building a sheep shed with the grant

roosky

Hi all,

Im in the early stages of planning a shed for sheep.

I want your opinions and ideas on things to do and pitt falls to avoid.

My plan is a four bay double with plastic slats and a wide feed passage for lambing pens

Also planning on deep tanks 8 ft to allow the possibility of housing cattle

Anyone putting up a sheep shed to grant spec and if so can you give ideas of prices

Jack180570

roosky wrote: »

Hi all,

Im in the early stages of planning a shed for sheep.

I want your opinions and ideas on things to do and pitt falls to avoid.

My plan is a four bay double with plastic slats and a wide feed passage for lambing pens

Also planning on deep tanks 8 ft to allow the possibility of housing cattle

Anyone putting up a sheep shed to grant spec and if so can you give ideas of prices

Have applied for PP for a 70 x 70 sheep shed and will apply for a grant once planning comes through. No great idea on costs yet and still debating if I will get a contractor to erect or buy the shed precut from one of the steel suppliers and get a local contractor to erect it.
Ours will be different to yours as it will be a loose shed with straw bed and 2 precast 1800 gal effluent tanks..
Also planning a wide feed passage (in case we buy a diet feeder) and walk through meal feeders as pen dividers.
We are in organic so need a lot of space in the pens (1.5m2/ewe)

Currently feeding them in loose sheds with round bale feeders and letting them out for meal feeding

Would welcome ideas from other sheep farmers and maybe a few pics of their sheds :-)

Username John

Jack180570 wrote: »

Have applied for PP for a 70 x 70 sheep shed and will apply for a grant once planning comes through. No great idea on costs yet and still debating if I will get a contractor to erect or buy the shed precut from one of the steel suppliers and get a local contractor to erect it.
Ours will be different to yours as it will be a loose shed with straw bed and 2 precast 1800 gal effluent tanks..
Also planning a wide feed passage (in case we buy a diet feeder) and walk through meal feeders as pen dividers.
We are in organic so need a lot of space in the pens (1.5m2/ewe)

Currently feeding them in loose sheds with round bale feeders and letting them out for meal feeding

Would welcome ideas from other sheep farmers and maybe a few pics of their sheds :-)

Would they have any issues with their feet from going in and out?

And is that sand or sawdust they're in the last pic?

Jack180570

Username John wrote: »

Would they have any issues with their feet from going in and out?

And is that sand or sawdust they're in the last pic?

Feet are good so far, we stand them in bluestone footbath for about 5min every month or so but it is far from ideal feeding them outside.

Bedded on sawdust over a 4-5inch layer of screenings from firewood which consists of a good amount of small firewood splinters and bark. Its great for drainage and keeps the bed dry, then top up with sawdust which is great too.

We are out of the sawdust now and gone to straw and not finding it as good. A lot of it is down to how dry the silage/haylage is, very easy to keep good bed if dry and almost impossible if wet.

drive it

Jack180570 wrote: »

Feet are good so far, we stand them in bluestone footbath for about 5min every month or so but it is far from ideal feeding them outside.

Bedded on sawdust over a 4-5inch layer of screenings from firewood which consists of a good amount of small firewood splinters and bark. Its great for drainage and keeps the bed dry, then top up with sawdust which is great too.

We are out of the sawdust now and gone to straw and not finding it as good. A lot of it is down to how dry the silage/haylage is, very easy to keep good bed if dry and almost impossible if wet.[

How much bluestone to water do you mix?

drive it

Sorry to jump in on the thread but I am in the middle of planing a shed and was leaning to have a stone floor instead of a concrete one. Would you use less straw with a stone floor as there should be better soakage or is there any difference?

Username John

drive it wrote: »

Sorry to jump in on the thread but I am in the middle of planing a shed and was leaning to have a stone floor instead of a concrete one. Would you use less straw with a stone floor as there should be better soakage or is there any difference?

We have a hardcore floor in the shed, I think it's better for soakage. Not sure you'd use less straw, you prob would but I like to have a good deep bed of straw...

Is it allowed now to build sheds for animals without concrete floors? It's a definite no no for grant aided sheds I imagine?

farawaygrass

Must be a bitch cleaning them out? Especially if a big shed

ganmo

We've 2 sheds one shed with a concrete floor and the other with a hard packed clay floor
The concrete one is not much wetter than the other but it's way easier to clear out

Username John

farawaygrass wrote: »

Must be a bitch cleaning them out? Especially if a big shed

ganmo wrote: »

We've 2 sheds one shed with a concrete floor and the other with a hard packed clay floor
The concrete one is not much wetter than the other but it's way easier to clear out

Shed either gets cleaned out by hand (its not a big shed)

Or contractor with bobcat and tine grab - which does a good enough job...

To be honest, concrete would be a nicer job, but twould be fairly low down on the list of places to spend money (I'd prob add to the shed, before I'd put in a floor into it to be honest)

kk.man

Username John wrote: »

We have a hardcore floor in the shed, I think it's better for soakage. Not sure you'd use less straw, you prob would but I like to have a good deep bed of straw...

Is it allowed now to build sheds for animals without concrete floors? It's a definite no no for grant aided sheds I imagine?

Believe it or not Dept allow non concrete floors for sheep... Teagasc guy told me a few months back but you can't put cattle in them

ganmo

Username John wrote: »

Shed either gets cleaned out by hand (its not a big shed)

Or contractor with bobcat and tine grab - which does a good enough job...

To be honest, concrete would be a nicer job, but twould be fairly low down on the list of places to spend money (I'd prob add to the shed, before I'd put in a floor into it to be honest)

I'm like yourself, I'd like to see a concrete floor in the shed, but it'd be well down the list of preferences

there's some straw in the corner of it that hasn't seen the light of day in a long time, there's a old beet pulper in there too that's seen better days

Cran

kk.man wrote: »

Believe it or not Dept allow non concrete floors for sheep... Teagasc guy told me a few months back but you can't put cattle in them

Really I thought was a cross compliance requirement now for all new buildings to have concrete? Would make tunnels cheap option still

Jack180570

drive it wrote: »

Jack180570 wrote: »

Feet are good so far, we stand them in bluestone footbath for about 5min every month or so but it is far from ideal feeding them outside.

Bedded on sawdust over a 4-5inch layer of screenings from firewood which consists of a good amount of small firewood splinters and bark. Its great for drainage and keeps the bed dry, then top up with sawdust which is great too.

We are out of the sawdust now and gone to straw and not finding it as good. A lot of it is down to how dry the silage/haylage is, very easy to keep good bed if dry and almost impossible if wet.[

How much bluestone to water do you mix?

Hi Drive it... only saw your post now...
We mix 2kg of bluestone with 20ltrs of very hot water (c.80 deg C) from the stove in the 20ltr drums... half fill the drums and then add the 2kg... close and shake very well for 30 sec releasing the hot air about twice so as to make sure it doesnt burst...

We have 3 plastic footbaths in the race and about 5 drums will do about 80 sheep...

Very important that the bluestone is the pentahydrate (hope I spelled that correctly), as it is the easiest to dissolve... reading on the internet it seems that about half the bluestone used in footbath mixes is wasted because it is not properly dissolved, that is the first important thing..

Second important thing we have found is that you have to stand them in the bath for about 5 min... previously we used to run them through the bath 5 or 6 times but it was almost useless...

Only downside of using the bluestone is that it will rot the galv gates... a lot of farmers now use Zinc Sulphate as corrosion is not an issue with it.

Jack180570

roosky wrote: »

Hi all,

Im in the early stages of planning a shed for sheep.

I want your opinions and ideas on things to do and pitt falls to avoid.

My plan is a four bay double with plastic slats and a wide feed passage for lambing pens

Also planning on deep tanks 8 ft to allow the possibility of housing cattle

Anyone putting up a sheep shed to grant spec and if so can you give ideas of prices

Hi Roosky... how are you getting on with planning the sheep shed? our planning is almost through for a 70W x 78L clearspan shed

roosky

Jack180570 wrote: »

Hi Roosky... how are you getting on with planning the sheep shed? our planning is almost through for a 70W x 78L clearspan shed

The planning is slow to be honest,

I have been busy lambing so that has put a dampner on the shed side of things,

I am now maybe considering just a concrete floor and allow the shed have other uses....maybe?

Although the slats would be a hassle free low labour option

Username John

roosky wrote: »

The planning is slow to be honest,

I have been busy lambing so that has put a dampner on the shed side of things,

I am now maybe considering just a concrete floor and allow the shed have other uses....maybe?

Although the slats would be a hassle free low labour option

How accessible / expensive is straw for you?

Jack180570

roosky wrote: »

The planning is slow to be honest,

I have been busy lambing so that has put a dampner on the shed side of things,

I am now maybe considering just a concrete floor and allow the shed have other uses....maybe?

Although the slats would be a hassle free low labour option

Oh yes... lambing takes lots of time..
What we are doing with the sheep shed is a clearspan with conc floor...
I think that even if you didnt put in the conc floor at first but did go for the clearspan it would be a good priority as it gives lots of other options for use if its clearspan... you could come back later and put in the conc floor..

Also just thinking about it, if you ever went for the organic scheme I think that slats are not favoured and if memory serves me right... the option to put straw down over the slats has been removed this year.

Im not clear on how I will do the penning yet... is there much of a saving in making up ones own barriers versus buying the penning?

Username John

Jack180570 wrote: »

Oh yes... lambing takes lots of time..
What we are doing with the sheep shed is a clearspan with conc floor...
I think that even if you didnt put in the conc floor at first but did go for the clearspan it would be a good priority as it gives lots of other options for use if its clearspan... you could come back later and put in the conc floor..

Also just thinking about it, if you ever went for the organic scheme I think that slats are not favoured and if memory serves me right... the option to put straw down over the slats has been removed this year.

Im not clear on how I will do the penning yet... is there much of a saving in making up ones own barriers versus buying the penning?

Whats clearspan?

I am not sure I am the right person to be commenting here, as I have only a little hobby flock... but sure I'll throw in my two cents...

I would have thought if you have dedicated lambing pens, then definitely home-making the sides, and then possibly buying a barrier / gate would be the best option?
- It would be cheaper, to make yer own outa timber (I think 5ft gates are around 30 - 35euro are they?)
- You could adapt them to suit your water needs (I am thinking of that sewer pipe for water)
- You could use the front gates, when not lambing, to get more use out of them

The only con I can think of is disease and timber? Would it be harder cleaned, and harbour nasties more?

However - if like me, you are running a slap-dash kinda system, where you build lambing pens in the big pen, then would it make sense to have all 'proper' barriers / pens.
- Where they all fit together properly
- You can adapt / build / extend them as you want
- Less hassle / weight, then trying to mess with timber gates and get a ewe and her lambs penned in

But like I say - I am not really a proper farmer... Be interesting to see what the professionals think...

roosky

Username John wrote:

How accessible / expensive is straw for you?

Im in south leitrim so straw is about 25 to 30 euro for big bales.......prob a bit cheaper if bought a right time in bulk but transport is the big cost.........the bigger issue for me with straw is the extra labout as im part time

Jack180570

Username John wrote: »

Whats clearspan?

I am not sure I am the right person to be commenting here, as I have only a little hobby flock... but sure I'll throw in my two cents...

I would have thought if you have dedicated lambing pens, then definitely home-making the sides, and then possibly buying a barrier / gate would be the best option?
- It would be cheaper, to make yer own outa timber (I think 5ft gates are around 30 - 35euro are they?)
- You could adapt them to suit your water needs (I am thinking of that sewer pipe for water)
- You could use the front gates, when not lambing, to get more use out of them

The only con I can think of is disease and timber? Would it be harder cleaned, and harbour nasties more?

However - if like me, you are running a slap-dash kinda system, where you build lambing pens in the big pen, then would it make sense to have all 'proper' barriers / pens.
- Where they all fit together properly
- You can adapt / build / extend them as you want
- Less hassle / weight, then trying to mess with timber gates and get a ewe and her lambs penned in

But like I say - I am not really a proper farmer... Be interesting to see what the professionals think...

Thank for the feedback John and I think your are being far too modest :-)

Clearspan is what we call a portal frame shed (no poles in the middle of the shed, just at the two sides and ends).

The new shed is going to be located in the upper yard (about 500m away from the lower yard where the lambing shed/pens are.

Our current system is that we house the ewes around xmas and then let them to grass a few days before they lamb.
As they lamb we bring in the ewe and lamb(s) into the lambing shed for a day or two and then let them back out to different paddocks based on the no and sex of the lambs they had (sngl EL's - sngl RL's - twin EL's & mixed cpls - twin RL's)... Its a bit awkward and probably more work than it needs to be but we dont have the housing at the moment to do otherwise.

I want to keep my options open on other uses for the shed which is why its a clearspan and also no permanent penning.

What im thinking of doing is either drilling the conc floor to take galv pipes or putting steel pipes in the concrete that I can put in say a 1" blueband pipe.
I could then tie gates to the BB pipes and these could serve as the two sides of the feed passage.
Water could be supplied in standard plastic troughs.
Pens could either be divided with walkthrough feeders or
go down the road of a diet feeder and this would eliminate the need for walk through troughs and just use gates.... but then would there be an issue with overfeeding singles (or underfeeding doubles)?
Bedding with straw using a strawchopper to blow in the straw?

Is anyone using a diet feeder to feed sheep?
How is it working?

Username John

Jack180570 wrote: »

Thank for the feedback John and I think your are being far too modest :-)

Clearspan is what we call a portal frame shed (no poles in the middle of the shed, just at the two sides and ends).

The new shed is going to be located in the upper yard (about 500m away from the lower yard where the lambing shed/pens are.

Our current system is that we house the ewes around xmas and then let them to grass a few days before they lamb.
As they lamb we bring in the ewe and lamb(s) into the lambing shed for a day or two and then let them back out to different paddocks based on the no and sex of the lambs they had (sngl EL's - sngl RL's - twin EL's & mixed cpls - twin RL's)... Its a bit awkward and probably more work than it needs to be but we dont have the housing at the moment to do otherwise.

I want to keep my options open on other uses for the shed which is why its a clearspan and also no permanent penning.

What im thinking of doing is either drilling the conc floor to take galv pipes or putting steel pipes in the concrete that I can put in say a 1" blueband pipe.
I could then tie gates to the BB pipes and these could serve as the two sides of the feed passage.
Water could be supplied in standard plastic troughs.
Pens could either be divided with walkthrough feeders or
go down the road of a diet feeder and this would eliminate the need for walk through troughs and just use gates.... but then would there be an issue with overfeeding singles (or underfeeding doubles)?
Bedding with straw using a strawchopper to blow in the straw?

Is anyone using a diet feeder to feed sheep?
How is it working?

Why build the shed away from the current lambing shed?
Would you not use the current shed then - and move all lamb in operations to the new shed?

This is a simple question I think - but if you are straw bedding, and feeding on a passage - how do you rise up the feeding space where the ewes stick their heads out - as the straw rises under them?
Or do you clear out the space in front of the feed passage to never allow the straw to build up very high?

Could the cost of a diet feeder be justified for sheep?
I guess it depends on numbers, but you'd want a lot I would have thought...

serfspup

how many sheep are you housing?

diet feeder.JPG

Username John

serfspup wrote: »

how many sheep are you housing?

diet feeder.JPG

I hear those old type Keenans can be tough on the body...

serfspup

but they run on porridge and coffee so are 'low carbon' save a fortune on gym fees,as long as the oil is changed regularly not that severe on the body and very easy on the pocket.:) pulling the silage out of the bale the hardest part,feeding 350 a day handy enough

Jack180570

Username John wrote: »

Why build the shed away from the current lambing shed?
Would you not use the current shed then - and move all lamb in operations to the new shed?

This is a simple question I think - but if you are straw bedding, and feeding on a passage - how do you rise up the feeding space where the ewes stick their heads out - as the straw rises under them?
Or do you clear out the space in front of the feed passage to never allow the straw to build up very high?

Could the cost of a diet feeder be justified for sheep?
I guess it depends on numbers, but you'd want a lot I would have thought...

Thanks again John... more thought provoking stuff...

The initial/current plan for the new shed is that we will just winter the sheep in it for the pre-lambing period (Jan-Mar) and then lamb outside as we do now, bring them in one by one as they lamb. Its just with the lousy weather of the past few days I was beginning to wonder if it would be easier to lamb them indoors? but then again that as its problems too with trying to figure out who lambed what etc... I guess there are advantages and disadvantages to both systems.

Regarding the location of the shed. I want/need to have it in the upper yard as it will have another purpose when the sheep are not being wintered in it.

Regarding the bedding... its probably going to be a base of woodchip/cleanings/bark, topped up with sawdust and when the sawdust runs out it will be straw which will not be cleaned out until the sheep are let out, so the issue of a rising bed in the pens is real... had not thought of that....

Based on that then my other option is to feed them like I did this year with round/square feeders for bales of haylage...
Going with this option then it means I will need the walk through feeders for meals... will have to look at 'clip-on' meal feeders for the central passage which could be raised as the bedding builds up...

I have a bit of thinking to do!

Jack180570

serfspup wrote: »

how many sheep are you housing?

diet feeder.JPG

Have around 210/220 ewes and around 120 hoggets/yearlings

Jack180570

serfspup wrote: »

but they run on porridge and coffee so are 'low carbon' save a fortune on gym fees,as long as the oil is changed regularly not that severe on the body and very easy on the pocket.:) pulling the silage out of the bale the hardest part,feeding 350 a day handy enough

brilliant
How many hours is it taking to feed silage and meals, and to keep them bedded? this year it was taking me 4-5hrs a day to look after the 350 (215 ewes + 135 yearlings)... looking for a way to make it easier!

Jack180570

roosky wrote: »

Im in south leitrim so straw is about 25 to 30 euro for big bales.......prob a bit cheaper if bought a right time in bulk but transport is the big cost.........the bigger issue for me with straw is the extra labout as im part time

Straw this year was 17e/bale delivered which I thought was not expensive...
In West Limerick so not too far from the grain country of Cork so supply should not be an issue

rangler1

Jack180570 wrote: »

brilliant
How many hours is it taking to feed silage and meals, and to keep them bedded? this year it was taking me 4-5hrs a day to look after the 350 (215 ewes + 135 yearlings)... looking for a way to make it easier!

Haven't fed silage/hay to sheep for ten years,
If they're bedded every day, a pound of 15%p ration/day is enough to replace the silage.....a bit more expensive but a lot less work.
Takes less than two hours/day here to feed and bed 500 ewes

serfspup

Jack180570 wrote: »

brilliant
How many hours is it taking to feed silage and meals, and to keep them bedded? this year it was taking me 4-5hrs a day to look after the 350 (215 ewes + 135 yearlings)... looking for a way to make it easier!

meal is feed in minutes,45min to an hour for silage twice a day inc cutting blocks/bale,straw every 5days depending on weather foot bath ewes at the same time
4-4-16 015.JPG

drive it

"Our current system is that we house the ewes around xmas and then let them to grass a few days before they lamb.
As they lamb we bring in the ewe and lamb(s) into the lambing shed for a day or two and then let them back out to different paddocks"

How do you find letting them out before they lamb do you have any problems with the change of diet just before they lamb as if all goes well I'll have a shed up this year and was going to try the same

Username John

Why would you have ewes in, then let them out for lambing, and then bring them in again?
It seems like a lot of extra work, at a busy time of year. And also added risk where you cant keep as good an eye on them if there was any issues during lambing?

Lambing out I can understand - if they were out all the time, as it reduces the need for sheds. But if you're having to house them beforehand anyways, then you have the additional cost of sheds anyways... and bringing them in afterwards means you have the overhead of pens and using shed space.

So - what are the benefits of doing this?

rangler1

Username John wrote: »

Why would you have ewes in, then let them out for lambing, and then bring them in again?
It seems like a lot of extra work, at a busy time of year. And also added risk where you cant keep as good an eye on them if there was any issues during lambing?

Lambing out I can understand - if they were out all the time, as it reduces the need for sheds. But if you're having to have them beforehand anyways, then you have the additional cost of sheds anyways... and bringing them in afterwards means you have the overhead of pens and using shed space.

So - what are the benefits of doing this?

A few years ago, i considered outdoor lambing...........for all of two minutes. :rolleyes:

Username John

Jack180570 wrote: »

Based on that then my other option is to feed them like I did this year with round/square feeders for bales of haylage...
Going with this option then it means I will need the walk through feeders for meals... will have to look at 'clip-on' meal feeders for the central passage which could be raised as the bedding builds up...

I have a bit of thinking to do!

I don't know much about diet feeders, or times to feed silage - but I would have thought that feeding silage in feeders as you do, and using the central passage for lambing pens would be the best use of space?
But
- Losing the central passage - would this cause issues for you for bedding ewes (getting in with a round bale of straw) I would have thought not, as however you get in with silage, you could get in with straw. But just thinking out loud moreso...
- I don't know how this stacks up for time to do the daily jobs when lambing?

Jack180570 wrote: »

then let them back out to different paddocks based on the no and sex of the lambs they had (sngl EL's - sngl RL's - twin EL's & mixed cpls - twin RL's)... Its a bit awkward and probably more work than it needs to be but we dont have the housing at the moment to do otherwise.

Why do you have so many groups? Why keep the Ram lambs and Ewe lambs seperate, etc?

Username John

I was thinking about this, and this is what I'd do - fairly similar to Jacks plan really...

Concrete foor, put in pipes in floor to make 15 x 15 pens - but put in holes every 13ft, then 2ft, then 13ft, then 2ft...
Get some welder lad, to make a number of 'ends' that would slot into these holes

These ends would have a ']' type shape on 3 sides, and the ability to hang a small gate on the fourth side... hard to explain see attached pic...

The idea would be that there would be holes in the ground at 13ft, then 2ft, then 13ft, 2ft, etc...
These ends would go into the holes
Into the ] on one side would go 13ft long 2x5 planks
4 13ft planks would be the feed face
- Start with one plank on the bottom, and then a space for the ewes head, and then other two planks up higher
- The planks would be held i plae with bolts at each end
- The holes in the ] would allow the planks to be moved up or down - if the straw got higher
- The holes would also allow the pen setup top be changed if it was going to be used to just hold ewes and lambs (or if you wanted to lose the feed face)
Into the other U, at 90deg would go more planks, to make an L shape, to bring the pen back to the wall
- You could set this as a feed face, or just a pen
The other side of the end or upright, would be to hang a small 2ft gate, alowing access in and out of the pen
- Or, it would be left open, if the empty 2 ft was to be used as walk through trough
Cut a wide swer pipe in half, to make the troughs for the feed face
Get the welder lad to make brackets to hang the trough off - these should hang off the planks
- This would be fine for feeding ration, but not sure how much support a trough would need if holding silage - might have to throw a concrete block of two under it every now and then...

In theory, you could make a 13 x 15 pen, or a 28 x 15 pen... (or maybe 13ft deep pens, to keep all the timber the same length)
you could build it to whatever size you wanted...
They should be easy enough to take up and easy to store when the shed is cleaned out...
You would imagine they should be cheap enough, as its mainly planks, the main expense would be the uprights and the small gates - but if you were half handy, you might be able to do these yourself...?

That's just my thinkings... am sure someone will come along and post a link to a much better system, but thats what come into my head there overnight...

It could be a bollox of a job too, with a lot of messing and setup and changing... hard to know

Tis easy to see I have little to be doing too today isnt it...

sheepfarmer92

Hi I have experience using a keenan for feeding sheep, its grand for big numbers (1200 ewes) indoors on pit silage but I don't think it would make life any easier for a flock of 200 to 300 ewes only complicate things instead, its not any quicker than feeding bales but you can save a fair bit on feed space once you keep it to them ad lib, we were giving them about 6 inches each feedspace, you need to keep a close eye on ewes and very important to separate thinner ewes and fatterewes, we find theres less prolapse with the ewes fed tmr and less twin lamb but it takes a lot of management to get them started on it. In short if your looking to save time more than anything else, a diet feeder is an expensive wheelbarrow!

ganmo

I've seen sheep been fed with a straw blower

Green farmer

I've a old open plan shed. No internal walls. Steel frame structure. Put in a concrete floor. Then use ordinary 5ft penning gates to pen them whatever way takes my fancy. after lambing is finished all dismantled and penning used outside. Can also make a contral feed passage whenever the mood takes me. Also have a few of these 5ft gates ( in pic ) that go well with feed passage option. At moment feeding silage in ring feeders. Just open pens and drop bale.

serfspup

Green farmer wrote: »

I've a old open plan shed. No internal walls. Steel frame structure. Put in a concrete floor. Then use ordinary 5ft penning gates to pen them whatever way takes my fancy. after lambing is finished all dismantled and penning used outside. Can also make a contral feed passage whenever the mood takes me. Also have a few of these 5ft gates ( in pic ) that go well with feed passage option. At moment feeding silage in ring feeders. Just open pens and drop bale.

do you ever have a problem with mould on bales?

the_blue_oval

rangler1 wrote: »

Haven't fed silage/hay to sheep for ten years,
If they're bedded every day, a pound of 15%p ration/day is enough to replace the silage.....a bit more expensive but a lot less work.
Takes less than two hours/day here to feed and bed 500 ewes

How many bales would you use between feeding and bedding?

Do you just keep a good fresh bed under them and let them eat the bedding or do you put the straw in front of feed barrier and use whatever they don't eat as bedding then?

Green farmer

serfspup wrote: »

do you ever have a problem with mould on bales?

Very little , spend the bit extra on double wrap, also drop it on a pallet, to keep it up off ground

rangler1

the_blue_oval wrote: »

How many bales would you use between feeding and bedding?

Do you just keep a good fresh bed under them and let them eat the bedding or do you put the straw in front of feed barrier and use whatever they don't eat as bedding then?

We just bed them, they get clever and eat as much as they can when it's thrown in before it gets dirty, i give one round 4 by 4 bale straw to 200 ewes per day

Green farmer

rangler1 wrote: »

We just bed them, they get clever and eat as much as they can when it's thrown in before it gets dirty, i give one round 4 by 4 bale straw to 200 ewes per day

Slightly off topic, but just in from lambing sheds here. They started 10th March and I've been in the sheds since. Hopefully going to close it down at the weekend, I'm wrecked. how do you manage to do it every year rangler ? Lambing them two or three seperate groups over a prolonged period. ? Next year I'm going to leave ram in for 3 weeks only .

roosky

Green farmer wrote: »

Next year I'm going to leave ram in for 3 weeks only .

I think we have all thought this in early April but in October or November your mind says " a late lamb is better than no lamb"

rangler1

Green farmer wrote: »

Slightly off topic, but just in from lambing sheds here. They started 10th March and I've been in the sheds since. Hopefully going to close it down at the weekend, I'm wrecked. how do you manage to do it every year rangler ? Lambing them two or three seperate groups over a prolonged period. ? Next year I'm going to leave ram in for 3 weeks only .

,

You'd be shattered alright, it's important to get enough sleep , OH is a big help, we do shifts here at night, so when I'm off, I can really switch off.
We couldn't manage them if they were lambing together, often saw all the individual pens full this year with nly a third of the ewes lambing at a time.
So prolonged though it is ,it;s the only way it's practical..
It's probably harder for you if you have to be working all the time......I know here that three hours is as long as you can leave them at a time....some job on your own

ganmo

roosky wrote: »

I think we have all thought this in early April but in October or November your mind says " a late lamb is better than no lamb"

We've often had June lambs and they're a right pain. This year we took out the Rams so by my reckoning our last lambs will be late May at the latest

sea12

. ? Next year I'm going to leave ram in for 3 weeks only .[/quote]

i left them in for 5 weeks this year and had more empties than expected. Make sure you have enough ram power if you are going for the 3 weeks.

Still a few left here. You'd be tired as your doing the day job as well and it catches up. Hoping they will finish this weekend and I can go for a few pints.

Green farmer

[quote="sea12;99373499
Still a few left here. You'd be tired as your doing the day job as well and it catches up. Hoping they will finish this weekend and I can go for a few pints.[/quote]


The other thing that's dawning on me as I sit in a cold shed watching them, is the ones that take longer then 3 weeks to go in lamb are Likely to be less fertile ones and are more likely giving singles . If cull prices are high, €100 for a few extra empties seems very tempting next January.

Username John

Green farmer wrote: »

The other thing that's dawning on me as I sit in a cold shed watching them, is the ones that take longer then 3 weeks to go in lamb are Likely to be less fertile ones and are more likely giving singles . If cull prices are high, €100 for a few extra empties seems very tempting next January.

Last year - I left the ram in 3 weeks, this year for 4. But this year all lambed in 15 days - which was great. (Last year they went the full 3 weeks to lamb)
Planning to go back to 3 weeks next year - easy today now though

I use a teaser for 2 weeks beforehand as well... Scan at Christmas, any ewes not in young sold fat in Feb.
EDIT: Think I got 120 for the one ewe I sent off this year...

This year no ewe lambs went in young, so kept the majority of them. I'll try ewe lambs with the ram again this year - but at the same time, I like leaving lambs go to hog before putting em with the ram...

It's hard to know which is better...
I can over winter ewe lambs cheap enough on stubble, but it's the spring grass they'd eat with the ewes that would be the most expensive cost for me... Having all ewes, (rather than ewes and ewe lambs) would suit me better, just from an ease of management perspective.
But it's hard to know, as you do have to carry em for the first year then...

I suspect it will be a mix of both - put the ewe lambs with the ram, but keep the ones that don't go in young, rather than sell fat. See how that works out for me...

AntrimGlens

Righto looking to pick all your brains here and all viewpoints welcome. I'm going building myself a sheep house as recent developments basically mean that i'm getting outa the ewes and going back to rearing hoggets and drystock. Had a fairly bad run at lambing because ewes were neglected in the run up to lambing with me being away with work and other commitments, resulting in too many ewes housed for the housing i had.

Now i know you'll all say don't be going to the expense of building a house to run drystock and i know that point only too well, I'm still fighting with myself over that point, but i've a man pricing a house for me at the minute based on the one attached. At the minute all i intend to get him to price up is the steelwork and provide the roof and side cladding. I can do most of the fitting out, blockwork, plastering myself and the brother to keep costs down.

so I'm looking at 90ft long and 50ft wide. 10ft passage in the middle, with a strip of concrete along one side for handling, foot bathing etc. So that would make 40 left for dividing into pens or feeding space for meal on both sides of the pens. The plan would be to leave at least 5 ft concrete strip to the rear wall just for ease of moving sheep around the house or for storing meal or straw etc.

I plan to run around 150-180 ewe lambs bought in aug/sept and sell again in August. They would be clipped when bought and run over the fields until october, then moved to the hill until Christmas and then housed until March, simply for ease of management for the Shepherd (me) and to do them right. There is still a margin in running them for a year and i still plan to keep sheep for another twenty years or so, therefore i might aswell bite the bullet now and have a house for the next twenty years. Now this house will be near the dwelling house and not in among other farm buildings so a greenfield site so to speak.

I have other handling facilities which are still going to still be the ones used from May to December, the sheep would only be in the fields near the shed for the month of April to eat down silage ground, so no real need for full purpose built race etc, just enough to handle them and footbath them, and for a days shearing.

So my questions are:
Should i make the concrete strip 8 or 10 ft along the length of one wall?
Should i go with 10ft wide concrete strip, 15ft wide pen, 10 ft passage, 15ft pen, Or 8ft wide strip, 12ft pen, 10ft passage, 15ft wide pen, 5ft concrete strip?

At the minute i don't intend putting in galvanised feed rails or anything like the picture, probably insert a few sleeves into the ground and put in some wooden posts with some d-rail for feed barriers or something like that. Probably not use walk through troughs either, just split pens using existing hurdles if i need to split them on condition score etc.
Bedded on straw and fed round bales from the passage, but hopefully purchase a straw /silage chopper at some point in the future.
Ideally i'm wanting to construct something fairly flexible as i may be able to rear turkeys in it for the other 8/9 months of the year on contract but also if i decide or the children wish to go back into keeping ewes then it's still suitable for that purpose. This is solely a building that is to be designed to make time spent with sheep easier to handle and check day or night, as i may not be out to feed them until 9 at night or 6 in the morning. I've looked at the tunnels and i don't think it would give me the flexibility for other uses, or animals.

All input appreciated and apologies for the long post.