Sheep rotations fail quietly when moves live in memory. One field gets grazed twice in a short spell while another rests untouched for a season, and nobody can prove either fact afterward. The remedy is a page for every field, filled in at every move with the same facts: the flock that went in, the flock that came out, the head count in each group, and the weekday the move happened. From the weekday of the last grazing on that page, the field's rest can be counted forward honestly, and the next move can be chosen from figures instead of impressions.
What a Field Page Records
Keep one page per field, headed with the field name everyone uses. Under that heading, add one line per grazing. A worked line reads: North Field entry, Monday move: flock in, the ewe flock of 62; flock out, none, field was resting; last grazed, six weeks earlier, so rest earned stands at six weeks. The matching closing line reads: North Field entry, Friday move: flock out, the ewe flock of 62; flock in, none; grass left standing at ankle height. Entry lines and closing lines together give each field a full grazing history.
Add a short grass note to each closing line: grazed even, grazed tight in one corner, or left rough around the gate. That note explains the next entry. A field entered with sheep again only three weeks after a tight grazing will struggle, and the page shows why before the grass does. Keep the format identical on every page, so any helper can read any field's history at a glance and move sheep exactly as planned.
Planning Moves From Rest Figures
Count each field's rest forward from its last grazing weekday, and write the running figure on the page at every move. Plan the next move from those figures. A field still short of the rest you aim for stays closed, even if it looks tempting from the gate. A field with the longest rest and good cover takes the next flock. Rotating this way spreads grazing pressure evenly instead of returning sheep to favorite fields while other ground sits unused.
Resting ground also rests the worm cycle: many worm stages picked up from grazed pasture die off while a field stands empty of sheep, so a rested field generally offers cleaner grazing than ground grazed back to back. The record cannot promise any field is free of worms, and it does not replace worm control advice from a vet. What it does is show, field by field, how much rest each piece of ground truly received, which is the figure rotation decisions should rest on.
Review the pages at the end of each season as well as at each move. The seasonal read answers bigger questions than any single move can: which fields carried sheep longest across the year, which fields earned the rest they were promised, and which fields were quietly grazed hardest because they sit nearest the yard. Plan winter rest from that review, closing the fields that carried heavy grazing first, for a long break, and note any field where grass came back thin despite recorded rest, because thin recovery after honest rest points to soil, drainage, or fertility questions worth raising with an adviser or vet rather than more grazing pressure. The review takes an hour and sets the whole rotation for the season ahead.
Store the field pages in KinsLe's Pet Passport for the flock, one section per field, so move history and rest tallies stay together and travel with the flock's other records. A new helper, a relief shepherd, or a buyer asking about the ground can read the same pages and reach the same conclusions. Season by season, the Pet Passport diary on KinsLe shows which ground recovered fully and which ground needs a longer break before sheep return.