019: How Many Sheep Can I Run On My Farm?
This is a challenging one and most of the research on this comes from Australia where they refer to this as a Dry Sheep Equivalent or DSE. This is how many sheep can have have per hectare on your property.
In measuring the energy requirements of livestock, we use a 50 kg wether as the standard. Other areas use a 45 kg wether. A 50 kg wether maintained at constant weight has a dry sheep equivalent (DSE) rating of 1.
There are lots of variables to consider - your soil and pasture, your fertilising program, do you have any other livestock or free loading wildlife and what is the weather doing, as well as what breed of sheep you are running - so many things to consider! Have a listen and let me know if you are any the wiser after this episode!
Links mentioned in this episode:
Subscribe on your favourite podcast app:
Sign up to receive updates, recipes and more from Hallston Valley Farm:
Episode Transcript:
Jill Noble 0:00
Welcome to the sheep Show podcast. I'm Jill noble from Holston Valley Farm and sheep stud and your host. The sheep Show podcast exists to help you no matter where you are in the world, what sheep you breed, what size your flock is, this podcast will help your sheep knowledge and your shepherding confidence grow. And it's a two way street. I love to hear from you. And find out how your sheep journey is going contact me via Instagram at Holston Valley Farm, or via email Jill at Holston. Valley farm.com.au. Come along on this episode as we explore the amazing world of sheep and sheep farming together. Probably the number one question I get asked is How many sheep can I have on my land? And boy, is this a challenging question to ask. I know if you're in the US, it's even more challenging. Because from what I can see, the majority of research on this particular topic is actually from Australia. So particularly if we're talking sheep, this is where we tend to have more sheep perhaps than the US. So I'll I'll talk primarily in this episode about what is in the US and I wasn't here in Australia, and but I'll also mention for those of you in the US where you can go and what you can look at as well, which might be a bit helpful for you too. So a few things to think about with your the quantities of sheep, one is just some language, you know, and we know we've looked at Arsa sheep acronyms in the past. And there's some particular language here acronyms for us to be aware of, and that the main one, particularly again, in Australia is dry sheep equivalent. So a D S E, yeah, this seems to be the common language surrounding carrying capacity of animals in Australia. Now the equivalent of that, from a US point of view, is called an Animal Unit or an A U. Sometimes this is often called a livestock unit an L you. So those are just the sort of equivalent lamb language, or words that are used. But here in Australia, DSC, Dreisbach equivalent is is commonly used. And there is a lot of calculators out there that you can have a look at. And you can do them online like Meat and Livestock Australia have got a calculator that you can look at. There's one in the US on the range, rangelands, gateway.org, which has some tools and things like that. However, challenges with using these tools is that you got to be aware of what they're actually talking about. Yeah, when they talk about a dry stock equivalent, what are they actually referring to? Because that's where it's very, very specific. So
Jill Noble 3:17
dry stock equivalent is based on using a 50 kilo weather as a standard. Yeah, so it's a it's a weather, so the mature weather, so the nutritional needs are pretty stable. So that's what they dry stock equivalents based on. So you think about that, you know, constant weight of one animal. Now, for most of us, we are carrying a variety of different animals which don't have a constant weight and have different nutritional demands. So animals that need more feed, obviously have a higher rating than animals needing less feed, they have a lower rating. Now what what varies this so what varies an animal what animal needing having a higher need for feed and a lower need for feed? Well, you name it, it's everything. Age is huge, huge, huge, huge factor. So if you have got a lamb that's still drinking milk, then has got a much lower feed need dry feed needs so grass effectively a pasture then, for example, a pregnant you or lactating you or pregnant you with twins or a pregnant you with triplets. So thinking about all those machinations it is really, really hard to actually accurately work out what what the carrying capacity of your land actually is. because it is going to vary so much. And then there's just one variable. Other variables are what sort of a season climate pattern are we in? You know, are we in a period of drought? Are we in an average year? How is the rainfall? What is the wind like you know, all those even in the paddock couldn't be different. So different air I noticed this on our on our property. Different paddocks grow at different rates, different sides or angles of the paddocks grow at different rates, the paddocks that are where we will have a tree coverage. So some areas where there's a lot of demand, sucking nutrients out of that paddock from trees, which of course are very useful for shade and shelter. But you're going to have less grass growth under those trees. So again, even within one paddock or one field, it is going to be variable. Then of course what breed of sheep are you breeding?
Jill Noble 6:09
Again, a lot of the dry stock equivalent is based on Marino's, which are generally smaller framed sheep. Yes, they grow wool, and their demand is quite high because of their wool, but they are generally a smaller frame sheep. So of course, a larger frame shape or larger framed breed of sheep, is going to have a higher feed demand. So things for you to be very aware of as you're thinking about this is what breed of sheep, are you breathing? For example? Are you breathing Valley black nose or baby doll sheep, tiny sheep Persians even very small sheep? Or are you breathing huge Korea Dales or Sharla, a sheep, which have a huge frame. And those mature sheep might be over 100 kilos. So work out and get to know what is the breed standard for your breed that you've chosen. And what weight would that animal be, or should be at their mature weight, whether that's a whether our 12 month old whether or a nine month old, whether a six month old, whether depending on what age, you might slaughter your weathers, or your your view that you're going to join. So you're going to have to work out that sort of element too. So really thinking of the frame of the sheep, the age of that sheep, it's going to hugely, hugely varies a huge difference even in lambs as to what your what your expectations are. So for example, a 15 kilo weaned lamb versus a 25 kilo winged lamb is different a lamb or you're wanting that lamb to gain 100 grams per day, you're going to have again, different dry stock equivalent then if you want to get those lambs gaining 200 grams a day. And that's really where we should be aiming for about 200 grams per day, in that sort of weaned lambs are three to nine months old, we would want them to be gaining that amount of weight per day. Again, huge amount of variables. How many other animals do you have on your property that might be competing for forage, kangaroos, for example, welcome to farming and Gippsland where I believe half the time I'm farming sheep, half the time I'm farming kangaroos, rabbits even we have a lot of deer on our property as well. So again, these are all competing for the same resource that my poor little hungry sheep are competing for at times and that is can be really frustrating in the course it can be really enjoyable to to you know, go for a drive and you're surrounded by wildlife and and you've we've got to live what our opinion anyways we got to live in harmony with those animals. And at the same time, I've got to try and manage the nutritional demands and the health of my sheep so well that's really really challenging and I know it's it's kind of a bit overwhelming sometimes to think that all these things maker make a difference but they actually do they really really do. And then you're thinking of your mature sheep huge difference in dry use and dry weathers so for me my use are dry so they're drying off at about four or five months of the year. Yeah, so I weaned typically in November join again in February, late February March. So my user drive but then I wanting to have their them too. to flush them in early February. So again, I want to increase their demand. So give them more to eat than they had in December and January. So again, it's this constant sort of balancing the scales. And then when you've got pregnant youth, I think this is, for me the most interesting thing to think about with feeding your your youth in particular, app joining or TROSA joining, you want them to be on a rising plane of nutrition. So you want that forage to be increasing, getting better and better. Then when they're joined. And they're pregnant, in you know, from sort of, let's say, from six weeks pregnant to six weeks before lambing, so that sort of middle time.
Jill Noble 10:48
Not so much as not so important. Yes, of course, you don't want them starving, but they their actual, their attritional demands are less. But in the last six weeks, whether and again, Are they single bearing singles or bearing twins or triplets, then their nutritional demands, and their need for forage increases? And that can be like double? Yeah, so all of a sudden, you got same amount of sheep on your property, but you go from drying us to pregnant us in the last six weeks of pregnancy with twins, and it might have gone from one sheep equivalent to two or even two and a half depending on the situation. And then if they have lambs at foot, so single lambs twin lambs at foot, again, how heavy is that sheep? And again, we're talking about very, very different dry stock equivalents. So weathers, let's say, is one because this is what a dry stock equivalent is based on a 50 kilo whether whereas you have your lactating us with twin lambs at foot, we are now and this is based on a 50 kilo you by the way, which for me, when my use are with lambs at foot, they're probably more like 70 or 80 kilos, not 60. But if it is based on 50 kilos, you're looking at that you that's lactating with twins at foot at three, or maybe a little bit more 3.2, dry, dry sheep equivalent. whole other ballgame. So really, what you have to work out is what is your most limiting feed period? What is your most limiting feed period? When is feed tightest on your property? Now, of course, that is going to vary where you are, what the climate is like. And then we haven't even talked about this. But the other thing to think about is what is the pasture actually like? Because the pasture can vary significantly, in which can impact your dry sheep equivalent. For example, on improved this is Australia, again, unimproved native pasture that could be anywhere from one to five dry sheep equivalent. If you have improved your pasture now for us, we farm in a regenerative way. So improving our pasture for us would be rotationally grazing, maybe adding some compost, maybe mineralizing the soil. And for some people that might be adding fertilizer, you might get up to six to 10 Dry sheep equivalent on your pasture at any one time. So again, depends on now. But I from our point of view, there are almost all of our paddocks, you could not possibly till the soil, replant out Riso fertilize every year one for us, it doesn't make commercial sense. And two with hills, it's just not possible. And for some of you may be with rocky outcrops and trees and maybe even access to machinery again, it does not make it does not make commercial sense. So it's just too challenging for us physically challenging. So you're thinking there of trying to work out? What is your pasture like what breed of sheep have you got? What is the weather or the climate conditions that you're in? What age are your use? What stage are your use at Are you even feeding rams? Again, Ram she's think about what the dry sheep equivalent of a ram would be. And this is why keeping rams is a whole other ballgame. Because you've got to manage them like RAM, and that RAM is going to be three times maybe even more the size of your weather. So Are you thinking of, Wow, I'm feeding one animal, that RAM. And that RAM needs to be worth way more because of its efficiency, its production efficiencies, how much grass it's consuming for its body size for its nutritional requirements, compared to if I had a weather. So what, you know, easy question to answer is we know should I keep? If I'm starting out in sheep, should I keep my weathers as rams? No, that is just one one of the many reasons why you shouldn't? How much rain do you get?
Jill Noble 15:40
So a lot of these dry sheep equivalent statistics are based on somewhere between 500 mils of rainy year and 1000 mils of rain a year. Yeah, again, think about the past, you've got to think about all the other challenges rain can bring. Sometimes it can mean growing weeds at the wrong time of the year, and so on. So rain doesn't always equal better. So just bear that in mind too. And again, what's your soil? Like? How healthy is your soil? How Deep Is Your topsoil? What? What is the type of soil that you're actually growing your past your own, that is all going to make a difference as well. We even notice that our sheep thrive better when they have got protection, particularly for us. And I'm sure for a lot of you if you're in colder climates, that you will see this all the time. You know if your animal no matter what, particularly young animals, but really no matter what age they are, if they have protection from the wind in particular, and draft and potentially rain and snow and so on any of those climactic conditions, then they are going to do better. Yeah, so they're going to do better, and they're going to perform better. And then they're going to be able to effectively put on the sort of the weight that you're wanting that animal to put on or ensure that it's that the environment is as nutritious as it possibly could be. Now the dry sheep equivalent by the way, just so you know it is based in hectares Yeah. So when I say one dry sheep equivalent based on 150 kilo whether we are talking about quantity there of hectares. And for those of you just to remind you of a hectare compared to an acre, a hectare is Full point 405 Or one acre is point 405 of a hectare. So there's 2.47 acres in a hectare, if that makes sense. So I'll just say that again, 2.47 acres in a hectare. And an acre is about point 405 of a hectare. Yeah, so that's equivalent there. So you can sort of think about that, that as well. So lots and lots of things to be considered when you are trying to determine what your carrying capacity actually actually is. And of course, what we're really wanting to do is to make sure that your lammed has good coverage, good ground cover. So you're not over grazing land, which is going to have other consequences.
Jill Noble 18:46
Erosion, topsoil depletion, we're going to have weeds all those sorts of things, not to mention the fact that I know we noticed this here, if we do overgraze Sometimes it's it's deliberate for like for a fire break or something. But if we do over the land of the land on the pasture takes a longer time to recover. Now, any animal will not be able to make full use of whatever pasture you have in that particular environment. And we give you some examples of this. So we have our packets, for example, our pet just two Yeah, just two little livestock Guardian alpacas. Now they defecate in one area. So whatever paddock they're in, they will choose a little toilet and they will use that toilet. Now what that will mean is that that particular patch of ground and tents along there in that paddock, but that patch of ground will basically have a mound of concentrated alpaca manure. Of course, that particular area will not be a productive spot, but what will happen is surrounding that spot, there will be leaching of ammonia and goodness knows what What else coming from that alpaca manure? Yes, the grass will grow, but the animals won't eat it. So it will look nice and lush and green. But the animals won't choose to eat it, because for them it is rank. So in sun and sometimes the same with you know, horse paddocks and things like that, they will choose to not eat certain areas, even though I see you know, I on our property, there might be thistles which we removed by hand. But surrounding that thistle, there's going to be some areas of beautiful grass. But this all is protecting that grass because the animal won't go up near it, because they know what that's going to mean for them. And they're going to get a little fizzle spike in their nose, and they're not willing to take that chance. So again, that particular little spot of grass is unproductive and you cannot utilize that. And of course, animals trampled grass. Someone asked me the other day, they were talking to me about buying sheep and getting sheep. And they said, I said, What is it you're wanting to achieve with the sheep? I want it I've got some really long grass, and I want my sheep to eat the grass. I said, okay, but sheep don't eat long grass. And this is the thing, they will eat whatever is underneath it. But why would they eat stalk? One, they can't digest it, too. They don't have this sort of apparatus, the actual teeth, mouth and the tongue that they need to rip that stalky piece of grass off like a cow does a cow mainly eat if you've ever seen them, they actually wrap their tongue around. This is why cows can utilize different pasture than sheep and horses again, are completely different again, because they got top and bottom teeth. So they eat quite differently. So again, you've got to understand what that animal What do you expect that animal to do and what your expectations are? Will they trample shore? Will they be lie on certain areas of that particular ground? Absolutely. But from a nutritional point of view, long, stocky grass that has gone to seed is probably best doing its job. I'm receiving that particular pasture. Sure if you can renovate and rejuvenate every single area of pasture, but that will mean that you're removing that seed head to so again, pros and cons all this sort of element of of thinking about trying to get the best utilization from your past year without any of the negative consequences as well. So hard question to ask. There's no exact science, there's even less research that I can find anyway, from the US about this particular topic. And other things to think about would be what's the equivalent cows to sheep. And it's just huge, really, it's just huge, again, depends on the cow and the size of the cow and the age of the cow and all that sort of stuff. But we're looking
Jill Noble 22:57
at perhaps somewhere between five sheep, seven sheep for every one cow. So again, if you're thinking what's your carrying capacity with cow units, cow livestock units, again, cow could be mature cow could be large steer could be yearling huge for a variety there to think about and really is hard. The best thing you can do is think about what is your most limiting feed period? How will you cope? Yeah, now, everything I've just said to you and shared with you on this particular podcast is irrelevant. If you are hard feeding your animals, if you're hard feeding your animals, you're giving them everything that they need in additional supplementary feed. Bearing in mind, not a lot of sheep are keen on Hey, remember the stalky grass that I talked about sheep and are crazy about hay like those really struggled to eat it? Yeah, they will eat chopped up Lucerne and they leave Clover hay and I've seen them eat really good quality Lucerne hay but I know for me my sheep and I know a lot of other sheep breeders. Hay doesn't work. silage mixed results. silage can have some challenges with I think botulism in particular, but they will eat it if they're hungry. So we've had some success with silage, but actually getting silage to sheep is not as easy as getting silage to cows. So if your heart feeding, who cares? The only thing you got to think about is the impact on your ground and your soil and your pasture. So that is the that is the challenge there. But if you're hard feeding, it doesn't matter. But if you're hard feeding you're probably in a different mindset or in a different way of looking at your your enterprise. You could be hard feeding because you're operating a feedlot and you're wanting to turn off animals early. Yeah, it could be one reason it could be hard for you For example, there was recent article if you haven't checked it out, do check it out. There's a recent article in the newspaper over here in Australia with lamb cutlets at $100 a kilo. Yeah, so $100 a kilo for lamb cutlets. Just to put that in perspective in the supermarket, lamb cutlets would be about $40 a kilo, which is still ridiculous. Yet when we sell lamb cutlets, it's $15 a kilo. Yeah, so just to put it in perspective, but the the farmer who be selling lamb cutlets $100, a kilo talks very openly about the quantities of grain that's going into their lambs and the marbling that they get from the high quantities of grain that that animal is eating now, fair play good on them, they are investing in their product. And that's the result that they're getting huge profit margins, obviously, and and people are prepared to pay for it. And the meat does look quite different. For me, the meat looks very pale, with lots of marbling. I mean, again, everyone's gonna have a different preference in terms of what their meat looks like and what their meat my tastes like. But if you are, you know, you might be in that market. And again, a lot of this How many sheep Can I can I cope with my might be irrelevant. The other thing to think about would be if your sheep are pets. Now real things to think about here, if you are giving your pet sheep in inverted commas, a little bit of extra grain to keep them tame, or or Lucerne, that's fine. Yeah, then it probably don't mean it. But that's fine. You're complimenting or supplementing their feed, if your sheep is a non productive animal, so you know, a four year old, whether for example, or you that has not lammed in a couple of years, you need to be very careful, that animal will experience metabolic issues. Yeah, they are designed as a production animal. If it's a whether it's designed to get to a mature weight, and then go into the meat cycle. If it's a you, it's designed to get to a mature weight, and then get pregnant every year. Otherwise, he will experience metabolic issues. I had someone recently telling me about their poor sheep. That's a pet sheep. And they're so worried about it because it's got arthritis. Yep, it's got arthritis, because it's overweight. And that might be just one of the many health issues that that particular animal is dealing with, which from my point of view, is integrate animal welfare outcome.
Jill Noble 27:53
But feed your pet sheep, no worries, give them a little bit extra if you want to try and tame my sheep up so that I don't have to do as much mastering and they respond to me. And also I'm wanting to particularly it just after weaning, give them the best start in life, so that sometimes when I would give them a little bit extra, probably the only other issue would be if you are in a start enterprise, if you are running a start, then you are additionally feeding a group of sheep, depending on the size of your study on how many sheep but for most of us, we don't bring any more than 15 or 20 sheep to our show. But you may be hard feeding those sheep to get them to what we call show standard yes show condition, which is generally a condition score of 3.5 4.5. That's the real challenges with getting them over fat. And there is a big backlash in the industry. And in the judging community for big over fat sheep. Everyone has their preference. But just bear that in mind that can be a bit of a bit of a pushback and and if, again, just just different things to be aware of. So having sheep who cares how many sheep you have, you can have as many sheep as you want, because effectively you're running out a pseudo feedlot depending on your understanding on your circumstances. The best thing to do I suggest is start small. Start small work up. If you have the opportunity the smaller the paddocks you can get, the more your carrying capacity is going to be I'll say that again. The smaller the paddocks you can get, the larger your carrying capacity is going to be because what you're going to be doing is small paddocks. You're going to be rotating or moving those animals around more frequently and they are going to be able to utilize the pasture on the forage Better, plus you're moving them more frequently, your pasture will be able to get quicker rest and be able to recover. Yeah, Gary, often he probably talks about it in a few of the previous podcasts about the third, third, third 33rd tramples, and a third still standing. That's the ideal. Not always possible, but that's the ideal. So, no magic answers for you here, unfortunately, but a few things for you to think about. Yeah, a few things to think about.
Jill Noble 30:34
Roughly, as I said, those rough numbers would be unimproved pasture, anywhere between one and five dry stock equivalent is what you could possibly carry and improved pasture where you have added something to boost that pasture, somewhere between six and 10 According to Meat and Livestock Australia. hope that's been helpful. Chat to you soon. Thank you for listening to this episode of the sheep Show podcast. Got a burning sheep question or comment that you'd like to share or story or even a tip that would be good for other sheep Show podcast listeners to know that get in touch via Instagram Holston Valley Farm or email Jill at Holston Valley farm.com.au. And until next time, sheep well