feeding sheep silage outside shed

eorna

going to put sheep in shortly, had the idea of putting the ring feeders for silage outside the shed and the ewes will have access to it ad lib, instead of putting feed in the shed..in this way they'll be more room and most of the dung will be outside..now my question is will it matter that the sheep to have to go outside to eat and get wet and then going in the shed wet to lie down?..as it is now they are wet 24/7 so maybe won't make much of difference..i just don't know..don't want to end up with a pneumonia festival :eek:.

Username John

eorna wrote: »

going to put sheep in shortly, had the idea of putting the ring feeders for silage outside the shed and the ewes will have access to it ad lib, instead of putting feed in the shed..in this way they'll be more room and most of the dung will be outside..now my question is will it matter that the sheep to have to go outside to eat and get wet and then going in the shed wet to lie down?..as it is now they are wet 24/7 so maybe won't make much of difference..i just don't know..don't want to end up with a pneumonia festival :eek:.

You'll prob find that if the sheep have access to a shed, when it's raining they'll go into the shed.

When I have the sheep in for lambing, i feed them ration outside in a yard, just cos there is a big trough out there and its easier. They have access to the yard for the day. If it's nice, they like to be out, but if it's raining, they nearly always come in. I close them in at night.
Never had any issues.

tabby aspreme

If the sheep are wet going into the shed it will be hard to keep the bedding dry , will the yard get messy around the feeders, you could end up with a footrot festival. Would you be very crowded with the feeders in the shed

Insp. Harry Callahan

I tried this once years ago, had an awful lot of footrot problems,never did it again, be carefull

rancher

Insp. Harry Callahan wrote: »

I tried this once years ago, had an awful lot of footrot problems,never did it again, be carefull

And it wouldn't pass a cross compliance inspection without a tank to collect the water

razor8

How many sheep would ye recommend per ring feeder?. i find sheep waste alot of silage from them but on the upside they really reduce labour from a part-time farmers point of view eg.dont have to get up early every morning to grape silage into a feed though

I wouldnt be in favour of letting them out of a shed to feed, you would use a lot of extra straw to keep bedding dry

tabby aspreme

50 / 60 per feeder and a bale will last 2 days if they are on silage only , you could put a half sheet of plywood under the bale so as not to have it sitting directly on the bedding and this will reduce the amount of heating especially with dry silage or hay

eorna

put the bale feeders in the shed so everything is dry..is tight but not too bad...outside could have been a bit messy...
Razor: have 2 groups: 90 odd ewes with 2 round feeders and 40-45 with single one..

razor8

ya, im working at a ratio of 40/50 per feeder. i leave the plastic under the bale and just take it out when i put in the next one and i have no heating problems. have the odd sheep that will jump onto the bale and make herself a cosy leaba