3-4 day rotation = ~900 sq ft per animal.33 Cows (AUs) / Acre = 165 Sheep / Acre (Using 0.2 AU).So that means I’ll be making 60’圆0′ paddocks (out of electric fencing) in addition to lanes for the sheep to follow to get to each paddock.įinally, I calculated out how many times I would have to move the sheep to allow the paddocks 30 days of rest between grazing. Square paddocks are recommended as opposed to rectangular or wedge-shaped which do not tend to get evenly grazed. Multiply by 4 sheep and we get to 3,600 square feet per paddock. That means I will increase the spacing by 3.5, which is ~900 sq ft per sheep. But I have a day job, so I’m settling for twice per week. Once per day seems to be a desirable number in most of the literature. The grazing periods should be as frequent as you can handle, no more than 5 days per paddock. Since our mature sheep are approximately 200 lbs, they will need 1/5th the space, or 264 sq ft. My last question was, how big do I need to make the paddocks and how many of them do I need? If MIRG requires 33 cows per acre, that equates to 1,320 square feet per cow. But for the purposes of getting started, I am going with the 33 AU number. It could be as low as 25 AUs or high as 80 AUs. Keep in mind, this is dependent on the pasture productivity. So that’s 33 cows, or about 33,000 pounds. The MIRG approach assumes 33 AUs per acre per day. The calculations use “Animal Units” or AU’s which are a livestock standard based on a mature 1,000 pound cow. Thanks to a University of Minnesota Extension presentation, I was able to get some hard numbers and convert them for our farm. My second question was, how do I size the paddocks for the number of sheep I have? The numbers are all over the map on this, and “stocking density” isn’t a terribly popular subject online. As long as the space requirements are met, the benefits of rotational grazing applies to 4 sheep just as much as 40,000. The answer appears to be yes I have found no literature saying there is a minimum amount of animals required. My first question was, can MIRG be used with a small scale of animals? We have 3 ewes and 1 ram currently, expecting lambs this Spring. Since acquiring our sheep last Summer I have had this nagging desire to figure out MIRG and apply it to our farm. This was brought to my attention by the compelling TED talk by Allan Savory, a pioneer in the field of holistic land management. If pastures are not grazed they turn into deserts. Rather than continually depleting the soil and subsidizing with chemical fertilizers, MIRG allows me to build healthier pastures that are self-sustaining.Ĭontrary to what it may seem, grazing is necessary to healthy pastures. ![]() ![]() MIRG and techniques like it build up far larger amounts of topsoil than any other known method.
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