05/22/2026
We set out to raise our sheep on pasture fully “grass” fed. And it was gonna be easy.
Sheep are ruminants. They are genetically designed to eat “grass”. And fields should grow “grass” naturally with a little encouragement.
So we bought our sheep (mostly) from a flock out in PA that had management styles we wanted - grass fed only, pasture lambing, etc. We bought some acreage - Beautiful rolling hills surrounded (on a few sides) by trees. We planted a good diverse mix of seeds. We got some electric net fence and we’ve been rotating ever since.
And it’s been impossible.
Ok, thats hyperbole. But challenging for sure!
A lot of the ground is too low in organic matter to hold any water or host microbial life and so most of the pasture planting basically just produced fields of moss and plantain, which the sheep eat only if they are desperate for green.
Now I understand that the folks with animals truly grass fed in green pastures- they are the farmers that have worked really hard for those conditions and that label is a badge of distinction (or should be except labels are exploited by the industrial food supply).
We will continue working away here, trying to get green living plants in our pastures, improving microbial and fungal life, insect and bird populations, and creating conditions to support the symbiotic relationships that nature requires for life to thrive. But we now know, this is a work that takes a lifetime and we won’t be achieving this overnight.
I put quotations around the word grass because a rich forage diet should be diverse with grasses, legumes, and forbs.
