J. T. Everett

You bring up some good points I hadn’t really thought all the way through yet… the water issue. Right now I use food grade barrels and I cut diamond-shaped holes in the sides just above the 15 gallon mark. It allows geese to stick their head and neck in and drink/clear their bills, but they can’t get in the water and poop. I don’t think a sheep head would fit. I may end up having to do a taller and larger hole for them so that the geese don’t bother their barrel. Geese are always coming back with dirt in their mouth and after a few days there’s silt on the bottom.

As for shelter, I’ve not provided the geese anything. I do try and rotate them into paddocks with shade trees in the heat of summer. The Embdens and Tolouse get heat stress more easily than my Africans or Buffs. I do have a 24Lx 12D lean-to that has an unused half available. There’s a chicken composing system in the other side, so they’d be roommates if they used it but it may work.

Sheep breeds that are seasonal breeders? I didn’t really know that that was a thing lol I figured that they’d do it, well all the time if they were together. My neighbor keeps a large flock of blue faced leicesters and I really like them. He says that have issues with barber pole worms and they need shearing too. Seemed like a bit more to handle for a rookie to sheep like myself… which is why I was leaning Barbados. Parasite loads probably won’t be as bad with the. And there’s no shearing! Those blue faced that he has are very big also, some of those ewes look like they’re 150lbs even when shorn. I’m sure they eat a good bit more than a tiny Barbados would.

We have all kinds of predators here. I see foxes regularly. Racoons, minks, opossums are around often. I hear coyotes every night but haven’t had any in my yard (that I know of). On the side of my property with the neighbors they have all those sheep running with some real nasty llamas that allegedly kick coyotes to death… so I’m good coming from that side bit we are also up against a good bit of woodlands where they could stalk the sheep from. I’ve been really working on clearing the brush the last few days to make sure that the electric netting can be a hot enough perimeter for them. I use a 2joule intellishock and I’ve not had a predator take any of my fowl. Hopefully I can continue that success with the sheep.

I’m on about 4.6 acres but after removing pond and house and some other things it’s really more like 2.8 usable acres. I’ve been rotational grazing geese for two seasons pretty well on my small acreage. During the winter when there is snow over the ground I feed fermented grains, a flock raiser type feed, frozen peas in a bucket of water, and I’ve yet to try wheat straw but I’ve heard it works too.

I started with only three geese, then there was fifteen… yea you’re gonna need to process some for meat, it’s fantastic. I keep 7 adult breeders and then every winter I harvest that years goslings at 20-24 weeks of age.

Elena Sparks wrote:If you do rotational grazing, you'll probably be fine with two or three sheep. I will warn you that you'll need to have a plan in place for lambs (assuming you get a breeding trio, or get ewes  find a ram nearby). They multiply fairy fast, and it can be super easy to forget your goal number and end up with tons of sheep (speaking from experience), so make sure you're willing to butcher or sell any sheep that go over your max. Goats may do better with your pasture, but sheep will probably do pretty well. They will eat any and all trees, so if you want to keep your trees living, only run the sheep with the trees that are big enough that the branches won't be eaten. If your grass grows quickly, you may even be able to run five or six, if you managed it well. I'd run the geese with the sheep, if I were you. We've tried running our chickens (before we got geese) with, after, and before the flock of sheep, goats, cows, and alpacas, and running with was definitely the best. If you run them before, they will eat too much for the sheep to have any, and they will contaminate everything else. Running them afterwards means the sheep will have eaten the best grasses, and the geese won't want to eat the rest. If you run them together, then they will balance each other out. The 164 fences are nice because they're so long, but I wouldn't recommend the ones with stiff inner poles. The inner poles themselves were great, but the fences were too hard to tension and the gaps in the netting itself were to big. We've only ever lost two sheep to the net fence, and they were both to a 164 footer. Maybe do two 100 footers to make a fifty by fifty foot paddock? There are also 50 footers, but they fall apart super easily and are actually longer than fifty feet. I will note that with sheep you need to be super careful to balance how much they need to eat out of the pasture, and how much they want to eat out of the pasture. If you push them too long and force them to eat too much off of it, they will learn to break out of the netting (sounds impossible, but believe me when I tell you it isn't, lol). On the other hand, they will often think they're done when they've eaten their favorite bits and nothing else, so make sure that you know the right balance.
All in all, I think your plan sounds pretty good!

Thank you for your input! You raise some good points regarding the netting. I have some of the 80 foot nets I can use but no 50 footers. I think grazing the geese alongside the sheep will work fine, I just hope the geese aren’t too mean. They can be a bit cantankerous…

I expect there will be a learning curve as I’ve never raised ruminant animals. I do plan on getting two ewes and an unrelated ram. I was going to try and use the ram aprons to keep breedings scheduled (perhaps it’s wishful thinking). I hope the apron actually works and I can keep them from breeding till November/December. If it fails I do have a large garage and a chicken shed that can be modified to be a lambing stall LOL

I do plan on raising the lambs produced for meat. Barbados are not very big so I doubt I’ll be setting any carcass records but I think they make up for it in their parasite resistance and durability.

I was doing math and taking measurements of the property and I can have something like 41 paddocks depending on how I set up the netting. I don’t think I will need to rest longer than that between moves. I have accepted that 24-48 hrs maximum will be spent on each paddock.

As for the trees I would like a few cedar to stay and be windbreaks and privacy between my neighbors property and mine but everything else I wouldn’t mind if they ate completely gone. I though maybe goats would be better, but I’m just not big fan of goats for some reason. I’ve heard they’re even harder to contain than sheep and they will graze standing up on hind legs. They just seemed wilder. I’ve also never ate goat meat. I find lamb/ some mutton to be delicious

As title suggests I am considering adding sheep to my property. I currently keep chickens, geese, and Muscovy ducks. The chickens have a coop they share with Muscovy ducks. My geese are rotated around lawn using electric netting. I’ve been practicing rotating a medium sized flock of about 20 geese depending on time of year (I keep 7 adult breeders).

The geese cannot eat all the forage / grass on their own and I detest spending money mowing grass. I found Barbados sheep nearby-ish and have been reading on their qualities (prolific, parasite resistant, both sexes polled, hair sheep, rams tend to be wary of human interaction).

My only concern is if I add two or three, will I run out of forage for them? I’m on 4.7 acres in southern Indiana. We get good rainfall and grass grows abundantly.
If I quit mowing I envisioned the sheep grazing grass down short enough to be appealing to geese who could rotate with or after them. I envisioned using a one or maybe two of 164’ netting and making paddocks that I can leapfrog when it’s rotation time. Probably every day or maybe at most every theee days in the wooded areas.

In the winter I may get a few round bales from a neighbor to get them through when there’s snow on ground. I plan on ranging them outdoors completely, Greg Judy style- but ok much smaller scale. The chicken shed/barn has the ability to convert into a stall using some framing boards and pallets if we’re getting horrible conditions.

I attached some photos of the property from above and took some of the “wooded” areas on foot. There is tons of undergrowth in the form of autumn olive, honeysuckle, black locust, and invasive bramble shrubs / vines. I have been copacing / trimming the larger shrubs to make them grow back at a grazing level smaller sheep could reach.

Am I insane to attempt this? And input from sheep people would be wonderful. Scrutinize away!

How old are your geese? Mine were hatched this year and I imagine have some growing to do yet.

I recently purchased a trio of geese and love having them around. I have a Tolouse, an African, and a white Chinese. All are unique in their dispositions and personalities and found their place among a flock of chickens. The geese are very low maintenance, I do not understand why they aren’t more popular.

The noise from the white Chinese does far exceed that of the others, but I have grown to enjoy hearing them all chatter. They are more alert to things coming and going from the area than our dogs are. All of mine were raised from day one with children and dogs, for the most part there is never any serious infractions.

Sometimes the children are a bit much for them and I do think that geese are a bit like the “fun police” in the yard. They are very fond of order and routine and they almost demand a calm environment. Mine expect walks around the property and yell at me if I’m late letting them out. I was able to imprint well enough to call them to me, which I rather enjoy nothing quite like yelling for them and having them answer and come running excited to see you.

Thanks everyone! I also looked at the MSDS and gave them a rinse. I did notice a few dead patches in grass where the rinse occurred, likely from not diluting with enough water before dumping the barrel out.

I’ve been on the lookout for food grade plastic barrels in my area and found some finally. They’re from a pickle factory and were full of 88% lactic acid.

I’m under the impression this is a concentrated vinegar and is safe to reuse for rainwater catchment to water garden and livestock, following plenty of barrel rinsing.

This is my first rainwater catching endeavor and I’m wondering if anyone with more experience can weigh in and tell me if these barrels are not good for what I’ll be doing with them. Should anything be done aside from rinse?