Sheep Mode — Small Flock Planning | sheepmode.com
Shelter siting, drainage, wind exposure and a perimeter that actually contains small ruminants.
Penn State's spring lamb production guidance gives the shelter shape for small operations: small open-sided sheds, well drained, sited away from prevailing winds. Those three conditions do most of the work. Drainage keeps the standing area dry, which matters when you are also managing feet; wind exposure decides whether the shed is usable in the weather you actually get.
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The University of Minnesota's multi-species grazing note covers the perimeter and the ground inside it. Fences must contain small ruminants, pasture composition and available forage should be evaluated rather than assumed, and sheep are copper sensitive — do not feed cattle minerals, which carry higher copper. The same page notes that sheep and goats share parasites, which matters if you ever run them together.
Penn State also frames the whole exercise as land, labour and capital planning alongside continuous or rotational pasture management. The order that follows from the sources is: evaluate forage, decide the system, fix the perimeter that contains your smallest animal, then site the shelter on drained ground away from the wind. A shelter planned after the fence is built sits correctly; one planned first often does not.
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