09/26/2026
How Short Is Too Short? When Do We Move the Sheep? 🌱🐑
We get asked this a lot.
The short answer is: it depends.
We practice Adaptive Multi-Paddock (AMP) grazing. Generally, we like to put the sheep into a paddock when the grass is around 16 inches tall, but we’ll also put them in when it’s closer to 10 inches, depending on what’s happening with the pasture and the time of year.
What’s more important to us is how the grass is responding. We watch the pasture and how quickly the sheep are eating it down. If they’re grazing faster than we want, we move them. We give them enough room for 4–6 days of forage and aim to leave 4–5 inches of residual. That gives the plants enough leaf area to keep photosynthesizing and bounce back quickly.
These pictures were taken just three days after we moved the sheep, and you can already see new shoots coming through. 🌱
It also helps with parasite management. Parasite larvae tend to be concentrated in the lower parts of the vegetation, so leaving more residual can help reduce exposure. We also like moving the sheep onto fresh pasture after rain.
And that dead, dried grass you see on the ground? We actually want it there. It helps shade and protect the soil and hold moisture.
Someone once said grazing is both an art and a science, and I think that’s pretty accurate.
We’re constantly reading the pasture, the weather and the sheep. There’s no magic number that works for every farm. Our pasture, soil and even ground temperature can be completely different from the farm next door.
The pasture tells us when it’s time to move. 🌱🐑
