Outwintering pad for sheep

galwayhillbilly

I normally lamb outside and I have 3 very secure paddocks near the house that I use for this. I have thought about a shed or a tunnel but the cost and potential health issues have put me off. Because of fencing issues and lack of grass I had to move the ewes into one of the lambing paddocks early, feeding them silage and nuts, needless to say with the weather in February it turned into a complete quagmire, unfortunately I had to persist with the sacrifice area as they were just going to keep trying to get into the neighbours once they had discovered the nice grass, (he houses all his stock). I do plan on better fencing on all the bounds but it is expensive and once I get a bit of grass the sheep tend to stay put, so it gets put on the long finger until the next phone-call from the neighbour. which is only about ever 2 years to be fair to me.

When they started lambing I moved them into the other 2 paddocks, some ewes get a night or 2 in the shed after lambing but not all.

It has got me thinking would it be feasible to use an outwintering pad for overwintering and lambing? you could give the sheep more room than you could in a shed, the disease level would be lower than in a shed (you would hope) and you wouldn't be wrecking fields with troughs and feeders. I know that the rainfall in this country is a big issue and dealing with the run off from these pads is a big problem, but I would imagine that the runoff would be less with sheep on a pad than cows and the surface would need less looking after, also your pad can be right beside the shed for bringing in the troublesome ones.

Any Opinions? anyone doing this already? (even if it is not full department of agriculture spec)

epfff

Athenry had them back in the 80s I think but they didn't seen to catch on.

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058239367/outwintering-pad-for-sheep

Sounds like it'd be an awful mess, muck stuck into their belly wool and udder when lambing, you need a big area under sheep to leave them out for the winter. Sheep got very dirty this year in the wet February even being grazed extensively

Done right, there is no health issues with keeping sheep indoors,

Because of the good winter grass growth this year, there is a lot of hard lambings with big lambs in out wintered flocks .

Each to their own I suppose

weatherbyfoxer

definitely put the money into some form or shed or tunnel,..id gladly risk the slight lamb health risks for being able to flick on a light switch and hear the rain hit the galvanise as you pull out a backwards lamb

thats just me anyway

We outwinter rams in an adbandoned famine era quarry,it would have several feet of shaley stone etc and the hollow of it (about 20 ft) would be sheltery out and deosnt hold water....just put in round bales of hay into it on weekends

I suspect,the cost of digging out,filling with drainage stone etc to build what your suggesting and price of building a tunnel would be not much in difference and the tunnel would be a better option for lambing

joe35

What exactly is an outwintering pad. Never heard of this before.

Had thought of setting up slats outside. Have an area with old ruins of a shed dug back into a hill. Very sheltered area, we currently use this area for out wintering ewes, but like you say wrangler, we've no grass available come spring.

Would you need a tank under these or would it be alright just on the ground

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118921567#Comment_118921567

If water isn't clean nowadays you have to have it going to a tank. I saw sheep on outdoor slats forty years ago, seemed to be fine but rules were less then.

148multi

Seen a farmer with expanded metal slats outside, between two haysheds and was selfeeding silage. It was unusual but never seen sheep happier or cleaner.

Have used woodchip myself BUT, they will only use it if the land is too wet.

If it's that wet it's not suitable for over wintering, I used the woodchip in a case of an emergency where there was consistent heavy rain and an otherwise very dry flat field became waterlogged. Worked great but only in use for 2-3 weeks as ewes were moved to pre lambing grazing.

Lambing on it might work ,may be a better option to lamb in April outside when the ground is dryer.

Floody Boreland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118948945#Comment_118948945

How much area per ewe did you woodchip and did you put it directly on top of grass?

148multi

Stripped topsoil, can't give a length, was about 20' wide, raised ridge along the centre, large woodchip, they definitely liked it. Gave plenty of lying area.