sheep on wet land

just do it

I've 5 acres of poached boggy land that I've been slow to reclaim. However the thought struck me if i got sheep for it I could graze it without much damage. It could be easily broken into 6 paddocks allowing rotational grazing. After 1-3 years when its level again and a good scraw has formed in it I could let cattle back in. Good or bad idea?

fanadman1

good enough idea sheep wont be a bother on it i graze naerly all my sheep on wet land. only problem i find is that i have to take great care of there feet. I find that the wet land leaves them very prone to foot rot but then again this could be my land aswell.

Birdnuts

Fluke and footrot could be issues. I have some boggy land myself but only use if for sheep after a decent dry spell.

just do it

What sheep and how many should i get?

Whilst the land is wet I think if I get an even solid top layer then drainage will improve as the water will no longer get trapped by the poach marks and rushes. Fluke is treatable but footrot is a royal pain in the 'ole.

razor8

Sheep will definitely level the field but the cows would make crap of it again in a water if weeks if the weather not favourable

Once you keep the woollies for awhile you'll want to keep them!!

MayoAreMagic

I would say the optimal option would be mountain blackface ewes ran with a texel ram. They are less susceptible to footrot, will look after themselves and if managed well should have lambs fit for the factory as light lambs. Another breed would have you dealing with bad hooves an awful lot more and if you aren't used to doing that then it is trouble you don't need. The mountain ewes mightn't give you the biggest strongest lamb that the factory will get, but the job would look after itself to a greater extent than with other breeds.

They have a bad reputation for breaking out, but as long as the field is reasonably fenced and they have grass in front of them, they should be ok.

skoger

If you don't want the hassle of lambing you could buy ewe lambs with a view to selling as replacement hoggets next year.