Does Anybody Graze Horse and Sheep Together and What are the Benefits!

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NWalker

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As in the title really. We have quite a lot of moss and buttercups in a couple of our fields. Just wondered if sheep eat plants that horses don't. Also are sheep much work. Can you use electric fencing. Thank you.
 
We have kept horses and sheep together, although atm our 'flock' is reduced to one pet sheep. They certainly do eat plants that horses won't touch. They also help to break the worm cycle. They do not respect electric fencing, they can't feel it through their wool!,Although I think a farmer friend has some special electric sheep fencing. One other benefit is that scaredy-cat horses get used to sheep (although some don't believe that the sheep they meet out hacking are the same species as those at home lol). You do need to introduce them carefully though as although we haven't had much trouble, I have heard of horses who have attacked sheep.
 
I borrow some sheep to graze my paddocks down as I have too much grass. They do a great job of getting rid of longer 'wee' patches of grass, eating weeds down and tidying up in general. They also help to keep the worm burden down as horse worm eggs can't survive if eaten by them. Add to that the free fertiliser and they are a godsend paddock maintenance wise!

Downsides are that they need regular footcare, worming, shearing and treating for fly strike. They also tend to be good at dropping down dead for no apparent reason, although the farmer I borrow them from does all the care, so I just leave them to it! They are also good at eating horse's feeds and hay if not watched.

If you have a lot of buttercups and moss though it sounds as if you have a drainage issue which might be worth looking into, also applying lime can help if the paddock is too acidic, you can test for ph quite cheaply.
 
We have sheep and horses but have to separate them because my very stupid girl eats sheep dung and gives herself colic!!

Never had a problem with any other horses doing this I might add, just my silly girl!
 
Sheep are a pain in the *,theyre escape artists from other farmers field,escape into my horses field and get thru the electric fencing and not feeling it. My horse did pick one up by the scruff and moved it lol.
You have to watch as they will eat your horses food.
 
NWalker said:
As in the title really. We have quite a lot of moss and buttercups in a couple of our fields. Just wondered if sheep eat plants that horses don't. Also are sheep much work. Can you use electric fencing. Thank you.
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we have sheep and horses together, horses are very picky whereas the sheep eat most things. sheep are work but isnt any animal! we dont do lecky fences.
 
my old welsh mountain pony used to pick sheep up in his teeth and fling them around when my uncles sheep used to escape into his field :D
 
I have the best of both worlds - sheep on loan from our friendly farmer neighbour. The sheep live in the adjacent fields to mine and I have set fence rails on one section of fence so sheep & Highland cattle can limbo in and out but horse can't!

Highlands were a bit of a shock first time but now neither are bothered and just get on with the important things in life EATING.
 
We keep sheep and horses and agree with most of the above. I don't think they eat moss but they do eat buttercups, not so good at clover though, well they weren't last year when there was plenty of green stuff. This year we have restricted them a bit as we lost one to being overweight and I don't want them all to get too fat again. We have nowhere near as much grass this year, due to pants whether mainly but the sheep do make a big positive impact.
We are using an electric rope at the moment but even sheared some of them will dive thorough it.
We pay to get ours sheared but do their feet ourselves and dose them with pour on stuff to stop fly strike (we had it once and it is FOUL!!).
 
I was always taught a sheep will starve a horse in the field great if you have a lamanitic, sheep graze very tight and will only eat the crappy stuff with hungry. How ever they do a fantastic job in the winter of tidying up the fields to give you a nice fresh start in the spring. They are also hard work with dagging, clipping,dipping , foot rot, maggets , getting out and droping dead. Can you tell I,m a dairy farmer!! Lambs are cute though.
 
We have 2 sheep that roam around the yard. Bean wasn't keen when she first met them, she chased them, but they could get into the other field under the electric so they weren't bothered. They eat plants that the horses don't.

I don't do anything with them :p But the YO probably does, wouldn't really know!!
 
Thanks everybody so much for all your replies. I don't think sheep are quite as uncomplicated as I thought they might be!
 
Ditto everything above really, and if you can get someone else's sheep so you don't have the hard work part, even better.

Also, sheep eat ragwort and nibble right down into the florets, which kills the plant for some reason, despite the roots still being there, so if you have a ragwort problem they can really help clean up the fields. Don't use your precious pet sheep for this purpose though, for obvious reasons :(
 
Rowreach said:
Also, sheep eat ragwort and nibble right down into the florets, which kills the plant for some reason, despite the roots still being there, so if you have a ragwort problem they can really help clean up the fields. Don't use your precious pet sheep for this purpose though, for obvious reasons :(
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But don't feel bad about it - a farmed sheep's life expectancy is shorter than the time it takes for liver problems to develop. Don't get me started on cows fed on barley though...
 
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