Galvanized Mesh Sheep Slatts

Ard_MC

Hi There, Just wondering had anyone any experience of housing and lambing ewes on these? Is it possible to lamb on slatts? Thinking about installing into a straw bedded house.

Green farmer

I have an ordinary shed with concrete slab. Would you need to have a slurry tank under the slats ?

AntrimGlens

I had a house with mesh slats, ripped them out about four years ago and now bed them on just woodchip. They're grand if you're feeding short precision chopped or short stem silage as i was feeding bales and it was a bit long, so they'd pull it in and then this would block the mesh and the **** wouldn't drop through. They work a bit better if you have a concrete strip along the feed barrier that the ewe can stand on and then if they pull in silage it usually stays there and not onto the slat itself. There was never a problem lambing on them, just got the lambs off them fairly quickly and into individual pens as there was a fair oul draft coming up through the slats and twould be cold enough. I'm building a new house in the next couple of years and looking at the plastic pig slats for one side of the house, but the silage will all be fed through a chopper for them, hopefully this will reduce cases of prolapse also. Sheep on the mesh would rarely been lame or off their feet during housing, certainly much less than when on straw.
You should be able to pick up second hand mesh slats fairly handy and replace the timbers if needed, plenty of people just put the timbers up on blocks and then you wont need to build a tank under them and you still have a shed for any other purpose.

rangler1

Green farmer wrote: »

I have an ordinary shed with concrete slab. Would you need to have a slurry tank under the slats ?

It'd be the same problem as we were discussing last week...effluent running from the shed.
Some people have a ramp down into the shed of from the yard and clean it out with a loader bucket when they take up the slats, not ideal but gets you away from the cost of building tanks

ganmo

lambed in one few years back
ewes need to be shorn or the gaps get clogged, lambs need to be taken off it asap because of the draught under them.

the shed was built on a slope so one side had a ramp up into it but the other was at ground level, you could just open the doors at the side of the ramp and dig out the **** there. There was a channel taking the effulent into a slurry tank under the cattle house

Ard_MC

AntrimGlens wrote: »

I had a house with mesh slats, ripped them out about four years ago and now bed them on just woodchip. They're grand if you're feeding short precision chopped or short stem silage as i was feeding bales and it was a bit long, so they'd pull it in and then this would block the mesh and the **** wouldn't drop through. They work a bit better if you have a concrete strip along the feed barrier that the ewe can stand on and then if they pull in silage it usually stays there and not onto the slat itself. There was never a problem lambing on them, just got the lambs off them fairly quickly and into individual pens as there was a fair oul draft coming up through the slats and twould be cold enough. I'm building a new house in the next couple of years and looking at the plastic pig slats for one side of the house, but the silage will all be fed through a chopper for them, hopefully this will reduce cases of prolapse also. Sheep on the mesh would rarely been lame or off their feet during housing, certainly much less than when on straw.
You should be able to pick up second hand mesh slats fairly handy and replace the timbers if needed, plenty of people just put the timbers up on blocks and then you wont need to build a tank under them and you still have a shed for any other purpose.

How do you fine woodchip? Is it better than straw? My shed has a channel for seapage to a tank but the "fall" to the channel aint right so its a waste of time. Straw seems to get wet really quickly

AntrimGlens

i like the woodchip but its really important to get the right size and type. I get a ro-ro skip for £150 which fills a shed 75x35 to about 20" deep and its old doors, worktops, window frames and that type of stuff. Using actual timber woodchips doesn't have the same soakage as the processed wood and its good to have a good depth in it as the ewes will paw it to create a shallow dip every time they go to lie down which keeps it turning over. If it does get wet and creates a pan at the surface just drive in with the loader and turn it over, and the stuff below it is like new. I have a clay floor below it, it doesn't work so great on concrete unless theres a good fall in the floor.
Ewes wouldnt be anywhere near as lame on it as it doesn't heat up, but you will find small bits of timber caught between their cleats and have penetrated the hoof making them lame.

Green farmer

Anybody know how mesh slats compare to the plastic slats price wise ? Anybody use the plastic ones ?

tomwaterford

Anybody ever use these to convert a cattle slats to sheep slats with any degee of success....could be a viable option to rent sheds for a rapidly expanding farm if successful??

AnFeirmeoir

bought plastic ones.. not delivered yet. v dear... 8x4 mesh ones on donedeal are about €70. plastic could be twice that.

Might be in trouble with the runoff from slats.. but i'll cross that bridge when i come to it (maybe literally)

AntrimGlens

AnFeirmeoir wrote: »

bought plastic ones.. not delivered yet. v dear... 8x4 mesh ones on donedeal are about €70. plastic could be twice that.

Are they used or new prices? I sold my mesh ones two years ago with fairly sound timbers in them for £35 a piece. Christ at that price for plastic ones, I may have to rethink my shed design, run into £4K for slats :eek:

Green farmer

I'd love plastic ones. They seem the rolls Royce of slats. A lot of things on the to buy when I've a few quid list ahead of them unfortunately.

docmartin

Green farmer wrote: »

Anybody know how mesh slats compare to the plastic slats price wise ? Anybody use the plastic ones ?

I've got the plastic ones in the sheep house, expensive at the time, but i'm glad now that I put them in, small issue with the ewes pulling in the silage but as long as they're cleaned up it keeps it from becoming too much of an issue. they're very easy cleaned to be fair

AnFeirmeoir

docmartin wrote: »

I've got the plastic ones in the sheep house, expensive at the time, but i'm glad now that I put them in, small issue with the ewes pulling in the silage but as long as they're cleaned up it keeps it from becoming too much of an issue. they're very easy cleaned to be fair

Is there much seepage coming out from under?

Green farmer

Has anyone out there got a slurry tank designed for sheep with the plastic slats over them as well. I think I remember the tanks don't have to be deep. Just wondering what dimensions etc would one be ? I remember seeing the athenry million euro shed. They have slats and tank,but again , they had a different budget as well.

rangler1

Green farmer wrote: »

Has anyone out there got a slurry tank designed for sheep with the plastic slats over them as well. I think I remember the tanks don't have to be deep. Just wondering what dimensions etc would one be ? I remember seeing the athenry million euro shed. They have slats and tank,but again , they had a different budget as well.

Sheep dung would be dry so you'd have to put in 2or 3 ft water and have it deep enough to agitate if you went the tank route

Green farmer

Any grants available for putting in a slurry tank or slats ? You could see the costs rising very fast.

razor8

Build it deep enough, have 4 ft tanks here and are a disaster to agitate, have to lift gang slats etc it takes a couple of years to fill up which adds to problem

But still think it's Better to build it deep enough and let pig men put a few loads into it over winter, usually get it free this time of year

eire23

Have 4ft tanks here in the sheep sheds.Agitate them with a whisk type agiator so its not a problem. Would be a disaster with a normal agitator as the spout would be sticking way above the slurry.

Empty them every year and add a foot of water when finished so it dosent stick to the floor. Then top up with water before agitating. The tanks have a wall running down the middle with openings at each end so it keeps flowing round in a circle and has to come to the agitator. Half hour-45 mins would have them mixed

Green farmer

Do you think they've been worthwhile investments vs straw ? Probably a good few years payback , but labour saving ?

eire23

Green farmer wrote: »

Do you think they've been worthwhile investments vs straw ? Probably a good few years payback , but labour saving ?

Definatly better from a labour saving point of view, Cost wise I would also think so but i dont know what part of the country your in so if you were from the midlands or down south straw would be cheaper so that would have to be taken into account.

Intend putting up another shed in the next 2-3 years as have the green cert nearly done so want to take advantage of the grant and it will definatly be a slatted tank. Only difference would be to have the tank deeper to accomadate pig slurry as razor pointed out above.

Green farmer

I paid €15 for round bales of barley straw delivered into yard, this year.

AntrimGlens

docmartin wrote: »

I've got the plastic ones in the sheep house, expensive at the time, but i'm glad now that I put them in, small issue with the ewes pulling in the silage but as long as they're cleaned up it keeps it from becoming too much of an issue. they're very easy cleaned to be fair

Doc, do you clip the ewes before they go on the slats? Would wool blocking the slats be a problem, I know the wire mesh slats had smaller holes so maybe more of a problem with them than the plastic ones?

docmartin

Green farmer wrote: »

Has anyone out there got a slurry tank designed for sheep with the plastic slats over them as well. I think I remember the tanks don't have to be deep. Just wondering what dimensions etc would one be ? I remember seeing the athenry million euro shed. They have slats and tank,but again , they had a different budget as well.

This is the system i've got in place, 2 bay tank of 8 ft depth, was advised to go a full size tank, as its only a once off job.

docmartin

AntrimGlens wrote: »

Doc, do you clip the ewes before they go on the slats? Would wool blocking the slats be a problem, I know the wire mesh slats had smaller holes so maybe more of a problem with them than the plastic ones?

No problems with wool, mostly horned mountain ewes here plus a few texels and to be honest the wool doesnt really be coming out of them unless its a bad year of fluke.
I usually go in with the pressure washer ever few months, soak the place in chemical first and leave it soak, then they basically wash off like new again

tomwaterford

Green farmer wrote: »

I paid €15 for round bales of barley straw delivered into yard, this year.

paid e12...collected off field 150 yards from my gate:D

Green farmer

tomwaterford wrote: »

paid e12...collected off field 150 yards from my gate:D

First year or two I ended up driving to neighbouring counties to buy a trailer or two of square straw bales. Spent as much on diesel driving as I did for the straw, as I wouldn't go through a huge amount of straw, and was restricted as to how much a jeep trailer or cattle box can carry.
Then found a large tillage farmer local. He drops a tractor and trailer load of big rounds at entrance to shed. Very handy and no messing. Probably get near to two years from the load.even though €12 sounds even better, I'm happy to pay the €15 as saves transport.

Green farmer

Those slats are looking like a good idea. With the amount of rain that fell over the last few days,I can see the merit of having sheep inside. Having to manage sheep carefully as the land is getting soft under foot.

greysides

Any one come across the idea of housing sheep on straw bales on their edge?

Saw it once, dung gets walked in and they stay dry on top. A few straws get pulled out so there's a scant mat of loose straws on the top.

Green farmer

Talking to a suppliers today. Rumblings going around that next tams might include sheep slats. Any one else hear this ? Would make the plastic ones more affordable

I've a possibly silly question. Seeing how dangerous slurry gases can be. Is there any issues around sheep ****. What I mean is if you had the slats on concrete. After the sheep had gone, you'd have to walk in amongst the **** to take out the slats. Would 2 months of pure **** , without the straw mixed in pose any health risks ?

AnFeirmeoir

Ive got them on slats for the first time. Theyre very comfortable so far but...

Any tips on stopping them pulling in silage? I've tried adjusting the gate every way i can think of.
They have a feeding gate with a horizontal bar.

AntrimGlens

Neighbour who feeds his hay has lengths of 2" mesh welded to the bottom of the feed barrier and these are dropped to lay on top of the hay the length of the barriers, he can then fold them up when feeding meal. I always had problems with them pulling in silage unless it was precision chopped, best method is to have a 18" concrete stand off where the ewes place their front feet so most of the dropped silage collects here rather than on top of the mesh and then it can be forked out.

Its hard to get it right every way!!

Green farmer

Any updates on how the plastic slats are going for anybody that has them for lambing. ? Wouldn't half mind them now. A lot of work forking straw each day and keeping pens clean

AnFeirmeoir

have them in for the first year and its been good overall. I only raised them9 inches off the floor and they are full now near the feed barrier so i need to scrape them clean ever 3 days or so but i'm nearly finished lambing now. i'll put them higher next year.

They arent as clean is i thought theyd be as the sheep pull in the baled silage. but they are (were) nice and dry. There is practically zero runoff from them. dont ask me how.

Green farmer

Can you subdivide them with lambing pens etc, or would you move the lambs off them afterward ? They'd be something I'd aspire to Over the next year or two. I'd be thinking of putting the up on cavity blocks

AnFeirmeoir

i put them into straw pens when the lamb.