The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: bloomer on April 20, 2014, 10:02:46 pm
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how many sheep could i keep on 2.5 acres, assume split roughly into 3 paddocks to allow for reasonable grazing central scotland lowlands
(i have found a possible rental, and am doing sums)
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10-12 if providing hay in winter, based on the fact we kept 5 natives on an roughish 1 acre paddock all yr round with hay and cake in winter.
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depend on breed and ground and grass ley but i would guesstimate on 10 . best to have a couple less than have to buy in expensive feed
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Depends if you want to breed....
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The worst thing you can do Bloomer is to overstock. You might be able to squeeze quite a few sheep onto that acreage, but the pasture will soon get sheep-sick, worm concentrations will rise rapidly and they will only have grass in late spring and early summer. It's a real recipe for scrawny sheep.
Are you intending to buy in lambs and rear them to slaughter age? Or buy ewes and breed from them? What breed are you intending to keep - you can keep a few more of the small primitives on the same acreage as slightly fewer big breeds. Are you intending to make hay on part of the land to feed your animals through the winter - you need to shut up the hay field from late April until haymaking which up here is July or into August.
What's the soil and grass like? If it's acid and full of rush then you will manage to keep far fewer sheep on it than were you to have lush Cheshire grass.
Sometimes 6 ewes per acre is quoted, but up here that would be impossible without a massive input of bought hay and concentrates. Sometimes one ewe per acre is quoted, or even one per 10 acres of very poor hill land.
So the answer is - it depends ::) Perhaps the best way to answer your own question is to try 3 per acre and see how they get on over the course of a whole year, then reassess after that time and adjust your numbers up or down accordingly.
Sorry - that doesn't help you calculate if it's worth renting the land, does it?
Incidentally, you could double up with hens at no effect on your sheep stocking rate.
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just lost a long post grrr
thanks all i have thoughts, going for a better look tomorrow and i'll report back when i have a plan...
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Bloomer, that's the amount of land that I have. It's in 2 paddocks (people before us kept horses) and a small bit. We have the paddocks split in half by electric fencing to make 4 fields for the sheep and rotate them. We had 5 ewes and they lambed 4 lambs last year. To be honest I felt that was more than enough sheep for the amount of land, especially when it got very wet.
My 2 ram lambs were sold so then I bought a ram lamb for lambing this year. That is another problem as he has to be kept separate from the girls for most of the time so rotating gets more complicated. I wouldn't recommend doing it like that.
I now have another 3 ram lambs just born. Later in the year all rams will be going leaving me with my 5 original ewes and 2 or 3 of their daughters. That will be plenty.
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I wouldn't have more than 6 on it..
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Agree with max 6 .... assuming breeding.
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6 :) x
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6 is my best guess as well
probably shetlands or equivalent as no permanent shelter allowed, but would use a faster finishing tup on them so the lambs were away at the end of the season...
bizarrely on paper the chicken part of the plan seems to be the more likely to turn a profit/break even the sheep are for learning and filling the freezer etc...
hopefully it looks as good tomorrow as it does on paper, i could be tempted to take it!!!
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Use a Cheviot tup and sell the lambs as stores in August / September. Good Cheviot stores (which are tiny!) sell for £60+ ph at Longtown every year ;)
In fact, play your cards right and you may be able to sell them to us ;) ( :idea: Shetland x Cheviot fleeces before they go off fat at top prices in late winter / early spring :excited: :spin: :knit:)
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I make it 7 ewes + twins in the summer, assuming a smallish hill breed, so less if its a bigger breed - maybe 5 or 6.
But only 3 or maybe 4 ewes in the winter.
(Assuming unfertilised)
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We have four ewes and normally four store lambs on our two paddocks (2 acres in total). The grass isn't great but we are slowly improving it and it's way better than it was when the first sheep arrived!
There's barely any grass in the winter if it's really wet like it has been and so we feed supplemental hay and a little cake. This year we've had the four ewes and their six lambs. We'll be sending four of the lambs off to slaughter and I'm thinking about keeping two of the ewe lambs. We are also hoping to get a couple of native ponies fairly soon so I don't think we can support more than that.
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"Opinion" just take the land forget the sums and enjoy it, have 6 sheep very good quality and breed, fill your freezer, you could fence a small area for 2 fattening pigs June - Sept/Oct, then rotovate that area and plant a winter crop for the sheep, the more hay you get off this year the better, it's expensive running out.
extra chickens and pig poo is great fertiliser which in turn will improve the hay quality
Formulae/sums x smallholding = compost heap :roflanim:
Do it for the love :fc:
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it would be for love,
but we live on a very low budget so it has to break even, even allowing for us buying meat from ourselves...
the land looks ok, its a bit far from home so would impact on our planning for houses later this year,
plus point is its quite inaccessible and is the first sensible sized (3.5 acres all told) plot at even vaguely sensible money i've seen in 2 years!
am trying to book to meet the agent to discuss it and clarify a few things before i get too set on it!!!
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Just had a look on national farm averages your area ish average price for agricultural land is £43.44 an acre that will take into account all the naff stuff as well, County council here is £160 for grazing or land in stewardships, anything better is upto £300 an acre
How much is yours ???
If you need to break even just my opinion is chickens either for egg sales if viable or breed for either meat, hatching eggs, or birds at market, then it might be a bit easier to break even with the other stuff.
The best of luck, we are all hoping you take it so you can share your journey :fc:
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thank you everyone
this one is now officially off the table and i'm back to my slow but steady search, the land is well fenced for cattle or ponies its not good enough for sheep (bottom wire is 1ft off the ground in places) the cost of upgrading the fencing which is all brand new but set up wrong is too high for the length of initial lease they are offering.
they also seamed reluctant to allow chicken sheds which were an essential part of my plan and every building of any type needs the permission of the owners...
one day it will happen :-)
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bad luck bloomer.
Andy is that£43 an acre for a year?