Josh Miller

Right, Kyrt, number of animals needed to manage the acreage is the key concern, though I will say I am leaning towards running sheep and cattle together.

Thanks, Miranda. We used to raise goats but they tended to eat a lot more brush and barely touched the grass. I did have the same thought about sheep though...

Thanks for the input!

Thanks R Scott. So, for example, you would say take a 10 acre slice, and just mig rotate them through that for the season, and let the other 40 grow up/naturally regenerate?

Hi All, first time poster, long time reader.

I have a question that does not seem to have an answer anywhere... while most people are looking for the most animals they can put on a given acreage, I am looking to determine the least...

We are moving to a farm with 50 acres of pasture in middle-South Carolina (which I am told has a year round growing/forage season) that has been grazed somewhere in between continuous and rotationally... our plan is daily pasture moves (MiG) grazing beef cows (and possibly sheep and a dairy cow or two) followed by pastured chickens behind the cows, but we dont have $20k to drop on a bunch of cattle right out of the gate.

Since we are moving in right before the spring boom of grass growth, we are triyng to figure out the minimum number of cows we can use to start improving and managing the pastures. Our plan was to start growing our beef herd next year, so as long as we can sell any livestock we buy in we would be open to the idea.

Someone else's livestock is not really an option for various reasons, and I do realize that you need an idea of pasture yied to estimate, but let's assume it is decent pasture, not super lush, but no real bare spots to speak of.

Any ideas/thoughts/input on best ways to get started, ways to save on capital outlay, etc, are highly appreciated. Thanks!