Sheep Slats

Andrew mc govey

Hi Just looking to see if anyone has the solution to stop Sheep pulling in hay and silage on sheep slats. The Sheep slats are the wire mesh type and sheep love getting a mouth full of hay or silage through the barrier and heading to back of pen and let most of it fall and they would sooner starve than look at that piece on the slats again, This will be our third winter putting them on it last year we had all square bales and chopped every bale of hay before feeding them it and worked perfect slats were spotless the full winter but want to try something easier as it too too long to chop every bale of hay for 100 ewes every day. is feeding precision chop silage the best option or will this work same as chopping the hay?

wrangler

That's the best I've seen to stop sheep pulling in silage

https://d1hu4133i4rt3z.cloudfront.net/attachments/668/668242-7b9e32f0bd1819e70a1d668cdb5a0f59.jpg

Andrew mc govey

That was my next option to try but want to be able to feed meal to the sheep also so bit of work to have these that its easy to lift them when feeding meal every day.

funkey_monkey

What about replicating something like this? Not sure that I'd use 2"x2" mesh though. I think 3"x3" would be a better option.

Essentially, its the same as @wrangler link, but slides up/down in a guide slot. Slide it up and latch to feed concentrate. Slide to bottom and let fall outwards to feed the fodder. If you make them in suitable lengths, then it would not be much of an effort to raise/lower them. Not sure that a perfect solution exists without throwing money at it.

https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/are-your-ewes-wasting-silage-check-out-how-this-farmer-overcame-this-problem/

Would it be possible for you to hang your troughs on the inside of the gate or other side of the pen?

If you are a very handy person, you could make a frame like in the link out of 1" box and infill with 30mm sq mesh. Mount a half drain pipe on pipe mounted to guides on the 1" frame. Slide it up towards pen to feed concentrate. When finished, slide it back down to allow access to the fodder below the mesh. You'd still need to be around to move when they were finished to reset it all - and it would be a lot of effort to make for minimal benefit over the other options.

Andrew mc govey

Hi yes i had seen that link on Agriland back a while ago and that is my plan at the moment to try next as even do it will be a bit of work lifting them feeding meal letting them eat the meal pack in silage and lower the frames i still think it will be a faster option than the way i done it last year by chopping the square hay bales. I just wanted to see was there any other options as we would consider making precision chop silage next year if i thought that would work well for feeding.