Friendly Flock

Most people think that Holistic Planned Grazing (HPG) is a fixed system, like mob grazing or just another rotational grazing variation. But its more than that.

In rotational grazing you follow fixed patterns. You have your fields and you move your animals in a fixed rotation through those paddocks, regardless the growth rate . You don’t implement droughts, fires, wildlife or the recovery time needed for the grass to regain its full potential.

This is what most people don’t grasp about HPG, you plan for everything that could happen.

That means that its never a fixed plan. You will always have to adapt and change it.

This is what I am learning right now.

As Allan Savory says, it is about being in “the right place at the right time for the right reasons and with the right behavior.”

As I am herding, this is what I struggled with the most. How can I control up to 2000 sheep by myself with only 1 dog?

I used to give the sheep the direction and than follow them. They herded me.

Keeping them from running over almost all the fresh growths or keeping them from overgrazing seemed almost impossible. Especially in dense forest areas.

But I just had to try.

After 2 months of herding I developed a grazing map in addition to my grazing plan. In this map (the head image) I noted the natural “roads” of the sheep to see how I can create the paddocks with the least effort, to keep them where I want. With the help of this and of roads I created 5 paddocks.

In these 5 paddocks I try to keep the sheep from regrazing an area for more than 3 days.

The areas marked in yellow are areas where there is low visibility and it’s harder to control the sheep. There is also less grass, so the sheep spread out further. This means that they might overgraze some plants.

The green areas are easy to herd. I can control the sheep and there is more food so the sheep tighten up to graze.

Because I have to return to the waterpoint every day, there will be some areas overgrazed (marked in red). If its to narrow and I cant pass otherwise I marked the area as well in red.

This helped a great deal to control the sheep and with the help of Kelpie dogs and low stress stock handling the herding goes quit smooth!

There is still much to improve but in time I will get there. I hope to help people trying to herd holistically with these insights, so that they struggle less.