How many lambs per acre

You will need about 15 square feet for each ewe. So in the example of a ewe flock, you would need about 15 x , or 4, square feet for the sheep. The exact amount will depend on your production system. Dry non-lactating ewes need only modest protection, even in winter, if they are well fed, while ewes with January baby lambs need more. Most older dairy barns, machine sheds and outbuildings can be converted to excellent quarters for sheep. But remember, sheep should have an open, cold, dry barn rather than a tight, warm, humid barn.

They wear sheepskin coats and do well in the cold, except for when baby lambs are born. Machinery and Equipment: Do you have the equipment and machinery to harvest hay, clip pastures, clean barns, etc.? Or can you arrange with a neighbor to do this? Or should you plan on purchasing hay? If you only need about tons of hay, it may be cheaper and easier to buy the hay than to make it.

This might also allow you to increase your ewe numbers. What about sheep equipment? You will need proper fences high-tensile electric , corrals, sorting pens, lambing pens, etc.

You will also need small pieces of equipment for foot trimming, tail docking, ear tagging, and possibly for shearing. Markets: How will you market your products? Are you planning to sell hot-house lambs, feeder lambs, freezer lambs, market lambs, breeding stock, wool or all of the above? Are you planning to sell on a seasonal basis or have an even cash flow with the lambs for sale throughout the year?

Your market is a valuable resource that must be studied and cultivated. Labor: Do you have the time to properly care for the sheep? Sheep probably respond more to proper care and attention than any other farm animal. For the most part, the labor is not hard, but they require quality time and quality labor.

Timeliness of sheep management tasks is very important. You must have time to do the jobs when required and not put them off until next week or next month. You must have time to observe the animals and recognize their needs. Capital: Do you have the capital or money available to get started, hold you until the sheep are in full production and maybe see you through some dips? Finances are individual, so we cannot give much information here.

You need to carefully evaluate your financial resources before starting a sheep enterprise. Compare sheep with other alternatives. Attitude: What is your attitude toward sheep? Do you like them? Would you be willing to brave cold rains or snowstorms to feed and care for them?

Would you be willing to miss a ball game or a social event to be sure the sheep were protected from marauding dogs or coyotes? Do you enjoy late night checks in the lambing barn? If not, sheep may not be for you. Once you evaluate your resources, you can set up an overall management system that will use them efficiently and be profitable.

Sheep are amazingly adaptable. Using different breeds and systems, you can set and meet your production goals. The goals you set will depend on your resources, abilities, the ability of the sheep and the products you hope to produce. Wool -- Probably sold at wool pool or developed as a specialty market for spinning or felting. Milk -- Sheep's milk for cheese is popular in some areas of the world, but milk breeds aren't very common in the United States.

TIP: You can easily sub-divide pastures with temporary, electric sheep netting. Purdue recommends that rotational grazing on a combination of seasonal pasture and year-round pasture works best in most climates.

They suggest subdividing the 30 acres into three 10 acre fields. Each field has a suggested sheep stocking rate of 10 ewes and 15 lambs per acre. You would divide each of these three fields into paddocks and managed as follows:. The 10 acres used for this section of your sheep pasture will be planted, plowed, and re-planted with temporary, seasonal crops throughout the year.

Purdue recommends the following crops for temporary grazing for sheep:. The winter forages pasture will be seeded with tall fescue grasses, can be harvested for hay in May or grazed by ewes and lambs , a second crop will be harvested in late summer, and late fall grazing is also available here.

In addition to your climate and the quality of forages available on your pasture, other considerations you should make when determining the ideal number of sheep per acre of pasture on your farm are:.

Smaller sheep will typically consume less forage, so you may be able to graze more sheep per acre of pasture. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly. You should upgrade or use an alternative browser. Stocking Sheep per acre. Thread starter Benn Start date Oct 14, Benn Member. Hi all This question may be impossible to answer but I'd like a rough idea how many sheep could keep per acre I'm in south west all feilds pp on heavy'ish ground.

At minute I got 15 ewes and a ram on four and quarter acres,which split into five paddocks so I'm hoping that be enough to keep them on with lambs. The farm got another 26acees and another ten acres that can rent. Is split most feilds into acre paddocks and rotate. Location Welshman living in Nottinghamshire.

There llyens and they be around kg. Depending how many ewes I could have they be put to either llyen or llyen and Char Rams. Location Ceredigion, wales. Benn said:. Click to expand Location North Lincolnshire. In a similar theme, what kind of stocking density do people use for stubble turnips? Looking to strip graze from now till end of March Frank-the-Wool Member. Location East Sussex.

A good rule of thumb on PP improved grass is around 4. Being in the S W you might get away with 1. The stubble turnip question is the same as "how long is a piece of string"! You can do it scientifically by taking a square meter measurement and then working out the dry matter. It all goes wrong though if you get bad weather!! Ok so max ewe per acre can keep all year round on 30 acres would be around 45 breeding ewes?