Elena Sparks wrote:One thing I will say though is that the ewes you had survive demonstrated a resistance and strength that you want to retain in your flock. I don't want this to be negative to people who do believe in consistent worming, but this is my experience and opinion. If you worm all your sheep, you mask the issue and over time you weaken your flock because you breed the weak and the strong. The reason wild animals are so tough is because nature doesn't let the weak animals live. Weak animals die off, and the population rebuilds from the strong animals. In our flocks and herds, we take over the position of nature in selecting for the strongest animals. If we get distracted by our desire to keep everything alive, we are doing a disservice to our animals, and creating a weaker gene pool. You kind of have to have a separate compassionate self and breeder self.
Andrew Mayflower wrote:
Trace Oswald wrote:
Andrew Mayflower wrote:But to avoid conflict with current or future neighbors it's usually best to put up a fence some distance inside your property line.
I would be very careful with this. If the neighbor uses the land up to the fence and "makes improvement", which can be very simple things like a path or a small structure or their own fence, you could end up losing that part of your land through adverse possession.
I hear this said whenever this kind of topic comes up, here or elsewhere, but I've never seen any evidence of it actually being a legitimate problem. Consider too that especially if the fence is set several feet inside your property you will still have to maintain the side facing the neighbor (mow, prune trees, weed, clear brush, not to mention maintaining the fence itself) you can provide plenty of proof that it's still yours, and prevent them from "improving" that side and have a good defense if they ever tried to make such a claim.