by Today I am going to walk you through what I would use to make 10 acres of raw land suitable for raising and grazing sheep. I am going to outline what you need to install and give you a ballpark figure of how much this infrastructure will costs. I will explain the various options for water and electricity, even outlining some options for land that has neither water nor electrical access yet.
Fencing:
Fenceline Clearing: $500-3000
In my area of Northeast Texas, a forestry clearing machinery kit can be rented for $3,000 per week. For light brush, a brush hog costs about $500 per week to rent.
Perimeter Fencing Material: $3824
I would install the same fence that is on my farm right now. This fence is a woven wire field fence and costs $478 per 330 linear foot. The cost covers a 6×6″ woven wire field fencing that comes on 330ft rolls. You will need to factor in the cost of corner braces if you do not have the lumber from clearing the fenceline to do so.
Corner Braces: 5 each 8’x6″ treated post ($30 each). $150 per corner post x 4 $600.
Gate: $313
2 Gate hinge kits at $18 each
1 Utility Tube Gate for $217. Two 8’x6″ treated post for either side of the gate = $60
Fencing Total: $4,637-7137
Water:
If you already have a spigot access point, you can simply take water to your paddocks using a 500′ length of UV resistant Poly-tubing. That’s what I do. The 500′ length of pipe cost me $200 and I have water in all of my paddocks.
#1 Pond: In my region, it costs $1200-3600 to dig a small pond. That said, I would not dig a pond, but haul water instead. Sheep drink very little water. On the hottest days I observe they only drink 1 gallon per head per day.
65 Gallon Tank: $280
Sheep drink about 1 gallon of water per day, so if you are considering a flock of 20 sheep on 10 acres, a 65 gallon water tank will service your flock for 3 days.
Water total: $200-$3000
Housing/shelter:
There are a lot of options when it comes to sheep shelter! Feel free to leave yours down below.
I am currently working with a company to purchase a 10×20′ structure that will be a miniature replica of the 2-sided structure that I currently have.
With the modifications this structure will cost around $2,200.
A 2-sided shelter is all I have ever needed here in Texas. The closed side is facing the north, which is where the cold wind blows in from. As long as there is plenty of dry bedding, the sheep are just fine in this shed!
Shelter Cost: $2,200
Rotational Grazing Infrastructure:
Charger System:
Assuming no electrical access, I would utilize a 5 joule solar system for 10 acres. $800
Total: $800
Rotational Grazing Supplies:
Here are the supplies I would keep on hand for rotational grazing:
6 reels. $90
6 rolls of polytape. $240
40 Step in Posts. $87.60
2 sets of tri-jumper cables. $20
2 Reel stands with brackets: $250
Total: $687
Buffering for Incidentals:
I would put a $1,500 buffer into my budget for this project for incidentals. This will cover the cost of the unexpected. If you don’t spend it, you can put it toward the cost of breeding stock… but it is that it is better to come up with extra than to fall short.
How many sheep on 10 acres?
In a good rainfall area (40″+) with land that has 70% grass cover or more, 2-3 sheep per acre is possible.
That said, I would start with 1 sheep per acre. Buy 8-10 of the highest quality ewes you can find and pair them to the best ram you can afford. Starting small is my anthem. It will keep you from burnout: both financial and emotional.
What’s more is that sheep reproduce really fast. Within 8 months your flock size will double. You can save back your best ewes every year to increase your flock size from 10 to 20, and so on.
Please share this article with a friend if it helped!
-the Shepherdess
“For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it— lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish…” Luke 14:28
Thank you SOO much for the information. I’m in Minnesota. I found a beautiful piece of property to lease to own.
We still have snow so I can’t do much yet.
Philippians 4:13
Congratulations!! This is so exciting. Thanks for your support!
Thank you for this information! 😊 I can relate to this content. We are going to start working on building pasture hopefully soon. (If it would stop snowing here) I’ve been watching the you tube channel for almost a year now. You have encouraged my family and I to try to raise dorper sheep. We bought our first dorper ewe and dorper ram in September. We experienced our first lambing on February 15th in the dark in -30 weather, but we wouldn’t of had it any other way. It was a beautiful, yet adventurous experience that we will never forget! We are looking forward to our next step in the process of raising our sheep! Continue doing what you do best! Thanks again!
Samantha, your comment is a huge encouragement! Thank you for sharing your journey and uplifting me in return!
Grace you are truly an amazing person. Thanks for sharing your experiences and knowledge of God.
love the Bible verses.
I hope to meet you someday and personally thank you. We are in the process of finding land,as soon as we do I have tge confidence after watching you to get started.
God bless you!!!
Jeffrey murray
[email protected]
Thank you so much for this encouragement!! It means more than you know!
Thank you for this. 10 acres is what I have. Picking a name for my place was like an obsession, I finally picked one.Oasis Earth Farm. I will be establishing the pasture this year.
Love that name! Congratulations!
you are most Welcome Grace.
oh by the way Orange is my favorite color, Looks like Tennessee maybe our next stop.
Thanks again, keep the great content coming.
May this year you prosper even more with God’s “Grace”
As another small flock owner I really like all of your suggestions here. I thought I would add a few thoughts in addition to your excellent ones here. For context, I am in central Virginia.
One thing to keep in mind is that not all 10 acres of land is laid out in a square/rectangle and the pasture areas within that especially may not be. In this case it raises the cost of permanent fencing exponentially, as you need a lot more corners. Also, having only one gate would be extremely limiting in most scenarios. I think your permanent fencing suggestion is ideal, but is cost prohibitive for many starting out. What I do is use electric net fencing. I actually prefer it over tape/polywire and posts anyway, but it is an excellent solution when you are not able to have a perimeter fence. The sheep will get out on occasion, but in general, as long as they have plenty to eat and you keep the fence hot they will stay in just fine. I am a big fan of the Premier 1 nets, and mine are the 36″ ones. If I were more worried about them escaping I would probably opt for the 42″ ones as the sheep would be less inclined to jump over them. With this sort of setup you can pretty much run sheep anywhere, and keep the predators out pretty well (we don’t really have any predator pressure here so I can’t speak much from personal experience). Then, as you have the money, and more experience you can build a perimeter fence. Just make sure your sheep are trained to a bucket. Then, if they do get out they will be super easy to get back in! Grain or alfalfa pellets work well.
Also, you didn’t really mention some sort of catch pen or cute, but that is crucial for being able to handle the animals for worming, sorting, etc. I’ve always used welded wire cattle panels for this, and I have a portable pen that is made up of two cattle panels cut in half (to make four smaller panels) hooked together on three corners using the spiral hinges sold by Premier. It is super portable and works great for catching them. If you have more sheep (my flock is currently about 8 ewes) you could use full sized panels, or add a couple more half sized ones to the corral.
Finally, I highly agree with your suggestion to start small and build the flock. Beginners must keep in mind though that even with a fully stocked farm there are seasons where the sheep cannot keep up with the grass growth, and you may need to mow the excess forage. This is especially true if you under stock at the beginning. You don’t have to own a mower/tractor, but having access to one, or the ability to hire one is important if you want to maintain the pastures.
I hope that helps! It can be good to see different ways of doing things so that you can find what works best for your context.