Sheep rotational grazing

romneymarsh

Member
Location
Romney Marsh
Really trying to get my head round this and ears&eyes wide open . But ! Never seem to be able to accumulate the wedge to start . Too many sheep ? But the farm grazes them set stocked. Most pastures are permanent and SSSI. Target covers must be lower for sheep than published to ensure digestibility and therefore rotations much shorter. A feed budget I hear you cry but my covers are so low to indicate that I am overstocked but the sheep & lambs are all doing well, ands it's worked for 30 years ??


Going to a grazing club tomorrow with Dr Liz G with a list of questions. A spell of warm rain would help.

Anyone else equally stumped or is it just me?
 
Really trying to get my head round this and ears&eyes wide open . But ! Never seem to be able to accumulate the wedge to start . Too many sheep ? But the farm grazes them set stocked. Most pastures are permanent and SSSI. Target covers must be lower for sheep than published to ensure digestibility and therefore rotations much shorter. A feed budget I hear you cry but my covers are so low to indicate that I am overstocked but the sheep & lambs are all doing well, ands it's worked for 30 years ??


Going to a grazing club tomorrow with Dr Liz G with a list of questions. A spell of warm rain would help.

Anyone else equally stumped or is it just me?
Going to try it this year would like a few ideas also
Current thinking of 500 ewes with twins which previously ran on 5 different fields mob them up and move round every 3-4 days got one block that was grazed hard pre lambing left empty that will hopefully have 6cm regrowth in a fortnight to start on?
 

exmoor dave

Member
Location
exmoor, uk
Really trying to get my head round this and ears&eyes wide open . But ! Never seem to be able to accumulate the wedge to start . Too many sheep ? But the farm grazes them set stocked. Most pastures are permanent and SSSI. Target covers must be lower for sheep than published to ensure digestibility and therefore rotations much shorter. A feed budget I hear you cry but my covers are so low to indicate that I am overstocked but the sheep & lambs are all doing well, ands it's worked for 30 years ??


Going to a grazing club tomorrow with Dr Liz G with a list of questions. A spell of warm rain would help.

Anyone else equally stumped or is it just me?

Exactly the same here, sheep are right on top of it, then when grass looks like it's getting somewhere all the cattle pour out the sheds end of April. ........then it usually dries up end if may/ early June then that's it til it rains properly in september.

Mind I'm convinced I could grow more grass rotating......trouble is much as I move the sheep, the cattle are staying set stocked cause apparently "that's the way it's always been and I'm not changing it" according to my "work colleague" :rolleyes:
 

GTB

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
I would like to try rotational grazing here but the sheep seem able to keep the grass down without trouble on set stocking and I think I'd find it very hard to build up the required wedge too. Also some of our top fields have no water supply and water won't flow uphill so would have to be pumped up. Could possibly manage to section off about 50 to 100 acres and move on a weekly basis.
 

will6910

Member
Location
N.i
I graze paddocks here for the twins at home. When turning out after lambing put handful of sheep maybe 15 in each of the bigger blocks and once lambs settled join the two groups together in 1 of the fields and change every week or so till grass gets going. At moment have 30 twins swapped back and fourth in 3 acre paddocks and it's nearly fortnight between moves now, still have 3 smaller groups in 2 acre fields but once there fields are grazed will join them all to make 2 groups of twins and keep ewe lamb group separate. Each big group of ewes will have 2 fields each and a spare field in middle so which ever group cleans both paddocks in turn first will get to middle spare one if that makes sense, ewe lambs will get there own 2 paddocks but if they can't keep up with grass the 2 bigger groups will get 3 paddocks each to rotate round, paddock at moment lasts 10-14 days in the 2 groups of 30 or so. That all depends if the sleet stops falling and grass starts growing again
 

wee man

Member
Location
scottish borders
A lot of people look at this the wrong way round. If you don't have enough grass to start rotational grazing you don't have enough to be set stocked. Set stocking especially on very short pasture is robing you of grass growth. Push a few fields in to one or put some polywire across the middle of big fields. Move the mob on to the next field or section after a day or 2, extend the intervals as the grass builds in font of you and you have a wedge.
Getting started is easy once you realize what you are throwing away by being set stocked.
 

hillman

Member
Location
Wicklow Ireland
Thanks. Rotational grazing is easier as the season progresses but this time of year I seem to be chasing grass. This year has been particularly hard as despite the sunshine it's been dry and grass growth has been very slow.

The way I worked it this year ewes and lambs go out to saved fields in front off farm , grouped and move to silage ground by which time the cattle join , them mid April moved to back off farm which has recoverd and paddocked
 

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quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

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