Sheep tractor size for regenerative agriculture?

Hi all! We recently purchased these two East Friesian lambs, with the idea that they'll become our future dairy sheep. We'd like to create a sheep tractor for them to give them more protection, less chance of them escaping the fence somewhere, and fixing our land with the ability to rotate them! We have half an acre paddock for them to use, as well as areas around the house etc that they can mow.

Something like this:



The plan is to move them every day. I know it may be a long shot, but would anyone here have a good idea of how big said sheep tractor should be so it actually helps the land as well as the sheep (Thinking regenerative agriculture livestock rotation)? The fodder on the paddock isn't top quality, so we'll be feeding them some hay (which we've found helps plant out the paddock too), and grain. In the future they'll also have their lambs with them for a few months (we could build a second bigger one when that time comes if needed).

Any input would be much appreciated, thanks!

That example pen would be big enough for a pair of rabbits, keeping sheep in it is inhumane, it's the same as keeping them in a stable all their lives. I tried tractoring chickens, I had a big chicken tractor 1.5m by 3m and only 4 chickens. but they cannot run they cannot fly they cannot be chickens. a sheep tractor will cause exactly the same issues. You would also need to move it every couple of hours, unless you make it truely huge and with wheels or something to help move. The pen in the picture will also not keep anything that may want to eat sheep out but will stop the sheep having any chance of escaping even if just long enough for you to turn up and save it. in my opinion you would be better off using movable electric fencing like poultry netting, you can also fit that into odd shapes like lawns and strips down the sides of houses. SHeep tractor/fencing this is the kind of idea I am thinking of.

I know a guy that has a vary small tractor for his sheep and goats, but he has a winch set up so it moves a few inches every few minutes, effectively covering a hundred feet per day.

R Scott wrote:I know a guy that has a vary small tractor for his sheep and goats, but he has a winch set up so it moves a few inches every few minutes, effectively covering a hundred feet per day.

I would love to see this set up. any chance you can get some photos?

I don't have any picture sharing ability, but you can search on Facebook for "Dave Hawkins RoboPen" and find pictures and descriptions.

I spent some time on a farm that used pvc tractors like the one shown but a bit bigger.

They sucked; the pvc is not robust enough at the sizes desired, on mildly rough ground. Plenty of repairs and escapes involved. Lots of moving required.

A winch setup sounds like a really cool way to improve this, but portable fencing still seems preferable if at all possible..

We only used them for some oddball areas, mostly the sheep were pastured in 1/2 acre paddocks.

Justin Rhodes on youtube has a couple videos on his.  Electroplastic fencing might be a simpler option.  

for calculating how much space they need in a day, something like this would help: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs144p2_013846.pdf.

(looking at the link I'm not sure it lays everything out right)
Basics are: calculate how much they eat per day, calculate how much dry matter you have per acre (the pasture map link says multiply grass height in inches * 200 to get a rough estimate of poundage. don't forget you don't want them grazing below a certain height, based on what your pasture is made up of) and make sure you have a ~30 day resting period.


Ah, this looks a little more straightforward: https://www.ag.ndsu.edu/publications/livestock/determining-carrying-capacity-and-stocking-rates-for-range-and-pasture-in-north-dakota

or this one: https://pasturemap.com/pasture-inventory-estimate-available-dry-matter/

If you don't want to use the electric netting, I would recommend a wagon-wheel setup, with the water and shelter in the center. if you use permanent fencing I'd make the slices big enough to be usable when they're adults.

ETA: those are some of the cutest sheep I've ever seen in my life!