be making a very high cost system.
Does the value of the lamb return enough to cover such high costs?
You will also be making a lot of work and health of sheep will be a problem, especially from Footrot.
The grass quality under solar panels deteriorates after a relatively short time. Are you being paid to graze this?
What would your normal summer stocking rate be?
What lambing % would you expect?

 

[spark_28]

No point asking us tbh.

Go look around you and see what other farms are doing . A good few big sheep farms in Ontario.

I worked on a sheep farm in Ontario. Housing was poly tunnels for lambing. Slatted flooring for fattening lambs. Sheep stayed outside all winter. Alot of farms up that way do two lambings a year, maybe something like that might be more beneficial for you with lower stock numbers.

 

[McDaniel]

Been thinking about individual bales as it would be simple and no infrastructure needed. But all that plastic waste every day!
I may consider a poly tunnel. A neighbor just built one for less than half the cost of a pole barn that she built next to it. Seems to be very popular with sheep in this region.
I stock 7 ewes to the acre now and it's been good, even in summer. I sell most lambs before summer. I'm planning to stock 2.5 to 3 ewes to the acre at the solar park and keep lambs through the whole grazing season. The solar park is several hundred acres and the land is marginal.
It pays well and provides forage for six months. Deal of a lifetime really.
I've started breeding in summer with a lambing rate of 1.6. It had been 1.8 with fall breeding. That includes yearlings.
I creep feed every lamb for the sole purpose of delivering coccidiostat (deccox). That was a major problem for us before I started creep feeding. So I have a mind to continue, but not sure how it can be done with so many lambs?

 

[Jackov Altraids]

To keep 1500 ewes, it is best to start with 3000.

 

[McDaniel]

Not sure I follow you're thinking there but I'm quite sure 1,500 is plenty enough.

 

[Moors Lad]

No point asking us tbh.

Go look around you and see what other farms are doing . A good few big sheep farms in Ontario.

I worked on a sheep farm in Ontario. Housing was poly tunnels for lambing. Slatted flooring for fattening lambs. Sheep stayed outside all winter. Alot of farms up that way do two lambings a year, maybe something like that might be more beneficial for you with lower stock numbers.

Good advice - it`s all too different here compared to with you.

I creep feed every lamb for the sole purpose of delivering coccidiostat (deccox).

We`d just dose for that!

 

[McDaniel]

As far as dosing, why treat it if I can prevent it instead? A little deccox in the creep and never a problem. Would you dose every lamb or wait until you see a problem? I think by the time you realize you've got coccidia it's too late to make the lamb any value so you must be meaning a preventative dose?

 

[Wooly]

I suggest you go and give your head a good wobble and get that idea out of it !!

Seams a very expensive system, so hope lamb is at a very premium price.

Good luck though

 

[Devil's advocate]

I suggest you go and give your head a good wobble and get that idea out of it !!

Seams a very expensive system, so hope lamb is at a very premium price.

Good luck though

I thought they got double the price in Canada?

Also outdoor sheep not easy due to wolves, coyota & bears?

 

[toquark]

Going slightly off topic here but it’s relevant to the OP: How do you manage the grass in a solar park? Aside from grazing, your options I’d imagine are fairly limited, can you lime? Fertilise? Reseed? What happens if you get a rush or dock infestation? How does a dog work under them?

My fear with the OP’s predicament would be that the grass would gradually decline over time and stocking rates would have to mirror that. The forecasts based on running 1500 ewes initially might be down to half of that inside a decade.

 

[beardface]

To keep 1500 ewes, it is best to start with 3000.

Confucius say.

 

[Hill Ground]

It pays well and provides forage for six months. Deal of a lifetime really

It Does look a high cost system, but if your being paid to graze that is s good Start!!

 

[McDaniel]

Grass is fertilized only by sheep but reseeded by the solar company every few years. There's a man not too far away that's been doing this for about 10 years but on a much smaller scale. He says grass production is better than his home farm, which adjoins the solar park. We'll need to adjust flock numbers to meet the need of keeping the grass down. This man also runs several dogs and says it's impossible to move the sheep without them.
Not exactly breaking new ground by housing sheep in winter am I?. We've kept sheep outdoors before but loses were too high when temperatures reach -15 dC. Not much fun for the farmer either.
I have no earthly idea what you sell a market lamb for in UK, but I just sold lambs in March at 40kg for $300 US (£241) and I get the same for replacement stock that I sell in summer/fall.

 

[puppet]

Last autumn around £120. By now £200 for big lambs but this year is exceptional

 

[Moors Lad]

It seems to me that you are on the wrong forum - YOU know the costs/problems where you are much better than us. You need to know you`ve some long term availability to the "solar grazing" before you commit to costs associated to housing.
Not really sure why you`ve come on here!

 

[McDaniel]

Well basically, where I live is not a big sheep area. Having 1,500 ewes will make me the largest sheep farm within a 4 hour radius. I'm not so close to Ontario or parts of NY with large flocks. So here I am for advice. This forum is the best resource for practical sheep information I have found.
I was thinking there must be someone on this forum that creep feeds a couple of thousand lambs. I want to know how exactly to do that. Cutting a drain pipe in half and filling with a bucket won't work anymore. Or, if I don't creep feed any more then how do I mitigate coccidia?
Must be others here with huge barns. How do I keep the building cost down and how do I feed in the barn? I can't very well feed by hand anymore.
Or, if others know how to keep sheep outside in cold wet winters, can you describe your set up? My experience with that was mud, muck, ruined pasture, and dead lambs. So perhaps someone knows more than me and can save me a few hundred thousand dollars in building barns by teaching me how to keep sheep outside in winter.

 

[McDaniel]

By the way, no rush here and dock is very very minimal. I don't spray (organic pasture and hay ground). No weeds of any significance thanks to sheep eating thistle.

 

[beardface]

3 in 1 feeders would probably be the most efficient way. If you've a decent sized US pickup you could tow around say a 4 or 5 tonne auger trailer to fill them. Be how they do it in OZ and they seem to feed a fair bit due to dry conditions. If you built some corrals for the feeds to go in could just let them.empty for a day or so then shut them in when they come galloping over for the refill.