Sheep keepers - what infrastructure do you wish you had?

We have ~100 hilly acres, but the front 30-40 acres is mostly cleared, and I am wanting to run hair sheep on it, with the eventual goal of selling pastured lamb.  I will be starting with a small flock, but eventually want to increase the size substantially (in addition to also using the area for pigs, potentially a few small cattle, and chickens), and want to frontload my planning, infrastructure, and investment, instead of cobbling things together as I go.  I don't necessarily need a sheep working pen that can handle 100 ewes if I only have 10, but I'd like a setup that I can adjust and expand without needing to redo it completely as (knowing myself) I'd just "make it work" and struggle/be frustrated the whole time, or conversely with nothing to handle emergencies resulting in panic solutions.

My plans include:
A fully secure exterior high tensile wire + electric line on top fence.  This allows me to tap into the electric line running the perimeter for electric net fences as I move the sheep around the area, and also helps reduce predator pressure, in addition to giving me peace of mind that if they escape their net, they're still on the property and not in the street or anything.
A shelter that can be used as a hospital area with power run to it so I can run heat lamps if we end up with lambs needing special care, plus I could run cameras in it so I can keep an eye on things while at the house (I work from home).  Plus this could work as a winter paddock/dry lot if pastures need a rest, or we have extended cold weather requiring me to run an electric stock tank heater.
Bulk hay storage (this doesn't need to be part of the shelter area, but it probably wouldn't hurt to have it nearby)
A working area that may or may not be part of the shelter/barn area, with chutes so I can do monthly parasite evaluation/hoof trimming if needed/wellness checks as well as separate sheep out as needed.  Considering keeping this near our driveway and shop so loading sheep leaving the farm onto a trailer is less of an ordeal.


I'm new to this, and as they say, you don't know what you don't know, so I would love input from people who actually know what they're doing.

- A mobile set of panels to build a race and pens
- sheep crush
- foot bath
- shearing shed and dry pens
- ring tool to remove testicles  and tails
- trailer with suitable and safe cage for transporting sheep. Sheep must be transported in a correct manner to prevent injury, death or harm.

John C Daley wrote:- A mobile set of panels to build a race and pens
- sheep crush
- foot bath
- shearing shed and dry pens
- ring tool to remove testicles  and tails
- trailer with suitable and safe cage for transporting sheep. Sheep must be transported in a correct manner to prevent injury, death or harm.

Thanks!  for clarification - it sounds like the foot bath, crush, and shearing shed could all be integrated into the "working" and chute area, is that correct?  What do you mean by dry pens?  Is this like a dry lot where they're eating hay and no grass?


what are  your recommendations for trailer type?

If it rains just as you are shearing, the use of 'dry' covered pens means you can shear.
You cannot shear wet sheep.

Yes those other items, footbath etc can be located near each other as part of a condensed sheep handling area.
Perhaps speak with sheep breeders nearby.
In Australia the following terms are used;
- Sheep station 250,000 acre property with a million sheep perhaps
- Wool producer, a farmer that sells wool
- Sheep grazier, a farmer that fattens sheep for sale as meat.
Nobody is called a sheep farmer.
- Rouseabout, helper in the wool shed [ shearing shed ]
- Jackaroo- farm hander with stock
- Dags, clumps of dried dung stuck to the wool of a sheep, which may lead to fly-strike.
- Dagging, clipping off dags.
- mob, flock of the same type of sheep.
- Graziers Alert over the news, cold weather warning. You will hear it all over in the colder months.
For more go here.
Glossary_of_sheep_husbandry

Oh I wish I had been able to plan my goat stuff out before getting them.  INstead everything has just kind of grown and evolved over the years.  Started with just a few goats.....now we keep about 40 over the winter including bucks.  We had 56 kids last year.  We only have about 18 to 20 acres in pasture.  We also have horses and steers on the pasture.  

I used to use the electric netting and moved it around for my rotational grazing.  What a pain in the butt.  I didn't want to cut down the trees and wild rose bushes as the goats love that stuff. Electric netting and roses bushes and black berry vines do not mix well.  So I planned it out on paper to put in my permanent rotational grazing pastures. I am so glad I did. I used some 4 inch by 4 inch goat fence that is 52 inches tall for some of the perimeter fence. I used some cattle panels in areas of old fence line that had a lot of trees. I didn't want to cut down the trees so I only took the saplings down and wove the cattle panels between the big trees. I used a lot of high tensile!  I love the high tensile, when trees come down on it it is so easy to fix. I ended up with seven rotational grazing pastures that are permanent. I use cattle panels for gates. It works really well.  I wish I had discovered the New Zealand/Aussie bracing system before I was most of the way done with my high tensile fencing as it saves a lot on fence posts.   I ran six lines of high tensile wire and alternated them so they are positive and negative and I put a ground on each pasture connected to the negative so the goats would get a good shock. I also bought a kick ass fence charger.  Get the biggest one that puts out the most joules that you can afford.

So I am going to suggest that you make permanent pastures and divide them with high tensile fencing. It will save you so much work. As moving that electric netting is a lot of work!  You have to move waterers and feeders and mineral feeders to. I have my mineral feeders on my skiddable shelters in the each pasture.  

Another thing to consider is water. We actually ran water lines and put in hydrants so we can reach each pasture. We rented a trencher and did that ourselves. It really didn't cost that much. My husband even ran water line under the creek and we put a hydrant about 300 feet from our house that allows us to use hoses in the summer to reach four of our pastures.  

I made my shelters with pallets for two walls and they sit on pressure treated 4x4 posts. I bought some used sheet metal at an auction and used that for the roof. Mineral feeders are made from pvc pipe.

Plan out your area where you will lamb. Will you need lambing jugs? Plan those out if you need them.   I used mostly pallets to make my kidding pens inside a metal hoop house we built and put sheet metal on it after the billboard tarp wore out the second time.  

A sweep and a head gate handling system can be built pretty cheaply but easily from pallets. You can buy a head gate and just put it on the end of the raceway/ sweep. We made a simply tub and sweep using some wire filled gates we bought at an auction and some kennel panels we bought at Rural King for $85 each.  It works pretty good. I use  winter feeding area as an alley way. You may be able to plan things out so you can utilize some features for more than one use.  

Anyhow, good luck and I hope that all the ideas everyone is coming up with help you get things planned out!

Bonnie Johnson wrote:Oh I wish I had been able to plan my goat stuff out before getting them.  INstead everything has just kind of grown and evolved over the years.  Started with just a few goats.....now we keep about 40 over the winter including bucks.  We had 56 kids last year.  We only have about 18 to 20 acres in pasture.  We also have horses and steers on the pasture.  

I used to use the electric netting and moved it around for my rotational grazing.  What a pain in the butt.  I didn't want to cut down the trees and wild rose bushes as the goats love that stuff. Electric netting and roses bushes and black berry vines do not mix well.  So I planned it out on paper to put in my permanent rotational grazing pastures. I am so glad I did. I used some 4 inch by 4 inch goat fence that is 52 inches tall for some of the perimeter fence. I used some cattle panels in areas of old fence line that had a lot of trees. I didn't want to cut down the trees so I only took the saplings down and wove the cattle panels between the big trees. I used a lot of high tensile!  I love the high tensile, when trees come down on it it is so easy to fix. I ended up with seven rotational grazing pastures that are permanent. I use cattle panels for gates. It works really well.  I wish I had discovered the New Zealand/Aussie bracing system before I was most of the way done with my high tensile fencing as it saves a lot on fence posts.   I ran six lines of high tensile wire and alternated them so they are positive and negative and I put a ground on each pasture connected to the negative so the goats would get a good shock. I also bought a kick ass fence charger.  Get the biggest one that puts out the most joules that you can afford.

So I am going to suggest that you make permanent pastures and divide them with high tensile fencing. It will save you so much work. As moving that electric netting is a lot of work!  You have to move waterers and feeders and mineral feeders to. I have my mineral feeders on my skiddable shelters in the each pasture.  

Another thing to consider is water. We actually ran water lines and put in hydrants so we can reach each pasture. We rented a trencher and did that ourselves. It really didn't cost that much. My husband even ran water line under the creek and we put a hydrant about 300 feet from our house that allows us to use hoses in the summer to reach four of our pastures.  

I made my shelters with pallets for two walls and they sit on pressure treated 4x4 posts. I bought some used sheet metal at an auction and used that for the roof. Mineral feeders are made from pvc pipe.

Plan out your area where you will lamb. Will you need lambing jugs? Plan those out if you need them.   I used mostly pallets to make my kidding pens inside a metal hoop house we built and put sheet metal on it after the billboard tarp wore out the second time.  

A sweep and a head gate handling system can be built pretty cheaply but easily from pallets. You can buy a head gate and just put it on the end of the raceway/ sweep. We made a simply tub and sweep using some wire filled gates we bought at an auction and some kennel panels we bought at Rural King for $85 each.  It works pretty good. I use  winter feeding area as an alley way. You may be able to plan things out so you can utilize some features for more than one use.  

Anyhow, good luck and I hope that all the ideas everyone is coming up with help you get things planned out!

Thanks Bonnie!  This all seems to ring true to a lot of the research I've done also.  We have an NRCS conservation plan that involves them helping to pay for setting up both perimeter fencing and splitting our primary pasture area into 4  sections.  Splitting those sections into  additional smaller ones using impermanent fencing may be the trick.  They'll also pay to trench water lines up to frost-free waterers for us which is kind of rad.  I appreciate your recommendations.