Lambing on covered cattle slats

k mac

Have a small number of ewes lambing in mid to late April. Was hoping to lamb out if weather permitting but have a contingency plan if not, have a small sheltered field beside the slatted house and was thinking of leaving them out there during the day and running them into the shed at night just in case one has difficulty lambing, my thinking being if one was having difficulty during the day be easy enough round up.

Was thinking of covering the slats just while the lambing is going on. Has anyone any experience of this and if so what did you use. I was thinking old carpet that might be sourced handy enough, a shake of lime on top and then plenty of straw, another option i was thinking was sheets of ply instead of the carpet or another option i just seen those rubber mats that are used to walk on in milking parlours that join together, would they be a runner. Any thoughts, is it a good/bad idea

Dinzee Conlee

I think @wrangler mentioned he uses big round bales of straw rolled out over the slats for the same job…

Am sure he’ll be on there in a while… 🙂

buffalobilly

That’s what we do here put down windbreaker first and plenty straw great job just don’t be mean with the straw 😁

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118611299#Comment_118611299

Yea, just rolled the bales out on the slats

Ard_MC

Just use plenty straw on top of them here. Great job.

k mac

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118611837#Comment_118611837

Do you mean you put the windbreaker over the slats and then place the straw on top of it, or is the windbreaker around the feeding barrier?

buffalobilly

On top of the slats then put straw down

Dickie10

how do you clean these out?

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118632098#Comment_118632098

Micro digger was the only machine I could get into my shed, probably the better for it being so light. I'd have to throw it to the front of the pen and then drive up on the pile and throw it over the barrier. My sheep'd be in 120 days so there'd be a fair pile.

Really didn't need anything under the straw here if a good layer of straw went down first

daviddenis

I use rushes to cover slats better than straw. The rushes stay better on slats and is cheaper. I roll them out on slats and jst use grading bucket to clean them out after.