18. Metrics for Garden Sheep
SHEEP are Integral to Minimal Labour Gardening on any Scale. These Photos below will give you an insight to the infrastructure required to work sheep through gardens. PHOTO 1 Below is the NEW HEDGE GARDEN find via Link Below via Hedge Maker Plant + Seeds Kit. Hedge Gardens with Sheep/Chickens can be made to any scale. Low Labour + High Production with Irrigation or High Rainfall.
Before you consider that aspect of livestock management – always determine the best breed and type of animal for the task at hand – or you may destroy both plant and animal potential. The diversity of genetic traits in sheep today is an incredible array of characteristics. We want quite non-skittish sheep. Sheep that don’t climb trees like goats do. Sheep that don’t eat bark. Sheep with clean breeches so that the tail is left on and flystrike is not an issue. Sheep that have excellent mothering skills. Sheep that can survive and fatten on dry winter grasses. Some sheep have an early puberty gene, and so ewe lambs start ovulating from 6 months of age, with their first offspring often on the ground when 13 months old. Our sheep are evolving by selective breeding to match the multiple uses of the sheep.
CURRENT RESEARCH with Sheep in Gardens = Sheep are ‘trample planting” Daikon Radish into a standing body of grass within the Long Yard Garden. Planting concludes first week of June ’22 to take advantage of frost to kill off grass over winter. All up 500 grams of Daikon Radish Seed will be planted into 200 square metres appx of dense grassland. NO TILLAGE required. No pulling weeds or chipping grasses. 100% straight up genuine no till with sheep. Some water will be applied to establish = however after recent above average rainfall last 12 months = there is a full moisture profile. RADISH will establish in minus 6 degree C overnight temp. with no adverse effect. Ideally you want 21 C daytime temp to kickstart seedlings.
RADISH SEED for SALE in SEEDS SECTION of GG WEB
VIDEO: Sheep work in harmony with chickens and cattle when contained periodically overnight in The Long Yard Garden.
PHOTO 1: Triple Rows with Standard Sheep Units of 8 Portable Sheep Yard Panels in Market Garden Section within Saltbush Paddock.Blue X is a stock trough with Chicken below the X. Yellow dashes to Left are 5 year old White Cedar amongst a Double Row of mostly Bunya Pine in Stock Proof Tree Guards. Date of Photo: March 2022 <><><> THIS is the area planted December 2022 to Hedge Crops of Leucaena + Vetiver + Pitaya Cactus.
PHOTO 2: Each panel is 2 metres long – Standard Sheep Unit is 16 square metres. Typically these sheep will spend 3 nights in containment – then move onto the next section for 3 nights – repeat. This process happens in this particular sytem every May and Sept/Oct.
PHOTO 3: Designated Walkways between Sheep Pens. Currently planting Lippia as a long term groundcover on walkways.
PHOTO 4: Sheep also enter the Long Yard Garden to shape and prune the Old Man Saltbush Hedges. Length of overnight containment is typically 3 nights in each section twice a year. Portable Yards span the 9 metre wide Long yard. Over time these hedges will be 3 metres tall – shaped by sheep. The crowns are then cut as Woody Mulch. Saltbush is a high value garden mulch and fertiliser.
PHOTO 5: New Section under development in Long Yard Garden as seen in April 2021 after extended period of no rain. Since then 800 mm of rain has falllen up to April 2022 and this SECTION is NOW a SEA of 1 metre TALL GRASS. This is where Daikon Radish is being planted for Winter 2022. Sheep grind and trample grasses to prepare a Seed Bed for Cool Season Daikon Radish. THIS is a 16 square metre unit of SHEEP in Overnight CONTAINMENT PEN. Ground Grass and Sheep Manure from 3 nights of containment almost eliminates grass growth for next few weeks = then the frost hits it = Radish Thrives in FROST.
PHOTO 6: Sheep cleaning up the Winter Garden in October.
PHOTO 7: Day One = See Day Two Below.
PHOTO 8: Day Two – Condition of Top Soil varies according to moisture – grind it when dry is best to avoid compaction.