[wellies]

We have been offered a bit over 3acres of additional grazing by our neighbours & friends who are giving up their sheep & cows for quite a while. Perfect opportunity for our sheep to have extra grass & to increase the size of our breeding flock. The grazing is approx 3 minutes away from our house & smallholding and the lovely neighbours have offered to check them daily & break water in the cold weather etc. I'm now just trying to decide which sheep to pop up there  . I can't decide if I should take the 10 breeding ewes up there prior to tupping & let them stay until lambing. My question is will they travel back home ok and when would be the best time to bring them home... I was thinking 3 weeks before lambing or should I take this years lambs up there until they're ready to join the breeding flock next year? At the same time we were also offered a small paddock opposite our house, next to our smallholding, free grazing on a small orchard (again next to our property) and grazing on a hay paddock once it's been cut. I seem to have gone from limited grazing this year to lots. Excited but trying to figure out who goes where & best practice for them. Any advice really appreciated 

[Fleecewife]

I would keep the ewes on your land so you can keep a close eye on them and let the lambs grow on the new grass.

[Anke]

Just make sure you know about the worm/fluke burden on any of your new fields before you put your sheep on it... and your lambs are more vulnerable to worms/fluke than the adult sheep.

[wellies]

Thank you for the suggestions. The people we are renting off do FEC for their sheep and cross graze so I'm relatively happy with the worm burden issue or lack of it. As it's only 3 mins up the road and I can ride past I will also be checking on the sheep up there too

[Backinwellies]

A suggestion I picked up from show yesterday .... keep one or two older ewes (culls?) with ewe lambs .... gives them a leader who is calmer and knows the ropes.