My wife and I purchased 32 acres on Otago Peninsula back in March, grass 3 foot high over all of it, baled 3 paddocks (250 ) the rest too steep, 27 calves and 14 lambs later we are getting on top of it, havent needed too feed out any hay as yet and should get thru the rest of winter without it, which is normal for down south as our winters are so mild. question is how hard should we graze the breaks, stock seems to trample more than they eat, I come from farming background and am busy fencing, break and permanent, We plan on building a new house on the property early next year, enjoy this site, very informative, keep up the good work:D
There will be a lot of rank grass in amongst the good stuff, so you can expect some wastage. If you can do a long narrow break then the animals will be careful to keep away from the wire, so will trample less.
Sheep cannot handle long grass very well, so I would have a single backwire that the sheep can walk under to graze the short stuff.
If you provide a molasses salt lick, then the grass will be digested better.
] Welcome fellow Peninsula-ites [8D]