How high........

Connemara Farmer

I'll be making my own pens out of 4x1 inside the sheep tunnel. I am thinking how to feed the ewes. I have a 9 inch JFC drainage pipe I can cut in half length ways to make 2 troughs.

I was thinking of mounting the half pipe on the outside of the pens. Thinking that the ewes can stick their heads outside and eat, but mounting it higher than floor level might "help" keep newborns from wandering out of their pens or into others. That was sometimes an issue when Dad lambed in his shed.

So I am wondering how high can I mount the pipe on the outside of the pen, so a blackface ewe can still stick her head out and eat the ration in the trough?

ganmo

I'm thinking barrier up to 2ft then mount pipe 1.5ft on outside

How long you planning on keeping them in the shed after lambing? The ones we keep in for longer than a week are a pain runnin from pen to pen

Connemara Farmer

ganmo wrote: »

I'm thinking barrier up to 2ft then mount pipe 1.5ft on outside

How long you planning on keeping them in the shed after lambing? The ones we keep in for longer than a week are a pain runnin from pen to pen

Must measure a quiet ewe :pac:

Not long at all, a day or two at most. Settle them with the ewe, tail and castrate if they're ready, couple of other small jobs the straight out the gap. All I really wanted them in for was safety during lambing for the twins, had a pox of a year two years ago with predation on twins, the singles were fine.

ganmo

Will they be in long pre lambing?
The dung can build up quick enough

Connemara Farmer

ganmo wrote: »

Will they be in long pre lambing?
The dung can build up quick enough

Probably bring them home from the hill five or six weeks pre first lamb, haven't 100% made up my mind how long I'll have them in for tbh.

ganmo

That'll be a good few inches of dung

Connemara Farmer

ganmo wrote: »

That'll be a good few inches of dung

I guess it'll depend on the weather, if it's good I'll probably leave them out longer. If the scanner comes this week I may only put in the twins.

Something we did before with drinkers was to put a block or two around them and purposely mount them higher to take dung into account.

ganmo

Ya we do that too
I'll send ya an image of our feeders when I can take one.

oh and you could leave a good gap at the bottom(up on a few bricks) of the barriers so that when it comes around to lambing its at the right level

skoger

Connemara Farmer wrote: »

I'll be making my own pens out of 4x1 inside the sheep tunnel. I am thinking how to feed the ewes. I have a 9 inch JFC drainage pipe I can cut in half length ways to make 2 troughs.

I was thinking of mounting the half pipe on the outside of the pens. Thinking that the ewes can stick their heads outside and eat, but mounting it higher than floor level might "help" keep newborns from wandering out of their pens or into others. That was sometimes an issue when Dad lambed in his shed.

So I am wondering how high can I mount the pipe on the outside of the pen, so a blackface ewe can still stick her head out and eat the ration in the trough?

We've got a 9in plank on the ground with an 11 or 12in gap before the rail holding the pipe. There's another rail about 8 inches above.

A 6in pipe is big enough

Connemara Farmer

skoger wrote: »

We've got a 9in plank on the ground with an 11 or 12in gap before the rail holding the pipe. There's another rail about 8 inches above.

A 6in pipe is big enough

Have the 9 inch cut now anyway.

Will experiment with the outdoor troughs I have and see what looks good.