Laurie Branson : What is it with us permaculturists and our ponds?? We planned eight on our farm design (which seemed like a lot at the time), but this last weekend we decided we needed to add at least two more on our 24 acres. I'm no expert (not even a novice) at grazing and not sure you were asking a rhetorical question or not, but I recently heard Alan Savory speak at the Permaculture Voices Conference in California. He has some great free downloads on the Holistic Management website grazing management. http://holisticmanagement.org/free-downloads/

The design looks great.

Neil Bertrando : re: grazing, you need more info than 31 acres. gotta get some data to cross reference. to start with a ballpark, you need annual production per acre (usually in lbs or tons), rapid estimate is animals eat 3% of their body weight per day (30 lbs for 1000 lbs animal which is generally 1 animal unit). using this you can get an estimate of your stocking rate. you can calculate the animal days of forage you have and start to set up a paddock system based on this. of course you need to consider water infrastructure and access to provide for the animal needs and recovery time for your desired perennials. also remember there will be times of year when grazing in the forest is a great idea with mast providing a significant portion of feed needs. start with the HM free downloads, then read the holistic management handbook and text for a lot of detail on this.

Daniel Halsey : The carrying capacity or stocking rate needs to be determined by local experts in livestock. On our latest deign for an Amish farm, we only did lanes, no paddocks, so the electric netting can be moved at different rates and distances depending on the season. Again, this is handed off to the livestock manager or farmer to determine. In the design we load up forage crops and determine the structure for rotations to increase the carrying capacity. The long term goal is to build soil.