We now have a grand plan for what we would like the fencing to be. However at the moment we are trying to get something less sophisticated that will work for all the animals this year, then hopefully we will have time to do a more permenant job next year (or maybe the year after!!).
This is the Grand Plan.
We will have 5 proper fields and a big one that contains most of the woodland (if we can find the edges of it). In addition there are 2 orchards, the potager and the hayfield (obviously we hope to make hay here - it will have to be by hand as it is rather steep - we have an idea of asking a local farmer to see if they can manage on the bottom of the bottom field where it is a bit less steep - but that is all for another time)
One of the proper fields and the woodland field don't have water in them. The others are provided for either by the runoff from the house spring, or by a second spring that comes out below the drive. Our plan for the fields without water is that one will get water collected from the roof of the stables (when we get them) and the other will have a 'run in shelter' and we will collect rainwater from the roof of that. We are not quite sure what the monthly rainfall is, but it seems to be a lot!
We plan on having 3 strands of electric fence round everything at something like 25cm 50cm and 100cm. The intention is that this will keep horses, sheep and cows in. We need to experiment by fencing the currently unfenced part of the orchard like this before commiting to it everywhere as we are not 100% sure it will keep the sheep in.
When we arrived there were 2 fields only (Top - 1, 2, woodland and Bottom - 3, 4, 5). When Daisy arrived we repaired part of the top field and added an extra bit so we have very rough and ready fencing round what will become field 1. The 4 horses are in there now.
We are now working on repairing the fence round the bottom field with a view to putting the cows in there and perhaps the horses later in the summer if the eat all the food in the field they are in. This is quite a big job as the fence is broken in places, overgrown with holly and brambles in others and too high at certain points for such little cows.
Col and his 3 ewes and their 3 lambs have been in the 2nd orchard for quite some time and it is grazed right down, we moved them on to the driveway today so they can graze that on their way to the orchard which is quite lush. Until the bottom field is finished the cows are living with them. The other flock of sheep are currently in the bottom field contained with electric sheep fencing. We will move them perhaps every 3 weeks or 4 weeks around the field, we plan on them remaining there when the cows move as the field is huge for the cows and they won't eat all the grass.
What a lot of animals! What a lot of fences! What a lot of work!
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