[SheepishSophie]

Hello!

I thought I may'swell put all of this in once post..

We've just acquired a 2.5 acre field next to our barn. It's currently got crops on but the landowner (and consequently our landlord) is going to seed it for us. He says 6-8 weeks it'll be sheep-able?! I'm not overly sure but he's a farmer and I'm not so.. 

One side is sheep-proof. We know this as it's the border of our old garden and we did it! Two more are patchy-hedges and the fourth, which borders our garden, has nothing. My Dad and I were trying to work out what fencing to use.. We'd ideally like post and rail against our garden for aesthetics but the cost scares us off abit! The other two.. he says electric wires would do but I'm wary about lambs escaping during lambing time! We're also going to partition the field into little paddocks to give the land a rest. Moveable stuff would be nice but not neccasary..

So what would you do? Stock fence the perimeter or electric wire it? And how would you partition it?

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Another question is about shelter. I'm planning (aka as I'm not quite sure yet) on getting Badger faced welsh mountain sheep and they'll have sturdy hedgrows on at least one side of their paddock so I'm not overly concerned at them having it year round. If it does get bad, we have old pig-arc metal sheets we can plonk down.
 I'm wary about lambing time.. I've plenty experience lambing commercial flocks indoors so I don't really know what protocol is with these kinds of breeds.. do they need time mothering up?

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Third and maybe final!

Badger faced welsh mountain sheep, what do you think of them? I haven't space for a tup so I'd have to get one to 'holiday' over here, or buy in-lamb ewes.. which is the better option? I'm not concerned when they'll lamb as we have eyes and ears out year-round.


Thank you for reading such a long rambling post!

[firemansam]

Im a newbie like you, and also like you have just aquired 3 acres. I have bought some reclaimed wood from ebay. 8ft 6 inch lengths 6 inch by 3/4 inch. Its from good quality pallets and enough to build an 8ft by 8ft shed 6ft high. This cost me £50. To me a bargain. Get good old dad to have a look on ebay for reclaimed timber like this.

[SheepishSophie]

He works on building sites so I'm sure he could get his hands on some! I never thought about those... we often cut 'em up for firewood.. Thanks!

[Sunnybank]

hi, we have a 2 acre field that we rent so didnt want to spend a fortune on fencing so we use electric wire around the perimeter and an electric net to divide the field into sections. Our Shetlands soon learned not to go too close and so far it is working for us - not for use with sheep with horns tho. no experience with new lambs tho, ours were 4 months old.

[SallyintNorth]

It is said that electric fencing cannot be relied upon for lambs, so if you plan to lamb then you may as well do your perimeter in proper stock fencing. 

There's a thread somewhere on more-or-less this very topic, in which many of us made the point that if you rely on electric then you need to be able to take the consequences when (not if, when.  One day it'll short, or the battery will die, or, or, or...) when it fails.  If the consequences are sheep on road, then probably you wouldn't want to risk it.  If the consequences are sheep in your prize vegetable patch, probably ditto!

HTH

[Moleskins]

Probably worth a mention on this that to use electric or not will depend on the breed of sheep.
I had Badger Faced sheep and the first thing they did was climb the wall and bugger off two fields away.
It took my friend and his two dogs to get the four of them back.

[SheepishSophie]

So the general consensus is that as cheap as electric may be, you're better off using proper stock fencing? I priced it all up today.. it's not cheap! And we're only renting for the time being which makes it more heart/wallet-wrenching!

Also, any opinion on shelters?

[plumseverywhere]

Oh my sheep laughed in the face of electric fences, drove me demented until we got stock proof fencing up and I laughed at them instead 
Ours only have the shelter of a densely packed orchard but I don't know about badger faces as we have SuffolkXtexel and they are probably one of the hardiest woolly things out there.
I know nothing about seeding so will leave that to someone who really does  [size=78%] [/size]

[Fleecewife]

There's a thread back on Sheep page three called 'anyone made their own field shelters' by Buffy the egg slayer which you should find helpful.
 
I would go for proper stock fencing - if the worst comes to pass and you fall out big time with your landlord you could always dismantle the whole lot, take out the posts and take it with you.  Or you could negotiate with him to pay back a proportion of your costs. We use stock fencing - the mesh stuff - and we use two strands of tensioned plain wire along the top rather than barbed, as barbed is so vicious to both sheep and people - and other animals.
 Even sheep without horns can get stuck in electric mesh fencing, and push through electric strand.
 
I don't know anything about Welsh Badger-faced sheep, but they do look smart     We keep primitives which are renowned for being wild, but it all depends on how you handle them, so rather than believe any horror stories about Great Escapes go and talk with owners of the breed and see how those who say they are wild handle them, compared with those who say they are calm and easy to handle.

[omnipeasant]

I can only comment on the Badger faced issue. They are the most beautiful and rewarding sheep I have ever come across. Mothering is second to none of the breeds I have experienced. Lamb outside, 99% no problems but you will have to devise a way of catching them if there are problems. ( I suggest a corner catching pen) but if you need to assist they will probably lwet you sneak up on them. 

Get a tup to come on holiday or buy a tup lamb and send him off to market after he has done his work.  If you only have a few you could probably keep him with the ewes first year if you seperate the ewe lambs.

You will have plenty of shelter, my poor things lamb out on the hill. message me if you want to talk badgers. We might bore everyone else!!  

[SteveHants]

Its your landlords paddock, if you are renting it he should fence the bloody thing. I've wasted enough of my life fencing other peoples fields because I was keen to get grazing. Last year I ringfenced (and have now divided some fields off) 30ac. Of course, my landlord bought the materials, but I shudder to think at the value of the free labout I have given him.


I understand you are keen, but at least make him pay for materials if you are going to give him your labour gratis.

[Remy]

I think at the very least you need to have a stock fenced perimeter, then you can rest assured yours aren't going to go off on a little adventure!  Mine is the only property where stock haven't escaped (except the pigs who got out of an orchard  ) - I've lost count of the number of times neighbours' sheep, cattle and horses have wandered up the lane or into our property, it's usually us who have to round them up  .  Some even went up the main road and a farmer had to use his tractor to head them off!



I use stock fencing with an electric wire on top.  It's not ideal for the horses but so far they haven't trashed it and it's cheaper than post and rail, which would still have to have stock netting for the sheep ...  I wouldn't trust electric with some determined characters.

[Sylvia]

After keeping sheep for 30 years I can, with a little bit of confidence, say that it would depend on your stocking density as to how happy sheep are to stay at home.
If you have grass bitten down to the roots or, even down to almost nothing, your sheep will look to the greener grass over the hedge and can you blame them?
If you have more than say, five, good sized sheep to the acre then you must have sound fencing. Sheep are picky grazers and prefer herbage rather than standard rye grass which is what most fields are sown with and will go to look for it.
If you're thinking of re-seeding for sheep I would reccomend something like Meadow-max. Makes lovely hay too
 

[SheepishSophie]

Fleecewife, I read that, it was quite interesting! I had a look at your website, I had my first encounter with Hebrideans the other day and rather liked them! Although none had such spectacular horns as yours! He also had Soays... feral little things..

Omnipeasant, I'd not thought of using a tup lamb.. *thinking cap*, and expect a PM some time soon... when I have time AND the internet.

SteveHants, he's giving us the land cheap, seeding it and maintaining the grass for us for free was we don't have the machinery, whereas we can fence. It was out happy medium! Although it will be heart-wrenching when we finally move elsewhere and all our work is staying here!

Remy, we had pigs and they continuously escaped! We had proper stock-fencing. The little blighters figured out the gates, after a while if they were out, we left them.. our orchard was too big for three people so they muched away until we'd had enough of them!

Sylvia, I have yet to speak to the farmer about the seed, another issue I was wanting advice on! I'd like to think they'd be happy in their paddocks but I'm inexperienced and very much glass half-full! The worst they could do on the interior partitions is go to another paddock and they wouldn't be able to escape..

I may take some pictures to show you all.. I'm now considering stock fencing the gaps in the hedgerows and then permitting it with electric wire/tape? Bar the front line as that's very open.

[SteveHants]

Its good that you are getting it cheap - the going rate is about 20p/ewe/week, If you can get it for less than that you are doing well. I have 20ac that I graze for a couple of lambs a year plus a couple hundred quids worth of labour (topping etc) so it does work.