[Khlci]

   I'm new to all of this! But we have 12 acres and have been looking into keeping sheep/goats. If we were to just have sheep, how many would you fit comfortably on 12 acres? Would we also need any out buildings etc? 

[SallyintNorth]

If you have no other place to take sheep who need treatment, and/or if you plan on breeding your sheep, then you would find a shelter of some sort useful, yes.

The usual rule of thumb is 5 commercial-size sheep or 7 primitives per acre, but it depends on the ground.  Very wet ground, very cold or exposed ground, would be less.  Very lush ground in a warmer part of the country might do more.

You also need to think about where you will get their winter forage.  If you need to make hay for them off this same ground, then you will need to shut part of it up for some months for the grass to grow and be cut and baled.  And you'll need somewhere to store the hay, too, of course.

If you are planning to breed, then you also have to think about followers.  If you choose sheep which fatten in one summer, then by the end of the summer you will have very nearly 3 times as many sheep as you started with, and then back to your starting number as you send that year's lambs away.  If you choose a breed which needs two summers to grow, then in the second summer you will have nearly 3 times as many sheep as you started with at the beginning of the summer, and all that year's lambs growing on through the summer.  It adds up really quickly! 

[pharnorth]

Wise advice from Sally. As an example, I bought 3 in lamb ewes and 2 ewe lambs 2 years ago. April 2015 that became 9 sheep. A couple stayed, 2 went for meat. Last year all 5 original sheep were put in lamb. I sold 5 and bought 4 to upgrade stock so I now have 16. I aim to max at about 20 to 25 on around 5 acres. I had experience but had not had full responsibility for sheep so the slow build up has suited me. A decent sized shed and some handling facilities (even if just a good set of hurdles) is very helpful.

[BrimwoodFarm]

Great advice, Sally. I'm a long way off getting my first sheep but good to start learning it all now.

[twizzel]

The other thing to bare in mind is rotating your pasture- if you keep your 12 acres fully stocked at 5 sheep per acre, there will be no room to rotate and thus worms will build up and make it very sheep sick, then you'll have issues. Ideally you don't want to turn out newborn lambs onto the same pasture every year.

[Foobar]

You need to work out your livestock units.  See Tim Tyne's Sheep book for more info.


I work on the basis of 0.2 LSU per acre in winter and 0.4 LSU per acre in summer, which for me equates to approx 3 ewes+twins per acre in summer and 3 ewes per acre in winter (no lambs).  But it will depend on your land, and your sheep.  I'm recently moved to much rougher grazing and so will be dropping that, especially in winter.

[Marches Farmer]

See Tim Tyne's Sheep book for more info.

See Tim Tyne's book, read it several times and make notes!  The more groundwork you can do the better shepherd you will be and the healthier and happier your sheep will be.