Rotational Grazing

Rotational grazing has been an intention from the start but seems slow coming. Secure boundary fences are needed first. Almost there. I have been using temporary fence. Polytwine can be easily put up and taken down but it is time consuming. This has been good as I learn the lay of the land and how best to arrange padocks. I think a plan is forming, and I am ready for some permanent fences to section the fields. These will be high tensil wire anchored to a single permanet wood post on each end with plastic/fiberglass line posts. One of these posts was planted in mid November. It has not been extremely wet here so perhaps an error to start, but I wanted to get one in the ground. First 20 inches of digging, no problem. Next 16 inches, like chiseling through rock. A very slow process, but being one to finish what I start, I persevered to a three foot depth. Post in ground, not wide enough at the bottom of the hole. Post would not go in all the way. had to pull it out and do a little bit of carving out the sides.

Now I have a post hole digger for the Ford 8N. Under such conditions it tends to stop drilling at about 18 inches. With no downward hydraulic pressure, it just spins. Being I was only doing one post, the shovel was more expedient than attaching the auger to the tractor. I did second guess this decision after I hit hard clay but I also second guessed the entire decision to dig the hold in the first place. Then I wondered why I am even raising sheep. Post in the ground and satisfaction of a job done and all is good. Sheep still have a home.

So the plan is to place fencing on all the white lines. Between the woods and the pasture, that fence is up. This will privde four padocks from 1 - 2.5 acres in size. The larger ones may still be subdivided by some temporary fence. All depends on the productivity of the field and duration of the grazing period. Hopefully, no more than five days per confined area.

The next challenge, besides putting up all the fence, getting water to all of these padocks.

In case you are wondering about the map, go to http://mylandplan.org/. This is a great tool for mapping your property.