I have to admit that the grass got ahead of me this autumn. I was reluctant to cut silage in October. Instead I strip grazed the cattle hoping for enough dry weather to keep them outside till the grass was gone.

We muddled through October and some of November. The grass was so high that it was acting as a mat which reduced the level of poaching. But over the weekend of 16 November, I finally couldn’t watch the ground damage any longer. The cattle were housed.

The decision to house the cattle with grass left in the field was made easier by the fact that we still have ewes to clean up grass behind the cattle. The 60 ewes have been on block grazing since early October.

Block grazing ewes

Again this autumn and winter, I find that the block grazing of the ewes, moving them every one, two or three days, depending on the grass supply, is working very well.

I like the approach because;

  • of the efficient use of grass. By allocating a limited amount, the ewes are not gorging themselves and getting overfat and more likely to roll over and get stuck on their backs.

  • the ewes are encouraged to clean out patches of strong grass that they might choose not to if they had a bigger run.

  • the remarkable recovery in grass when it is removed in one off grazing as against set stocking.

  • And of course sheep do far less damage to land than cattle in the back end.

    • It takes a little time to keep moving around the electrified netting. In my case, for only 60 ewes, I need seven rolls of the electrified netting to make a square plus a spare out in the field, less if you can use an existing fence or hedge.

    The square made with four 50 metre rolls of netting equates to 2500 sq metres or one quarter of a hectare.

    Ewes in early pregnancy need about 1 kg of grass dry matter per day. In theory, a sward with about 500kg of available grass dry matter per ha should carry the 60 ewes for about eight days on a hectare, two days per square. Watching the grass by eye, I move the flock mostly after two days. I don’t worry about providing added water at this stage of the year.

    Looking ahead at the grass that needs cleaning up, if the snow doesn’t come, the ewes will have block grazing well into January.