Mixed grazing

nqtfarmer

Hi there, I’ve been to the tullamore open farm and know they mix the cattle and sheep. But I’m just wondering how other farms manage mixed grazing? It must be difficult to take out a sick cow/separate ewes from cows etc in such a system. Plus the infrastructure required, slot of fencing, different crushes etc. Would you keep both herds separate and try have sheep follow cattle?

I says

nqtfarmer wrote: »

Hi there, I’ve been to the tullamore open farm and know they mix the cattle and sheep. But I’m just wondering how other farms manage mixed grazing? It must be difficult to take out a sick cow/separate ewes from cows etc in such a system. Plus the infrastructure required, slot of fencing, different crushes etc. Would you keep both herds separate and try have sheep follow cattle?

Follow gaulstownfarm on Twitter he’ll help you

Donald Trump

It would be very straightforward to separate them. Cattle and sheep that is. No issues taking one animal out. Well no more than only having one type of animal in a field.

Siamsa Sessions

Only really getting started here with cattle and sheep in the same field but a few things I noticed:

* Sheep and cattle will tend to separate into their own species when you go to move them, or try get one of either out of the field. That makes it a bit easier to take either out of the field

* You need sheep fencing, or they'll wander all over the place under wire. We have sheep fencing here (in most places!) and a single strand of electric fence 5-6 inches above it. Same for gaps going into fields/paddocks: you need a gate for sheep, or equivalent, whereas a strand of electric fence would do cattle

* Difficult to feed one species and not the other. Had to move calves last year as I was giving them meal but the sheep were eating it and the calves were intimidated out of the way

* Will be trying to make sheep follow the cattle/calves this year but didn't try it last year. Should work if you have fencing/paddocks in place. Ideally, I think cattle should be in the field for 3 days, then sheep for 2-3 days before the grass starts to regrow. They probably don't have to follow them all the time, but it'd be a bonus if they could

* It works! The worm burden was definitely lower for lambs here last year and the calves were fine too. The biggest benefit here was getting the fields/paddocks grazed out in a few days and then moving everything on. Previously, we didn't have enough mouths to get thru the size of the fields/paddocks and they were staying in there for 10 days or more

Another mixed grazing guy to check on Twitter is John Pringle. Seems to be a top operator

forgottenhills

nqtfarmer wrote: »

Hi there, I’ve been to the tullamore open farm and know they mix the cattle and sheep. But I’m just wondering how other farms manage mixed grazing? It must be difficult to take out a sick cow/separate ewes from cows etc in such a system. Plus the infrastructure required, slot of fencing, different crushes etc. Would you keep both herds separate and try have sheep follow cattle?

My father used to mix sheep and cattle on the same land and it worked very well. Now it wasn't a paddock based system but fencing was good (and sheep weren't the mountainy type which helps). Each would keep to their own herd/flock so separating was never an issue.

Sheep were left out all year round and were great at cleaning up pasture land over the winter, removing any rough leftover grass and many types of weeds so ensuring grass coming up in the spring was good quality.

nqtfarmer

Thanks very much, must take a look at those pages. It would be a great idea for a part of our farm but would be fearful the workload would increase a lot for the effort involved. How many sheep to how many cows? Let’s say you graze 15 cattle for 3 days per paddock, how many sheep would be the equivalent?

Buford T. Justice XIX

nqtfarmer wrote: »

Thanks very much, must take a look at those pages. It would be a great idea for a part of our farm but would be fearful the workload would increase a lot for the effort involved. How many sheep to how many cows? Let’s say you graze 15 cattle for 3 days per paddock, how many sheep would be the equivalent?

The old saying here was 5 rabbits equals 1 ewe and 5 ewes equals 1 cow.

nqtfarmer

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Only really getting started here with cattle and sheep in the same field but a few things I noticed:

* Sheep and cattle will tend to separate into their own species when you go to move them, or try get one of either out of the field. That makes it a bit easier to take either out of the field

* You need sheep fencing, or they'll wander all over the place under wire. We have sheep fencing here (in most places!) and a single strand of electric fence 5-6 inches above it. Same for gaps going into fields/paddocks: you need a gate for sheep, or equivalent, whereas a strand of electric fence would do cattle

* Difficult to feed one species and not the other. Had to move calves last year as I was giving them meal but the sheep were eating it and the calves were intimidated out of the way

* Will be trying to make sheep follow the cattle/calves this year but didn't try it last year. Should work if you have fencing/paddocks in place. Ideally, I think cattle should be in the field for 3 days, then sheep for 2-3 days before the grass starts to regrow. They probably don't have to follow them all the time, but it'd be a bonus if they could

* It works! The worm burden was definitely lower for lambs here last year and the calves were fine too. The biggest benefit here was getting the fields/paddocks grazed out in a few days and then moving everything on. Previously, we didn't have enough mouths to get thru the size of the fields/paddocks and they were staying in there for 10 days or more

Another mixed grazing guy to check on Twitter is John Pringle. Seems to be a top operator

Do you lamb ewes also? We’re autumn calving here so a spring lamb would be a great benefit to cash flow. Do you find it much extra work I.e maggots, shearing etc?

Siamsa Sessions

nqtfarmer wrote: »

Do you lamb ewes also? We’re autumn calving here so a spring lamb would be a great benefit to cash flow. Do you find it much extra work I.e maggots, shearing etc?

Yeah, we lamb ewes here. It’s mostly sheep we have but building calf/cattle numbers at the moment too.

If you’re set up with fencing and a decent yard there’s not that much work with sheep. Lambing is straightforward and the work really is keeping lambs right for the 5 months they’re around. Lameness and worms cause lack of thrive and then the odd one will just die for the sake of it too.

The most basic question is, do you like sheep? If yes, then give them a go. If not, then don’t coz you’ll end up tearing your hair out with them!

jfh

Lambing sheep is not for everyone! You'd want to love them and not be in it for the money, watch them like a hawk, ewes with big teats, triples, ewes not taking to lambs, foxes, footrot when they're in sheds, want the patience of a Saint

stantheman1979

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Yeah, we lamb ewes here. It’s mostly sheep we have but building calf/cattle numbers at the moment too.

If you’re set up with fencing and a decent yard there’s not that much work with sheep. Lambing is straightforward and the work really is keeping lambs right for the 5 months they’re around. Lameness and worms cause lack of thrive and then the odd one will just die for the sake of it too.

The most basic question is, do you like sheep? If yes, then give them a go. If not, then don’t coz you’ll end up tearing your hair out with them!

You have to like sheep to keep them that’s for sure but once you’ve good fencing and yard it’s half the battle. We’ve always mixed grazed sucklers and sheep together here. 5 years ago we had 140 sucklers and 700 sheep but gradually we’ve reduced the cow numbers as no matter how efficient we were we couldn’t make a decent profit. Only 20 cows left and 1600 sheep!! Call me crazy id probably agree with you.

Siamsa Sessions

stantheman1979 wrote: »

You have to like sheep to keep them that’s for sure but once you’ve good fencing and yard it’s half the battle. We’ve always mixed grazed sucklers and sheep together here. 5 years ago we had 140 sucklers and 700 sheep but gradually we’ve reduced the cow numbers as no matter how efficient we were we couldn’t make a decent profit. Only 20 cows left and 1600 sheep!! Call me crazy id probably agree with you.

You're with good company - the Journal's Tullamore Farm also increased ewe numbers almost as soon as they started. Think they went from 150 to 220 in their second year. Not sure they can drop cow numbers though - it'd kinda undermine the reason for setting up in the first place.

stantheman1979

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

You're with good company - the Journal's Tullamore Farm also increased ewe numbers almost as soon as they started. Think they went from 150 to 220 in their second year. Not sure they can drop cow numbers though - it'd kinda undermine the reason for setting up in the first place.

They probably couldn’t. It says it all when a farm set up to show us all what to do and where we’re going wrong is struggling to make a profit from sucklers. Don’t get me wrong I love looking at nice beef cattle that’s why we kept 20. We have converted 2 slatted sheds into sheep sheds and are doing much better with sheep