grazing cattle and sheep together

[City Guy]

I'm convinced that sheep and cattle in the same operation has more benefits than problems but I have a couple questions.
1. In a rotational grazing system do you run them together or follow one with the other? Which should come first?

2. What ratio (#cattle to #sheep) is good? Any rules of thumb? Assume that cattle are the main crop. I know this depends on many factors but give me a place to start, please. Rule that makes most sense to me so far is one ewe per two cows, but I have heard MUCH higher (in favor of the sheep) than that!

 

[ANAZAZI]

I'm convinced that sheep and cattle in the same operation has more benefits than problems but I have a couple questions.
1. In a rotational grazing system do you run them together or follow one with the other? Which should come first?

2. What ratio (#cattle to #sheep) is good? Any rules of thumb? Assume that cattle are the main crop. I know this depends on many factors but give me a place to start, please. Rule that makes most sense to me so far is one ewe per two cows, but I have heard MUCH higher (in favor of the sheep) than that!

often it is more sensible to do one thing good than to do two things poorly. Adding sheep to a cattle operation may or may not involve lots of work. Sheep require other fences. If Holistic planned grazing is applied seriously the need for multi species out of a parasite perspective is very low. One cow with a calf eats what five sheep with lambs eat. Mixing them in the same paddock means way more fence work by putting them separate you need to move sheep fences only for sheep and can use the much faster polywire for cattle. Ratio between them does not really matter, if you alternate sheep and catttle you might want five times as many sheep so they eat the same. if roaming more freely one ewe per cow is reasonably safe parasite wise, more sheep than that the cattle do not clean the sheep parasites off well enough. Do not put sheep directly after cows in a rotation, they will suffer. If they are few enough they could go the day before the cattle to eat thistles and forbs, then again if they are few they might roam freely within the farm to save fence work. Just making a perimeter fence sheep proof is a lot of work. Properly managed cattle have no real benefit from sheep, in less than ideal situations one might say the sheep are good at keeping the weeds down.

 

[callmefence]

Cows and wool sheep compete with each other directly for grass. Hair sheep on the other hand are browsers much like deer or goats and on some property's complement cattle well. The sheep are run behind the cattle and eat the weeds and brush the cattle won't.
My property is quite diverse. About half in good pasture land and half in rough Rocky country. I ran sheep and cattle for years. Finally gave up sheep, as anazazi said one can only do so much. We always counted 8 sheep as one au

 

[Ebenezer]

One ewe per cow and you will never know that the ewe is there. Lambs need the best forage like heifers do the best on it. Fences are all the same here regardless of species. But you have to want both. Water systems have to be modified: drinking heights and ball waterers. Watch the cow minerals: copper.

 

[City Guy]

Ebenezer; Please expound on your warning about copper.
Also, do you see any down side to running them together as a flerd?
Please describe the fence you use that contains both species. Thanx

 

[Ebenezer]

Copper over a low PPM will eventually kill sheep. Big difference in cow and sheep minerals. Know that or dig a hole to bury sheep. All positives on multispecies grazing. Fences are electric HT fences. A few woven wire fences for security.

 

[1wlimo]

Copper over a low PPM will eventually kill sheep. Big difference in cow and sheep minerals. Know that or dig a hole to bury sheep. All positives on multispecies grazing. Fences are electric HT fences. A few woven wire fences for security.

Yes sheep are very copper sensitive, but then they also need some. In a low copper area actually had to inject ewes pre lambing to prevent sway back in lambs.

Can use triple ploy wire to fence for sheep, easy to move and much faster than the woven electric wire.

 

[Ebenezer]

Go ahead and shoot me in the head if I have to go back to moving portable net fences. Not me, unless I'm serving for 99 years of hard labor.

 

[Creeksidelc]

We have both cattle and sheep and rotationally graze them in one flerd. They do fine together. Most of our cross fencing is 3 wire electric and does fine with the sheep. 1 out of 100 sheep in this past year figured out that she could go through it. She got shipped shortly after.