I’ve been wanting to get some sheep but was hesitant due to the need to spend several thousand dollars on fencing. It would take a while to recoup my investment! Then the other night I fell asleep putting my two year old son to bed. I woke up halfway through the night and was wide awake unable to sleep. I sat there pondering what the solution to sheep might be and it hit me! Like all the other small animals in regenerative agriculture why don’t I try a sheep tractor?
How many sheep could a 16×16 tractor support? 1in of grass is approximately 300lbs of dry matter per acre. Sheep need 1.5% to 2.0% of dry matter per Lb. of body weight. Dorper is my sheep of choice and ewes are 175 to 200 Lbs. That gives me an approximate dry matter requirement of 3 – 4 Lbs. per sheep. Lets assume our grass is 12+ in tall.
12in grass x 300lbs = 3600lbs dry matter/ acre
1 acre = 43560ft²
43560ft² / 3600lbs = 12.1ft² per pound of dry matter
16ft x 16ft = 256ft² / 12.1ft² = 21.1Lbs dry matter per tractor.
If I plan on moving twice a day that’s a total of 42Lbs of dry matter
42Lbs/4Lbs per sheep = 10 sheep.
Now I know what you’re thinking… That’s a lot of sheep for that small of a space! And you’re right! But there are a few more issues that I haven’t accounted for. I don’t want them to consume all 12in of grass. And what if my grass isn’t 12in? What if I only have 6in of consumable grass? Maybe 5 sheep is a more reasonable number. I know this is all still strictly hypothetical so maybe I only have 4 sheep per tractor. Does this fit my requirements? Maybe! 🙂
I’m not looking to start out with a large flock. I was thinking somewhere between 5 – 10 sheep but I might need to adjust that number based on how many tractors I want to build. I want to invest as little as possible so lets see how the numbers stack up!
Tractor Design and Cost
The simplest solution I’ve come up with is to use hog panels and 2x4s with some metal to use for bracing. Not everyone has access to a welder so it would be a huge benefit if my design didn’t require welding. I’ve worked with hog panels and I think they’d be plenty strong enough to if I used a 2×4 or 2×6 to support them laterally. At the time of this writing I haven’t put anything together but will go with this idea for the sake of argument.
4 16ft hog panels at tractor supply would cost about $128
2 2x6x16 per hog panel comes to about $90 at Home Depot
Harbor Freight has wheel barrow tires for $15 so another $60 for 4 wheels.
Staples screws bolts and other hardware I might need might be another $100
That brings me to a total of $380 or $400 per tractor or $100/sheep
Ouch! If I consider my original goal of 10 sheep that puts my infrastructure expense to $1200
Should I change my mind?
At that price I might consider some other options. I do want to build a heavy perimeter fence someday but thought the price would be out of reach. How much money would it be? I just hopped on Google Earth to draw a line around the property and came up with about 1500Ft of fence. I’ve worked out the cost of self installed fencing to be about $1/Ft for 6 strand high tensile fence and as much as 2.50/ Ft for heavy duty 4ft tall woven wire fence. If I allow $250 for a fencer that gives me a total investment of $1750. I’d still want to do intensive grazing so lets throw in another $300 for two sets of poultry netting for a total of $2050. That’s almost double the amount but then again I could support double the animals.
My Options
Option 1: Build three tractors for $1200 which could probably support 10 Sheep plus some lambs
Pros: Easy to move! Access to more area since I could graze the yard and other areas that wouldn’t be available with permanent fencing.
Cons: I’d have to move them pretty often which could be good and bad.
Option 2: High tensile fence for the perimeter, netting to subdivide and charger for a total of $2200.
Pros: More flexibility on paddock size. Able to support more sheep. Able to take care of some of the scrubby brush I have. Fits my longer term goals
Cons: Higher cost. I have to decide on an exact fence line.
OR!
Option 3: Skip the permanent fence and purchase two Premier One 164′ netting and a solar charger for $550
Pros: Can easily purchase additional netting for larger paddock. Flexible size. Multiple uses. Could use it to graze yard or other spaces not available to permanent fencing. Could easily add perimeter fence later.
Cons: More difficult to move. That fact combined with my laziness will probably result in lower stocking density. Also might be an issue in taller grass.
Conclusion
With all that in mind I think buying the netting might be a better choice. It has a smaller initial cost and I think would hold quite a few more sheep. Maybe I should do the calculations!
164Ft Roll / 4 = 41ft x 41ft Paddock
41 x 41 = 1681ft² / 12.1ft per pound = 138.9 pounds / 4Lbs per sheep = 34 Full grown sheep. This is still at the 12″ of usable forage which is too much in my opinion. still lowering that to 6″ of usable forage = 17 Sheep with just two sets of netting. Adding an additional set of netting would bring my cost to $700 but double my paddock size and carrying capacity.
If my main objective is truly to have as many sheep as possible with as little infrastructure cost as possible then the clear choice is the netting. The only reason whatsoever to go with the tractors would be for ease of moving when limited to a small flock. This has been good! From a writing perspective this was awful! I started out saying that sheep tractors were the way to go and promptly talked myself out of it! Oh well 😀
Lets get some sheep!
