Housing sheep ye or ne

buffalobilly

Thinking of housing the sheep here ground VERY WET problem is not lambing to mid March would that be to long to have them in I do have plenty good silage for them

MIKEKC

buffalobilly wrote: »

Thinking of housing the sheep here ground VERY WET problem is not lambing to mid March would that be to long to have them in I do have plenty good silage for them

No problem, just keep an eye on feet

farawaygrass

buffalobilly wrote: »

Thinking of housing the sheep here ground VERY WET problem is not lambing to mid March would that be to long to have them in I do have plenty good silage for them

I’m in the exact same situation as yourself. Never housed, at night only, until a week before lambing. But a combination on trying to mind grass, rutting the field with the tractor doing herding and dark evenings are making me think of putting them in any day now. I will be scanning in the next few days. Would I want to separate the singles, couples and triplets now or later on? I am a bit nervous about housing them for a couple of reasons. 1 is feeding them as shed is a loose shed and I’d be afraid of them getting hurt at feeding time. Another concern is the diet, I wouldn’t be very clued in for houses sheep. When they were kept outdoors it was a bit more forgiving as they had a pick of grass

Siamsa Sessions

Housed ewes here last week for first time and was nervous too. But they’re flying it: eating hay mad and there’s a shine on them.

One lame so far but she’s getting better. Gave her hoof a shot of Alamycyn (blue spray) for a few days and its making all the difference. Using plenty lime around water trough too.

Gave them a fluke and worm dose before putting them in and ran thru footbath too.

Housing is working for us so far anyway

farawaygrass

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Housed ewes here last week for first time and was nervous too. But they’re flying it: eating hay mad and there’s a shine on them.

One lame so far but she’s getting better. Gave her hoof a shot of Alamycyn (blue spray) for a few days and its making all the difference. Using plenty lime around water trough too.

Gave them a fluke and worm dose before putting them in and ran thru footbath too.

Housing is working for us so far anyway

Do you have penning or a loose shed?

Siamsa Sessions

farawaygrass wrote: »

Do you have penning or a loose shed?

Both - most are in loose shed now but a few that are carrying triplets are in a smaller pen coz it gives extra space in loose shed (they’re not getting meal yet but will get a little extra when we start feeding them all)

Have a few individual pens for when lambing starts too.

Will divide up loose shed when we start feeding too. Nothing fancy - pallets will be part of the “solution”!

More pens would be handy, with say 6-8 per pen, but that’s a job for next year

Should say that we’ve got plenty wrong too, incl. underestimating how much they’d eat. At the moment, the daily consumption rate is 1 small bale of hay for every 9 ewes but we’d budgeted for less than this. Tis all live-and-learn, and next-year-will-be-easier 😀

Kevhog1988

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Both - most are in loose shed now but a few that are carrying triplets are in a smaller pen coz it gives extra space in loose shed (they’re not getting meal yet but will get a little extra when we start feeding them all)

Have a few individual pens for when lambing starts too.

Will divide up loose shed when we start feeding too. Nothing fancy - pallets will be part of the “solution”!

More pens would be handy, with say 6-8 per pen, but that’s a job for next year

Should say that we’ve got plenty wrong too, incl. underestimating how much they’d eat. At the moment, the daily consumption rate is 1 small bale of hay for every 9 ewes but we’d budgeted for less than this. Tis all live-and-learn, and next-year-will-be-easier ��

Would like a few pics of how you do it if possible.

wrangler

theemigrant wrote: »

Would like a few pics of how you do it if possible.

some pics of mine last january.

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=407083&d=1485084645https://

www.boards.ie/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=407085&d=1485084665

Siamsa Sessions

theemigrant wrote: »

Would like a few pics of how you do it if possible.

Nothing really to show of ours - tis just a bit of an old cow shed with a few feeders and straw in it.

The individual pens are just cow cubicles with timber planks fixed to the metal bars running along the side of the “pen” and timber gates I made on the “front”.

I’m hoping to convert another span for next year and have a rough idea of how that’ll look. If it works out I’ll be posting pictures everywhere!

Tis really just a matter of working with what you have and keeping costs down. They’ll only be in there for 2 months so as long as tis workable and not too “omloch”, as they say round here.

Having said that, I’d love to work up to something like wranglers pics!

wrangler

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Nothing really to show of ours - tis just a bit of an old cow shed with a few feeders and straw in it.

The individual pens are just cow cubicles with timber planks fixed to the metal bars running along the side of the “pen” and timber gates I made on the “front”.

I’m hoping to convert another span for next year and have a rough idea of how that’ll look. If it works out I’ll be posting pictures everywhere!

Tis really just a matter of working with what you have and keeping costs down. They’ll only be in there for 2 months so as long as tis workable and not too “omloch”, as they say round here.

Having said that, I’d love to work up to something like wranglers pics!

I made all the gates and troughs myself
A neighbour bought all the troughs and gates, was fair disappointed when he dicovered that his shed was 15ft bays and mine was 15ft 9ins, bays,,
Took a lot of ''guntering'' to fit them

Kevhog1988

wrangler wrote: »

I made all the gates and troughs myself
A neighbour bought all the troughs and gates, was fair disappointed when he dicovered that his shed was 15ft bays and mine was 15ft 9ins, bays,,
Took a lot of ''guntering'' to fit them

Am looking at putting up a shed this year so. Id say ill be getting very familiar with the welder over the next few years.

razor8

wrangler wrote: »

some pics of mine last january.

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=407083&d=1485084645https://

www.boards.ie/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=407085&d=1485084665

do you just through the nuts on the straw? how do you manage getting up & down the troughs without the ewes cutting the legs off ya?

wrangler

razor8 wrote: »

do you just through the nuts on the straw? how do you manage getting up & down the troughs without the ewes cutting the legs off ya?

Never had any problem, trough would be empty first thing in the morning when I'd give them their nuts and I'd fill the troughs with straw after feeding.
By evening they'd have the straw eaten or pulled out under themselves when I'd have to feed them nuts again

sheepfarmer92

No problem housing ewes, have nearly 1000 ewes housed here eating hay last two weeks, far happier in than out in that weather, still have a good few out and there not doing near as well

buffalobilly

buffalobilly wrote: »

Thinking of housing the sheep here ground VERY WET problem is not lambing to mid March would that be to long to have them in I do have plenty good silage for them

Put them all in last Thursday they are very content in
Only concern I would have would be the lack of exercise and them getting to fat
Going to run them through the footpath weekly to keep feet right

farawaygrass

wrangler wrote: »

some pics of mine last january.

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=407083&d=1485084645https://

www.boards.ie/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=407085&d=1485084665

Class. Were the sheep ok for lying down space? I’m sure it was easy catch a ewe if needed. Nice set up

wrangler

farawaygrass wrote: »

Class. Were the sheep ok for lying down space? I’m sure it was easy catch a ewe if needed. Nice set up

thanks
They would have less space than is recommended alright, but they have loads of trough space, I've been stocking at that rate for years now with no ill effects.
Ewes are Lleyn cross so they would be smaller than normal.....a suffolk cross could be 20% bigger
It's easy catch a ewe for lambing alright...they don't even try to get away.

razor8

wrangler wrote: »

thanks
They would have less space than is recommended alright, but they have loads of trough space, I've been stocking at that rate for years now with no ill effects.
Ewes are Lleyn cross so they would be smaller than normal.....a suffolk cross could be 20% bigger
It's easy catch a ewe for lambing alright...they don't even try to get away.

do you have to clean out the shed many times over the winter when using more straw?

wrangler

razor8 wrote: »

do you have to clean out the shed many times over the winter when using more straw?

About every 6 -7 weeks
All the ewes were lambed out of that shed, shed next to it had about 30 individual pens so they were brought to that shed to lamb....obviously the first batch were in it from housing and then refilled as they lambed. If I got the chance I'd clean it out between batches.
Going to lamb them all in the tunnel now and that shed is full of rubbish already

stantheman1979

Have sheep outside looking enviously across the river at the grass ive saved for spring. Just pacing along looking for a shallow point to cross(there isnt any) We're scanning next week so they'll have to make do outside until then.

stantheman1979

wrangler wrote: »

It's easy catch a ewe for lambing alright...they don't even try to get away.

Nice Job Wrangler. Its along the same lines as our's except we've 4 30ft X 7.5ft pens in a line. 8 lines. You've given them plenty compared to our poor girls like sardines. Its so easy to see ewes lambing and to catch them when the pens are narrow.

FarmerDougal

Making pens atm, wud 20 be ok in a 15ft square pen? Do you take a sheep out if you see her going to lamb or leave her be? I thought it would slow the process by an hour if you handled her

wrangler

FarmerDougal wrote: »

Making pens atm, wud 20 be ok in a 15ft square pen? Do you take a sheep out if you see her going to lamb or leave her be? I thought it would slow the process by an hour if you handled her

I leave them alone until they lamb unless there's another ewe nesting as well. then you may get one of them out.
20 would have plenty of room in a 15 by 15 pen,, make sure they have 18 ins feed space for meals

drive it

What height would a water trough be of the ground in a straw bed shed?

Also what's the best stuff to use in a foot bath, mine will be out side with no cover?

Kevhog1988

drive it wrote: »

What height would a water trough be of the ground in a straw bed shed?

Also what's the best stuff to use in a foot bath, mine will be out side with no cover?

600 off ground it said in journal today