We’re trying something out.
Since the reconfiguration of our paddocks, we’ve had to rethink the whole haying deal as effectively manoeuvring the haymaking gizmos takes a bit more room than a couple of our paddocks now have. That’s why the sheep and goats are temporarily paddock mates. The fallacy goats eat anything is just that – grass is never their first choice when it comes to dinnertime. Sheep, though? To them grass is life. With the goat paddock now sliced in three, it’s not easy to hay but the grass was getting uncomfortably long and there’s no way we want to be immortalised as THOSE lifestyle blockers; you know, the ones whose paddock burnt.
We had no idea how this would go as our two matriarchs, Marilyn Goat and Ivy Sheep, are not ones to take a step back; there are a great many horror stories and all of them end “…woke up to two dead bodies in the paddock.” We did a bit of brainstorming and came up with a scheme. As a flock, our sheep tend to respect a visual boundary (and there’s a heap of feed in their part of the paddock) while our goats understand from experience the “tick-tick-tick” of the electric fence is not to be messed with. So far, so good.
The temporary-until-the-grass-is-lower fix does edge us a little further into the “Yee-haw” category, however. While we may still have all or teeth and those who don’t own a belt tend to favour elasticated waistbands (no bindertwine belts here), we were already pushing the stereotype envelope with multigenerational residents, all-year-round Christmas lights (our shiftworker uses them to negotiate the vehicle to house toddle), and a caravan in the paddock – and now…
The sliver of shade that the paddock had for about an hour in the late afternoon when we first moved them has now disappeared. Dang that sun and it’s changing ways! Hopefully it’ll be back soon but in the interim our ute has taken up residence in the paddock. It’s heavy enough not to be pushed around or demolished by our rambunctious flock, sits right at the perfect height for a flock of 14 to get a bit of solar respite when all other shady nooks have disappeared, and truthfully it was all we could quickly come up with when we discovered some seriously panting sheep.
Ah well, we’ll sort it for next year.
Union Homestead 
Phew! Sounds complicated.
I have a tendency to overcomplicate life 😁
Same here!
Good thinking on the temporary shade giver. I am often quite pleased that we don’t have to care for any animals. They are hard work.
They are but Im smitten 😁
Ahh the joys of fencing & moving livestock & why not add a ute to the move. Love a practical logical Awesome idea. lol. What a beautiful way to find home follow the Christmas lights. Such a fun fam farm.
A practical, logical, awesome idea born out of major panic😁
Hi, I believe the saying ‘adapt or perish’ is apt here. You do what you have to do.
Hi Margaret, I like the way you think!
We had milk and fiber goats a few years back. We agree that they are lousy grass eaters. They are much more browsers of leaves (bushes and trees) if they can get to them. When I could cut trees for firewood or trimmed bushes, I would haul the branches over to the goats to let them eat the leaves. I have also read that woody plants with deeper roots contain more minerals, so the leaves are good source of minerals for goats. – Oscar
Sorry I missed your comment! Our girls love nothing more than eating the prunings – blackcurrants, willow and pittosporum are their absolute favourites. At this time of year they fight over the bean pods and old vines and I had to referree the rumpus over the old garlic ropes! What breed did you have? We think we might have finally sorted a mix that suits us best – primarily Saanen Boer; reasonable milkers and good eating as well.
Our milk goats were Nubians. The fiber goats were Angora.