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Author Topic: A ridiculously easy sheep trough design  (Read 15196 times)

Womble

  • Joined Mar 2009
  • Stirlingshire, Central Scotland
A ridiculously easy sheep trough design
« on: December 20, 2014, 10:26:16 am »

When we moved here, we inherited a couple of rickety old wooden troughs, which I repaired to remove the sticking out nails etc etc  :o . These are the traditional v-type design, but I've found them to be heavy, slimey, difficult to turn over and generally unpleasant to use!

So, enter Womble's improved design!  ;D



I've made a couple of these now, and they're working really well. They're lightweight, self-draining, have no sharp edges to hurt the sheep, and they can also get right to the bottom of the trough to eat all the food, unlike with the 90 degree vee design. The other bonus is that they only cost £10-£15 each in materials, and can be made in about an hour if you have powertools available  :thumbsup: .

Their weakness is that they aren't robust enough for anything larger than sheep, but since that's all we have, it's not a problem!

To make one, you will need:

  • A 3m length of squareline guttering (£6.99 from Screwfix)
  • 2" x 4" softwood, approx 4 metres in total (mine was wombled from a skip at work).
  • 3" woodscrews
  • 1" screws for attaching the gutter. I used 'flanged' screws, which worked really well and left no sharp edges to hurt the sheep
Assembly Instructions:
  • Start by cutting the guttering in half - an angle grinder works really well (or use two lengths to make a 3m long trough I suppose!)
  • Cut a length of timber 2cm longer than the pieces of gutter.
  • Cut four 37 cm ish lengths of wood for the feet. I cut these off at an angle because it was really easy to do with my circular saw, but if you only have a jigsaw or hand saw, just cut them off straight
  • Cut two 27.5 cm pieces of wood for the ends. These are sized so they will cover two widths of gutter plus the middle piece of wood.
  • You should now have something resembling this:


6. If you want to paint any preservative onto the wood, now would be the time!
7. Screw the feet onto the long support plank. Note that the end feet should be flush with the ends of the support.



8. Turn the whole thing over and screw the wooden ends on. Note, the top of these should be level with the top of the gutter.



9. Now drill pilot holes along one edge of each of your lengths of gutter, just undereath the rim, then screw them into place onto both horizontally into the long plank, and vertically downwards into the feet. There should be a gap of about 1cm at each end of the gutter (which doesn't show well in the photos), to let rainwater drain out.



10. Add a handle if you happen to have a spare one or two lying around  :innocent: .

And that's it! - easy eh? In actual fact, it's taken me as long to write this post as it did to make the trough!  ;D



If you decide to make one, do let me know how you get on!  :thumbsup: .
"All fungi are edible. Some fungi are only edible once." -Terry Pratchett

Q

  • Joined Apr 2013
Re: A ridiculously easy sheep trough design
« Reply #1 on: December 20, 2014, 11:08:42 am »
Ingenious  :thinking:  :thumbsup: now if you could just turn your skills to world poverty please. :innocent:
If you cant beat 'em then at least bugger 'em about a bit.

EP90

  • Joined Jan 2013
  • Ireland
Re: A ridiculously easy sheep trough design
« Reply #2 on: December 20, 2014, 11:11:38 am »
I made something similar out of 6” perforated drainage pipe cut along its length to make a ‘U’ and screwed it onto feet.  I like your design better especially being a double trough. So yep, it’ll being a project after Xmas to make one like yours. thanks

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: A ridiculously easy sheep trough design
« Reply #3 on: December 20, 2014, 11:46:03 am »
Ingenious.

We only pay £10-£12 per trough for a 10' wooden one, mind.

One question, can it be turned over after feeding?  We find it necessary to do this even with free-draining troughs.  It knocks any poo off, any remaining feed drops off too, rather than sitting there and getting caked.  It also prevents scavenging birds' poo contaminating the trough.  And if it snows, the trough doesn't become (a) full of snow/ice and very unpleasant for the sheep to have to eat from, and (b) iced to the ground and unmovable!

Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

Womble

  • Joined Mar 2009
  • Stirlingshire, Central Scotland
Re: A ridiculously easy sheep trough design
« Reply #4 on: December 20, 2014, 12:08:54 pm »
LOL, you're doing way better than me then Sally - I couldn't buy the materials for a 10' wooden one for that little. Actually, the best price I could find locally for wooden troughs was £35, and since I need three in total, it was worth going to the trouble of making them.

They are actually very easy to turn over, as they are very lightweight. Since the base of the gutter is 2" above ground level, you can just put a hand underneath and lift.

Ingenious  :thinking: :thumbsup: now if you could just turn your skills to world poverty please. :innocent:

LOL, if solving proper problems were as easy as screwing bits of wood and plastic together, the world would indeed be a better place. Besides, I have a hay feeder, pig ark and sheep footbath to do first  ;) .
"All fungi are edible. Some fungi are only edible once." -Terry Pratchett

DartmoorLiz

  • Joined Jan 2012
  • Devon
Re: A ridiculously easy sheep trough design
« Reply #5 on: December 20, 2014, 05:40:25 pm »
 :excited:
This is just what I've been trying to work out for ages.


Thank you.
Never ever give up.

bloomer

  • Joined Aug 2010
  • leslie, fife
  • i have chickens, sheep and opinions!!!
Re: A ridiculously easy sheep trough design
« Reply #6 on: December 20, 2014, 05:48:11 pm »
idea stolen, i will report back in due course...

ladyK

  • Joined Dec 2012
  • Conwy Valley
Re: A ridiculously easy sheep trough design
« Reply #7 on: December 20, 2014, 06:09:09 pm »
Just as I've been wondering about troughs - great design and really clear instructions - thank you for sharing this!! I think even I can dare to attempt this  :thumbsup:
"If one way is better than another, it is the way of nature." (Aristotle)

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: A ridiculously easy sheep trough design
« Reply #8 on: December 20, 2014, 06:49:19 pm »
Here comes the party pooper  :celebrate: :celebrate: :celebrate:  when it's windy here, even the lumpen wet wooden bought bakies/troughs move around in the wind.  Yours being lighter wouldn't last a week here.  Sorry Womble - it's ingenious though.
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

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Anke

  • Joined Dec 2009
  • St Boswells, Scottish Borders
Re: A ridiculously easy sheep trough design
« Reply #9 on: December 20, 2014, 08:13:45 pm »
Our local wood merchant/saw mill sells the troughs for 15 pounds plus VAT - really not worth for us to make our own... and yes ours need to be sturdy too....

ScotsGirl

  • Joined Dec 2009
  • Wiltshire
Re: A ridiculously easy sheep trough design
« Reply #10 on: December 20, 2014, 08:42:03 pm »
Well I think it's great and am going to try and adopt a smaller version raised for my goats. Although as they tend to stand in everything I'm not sure whether they might break the gutter. Will give it a go, especially if I can pinch some out of a skip!

nimbusllama

  • Joined Nov 2010
  • Near Mansfield, Nottinghamshire
Re: A ridiculously easy sheep trough design
« Reply #11 on: December 21, 2014, 10:31:42 am »
I see the 'Mad Loaghtans' are appreciating their new trough!.... I think I will try one too for my Castlemilk Moorit ram as he then can't get his horns stuck in the crosspieces on a metal trough and turn the whole thing over in a panic!

sabrina

  • Joined Nov 2008
Re: A ridiculously easy sheep trough design
« Reply #12 on: December 21, 2014, 11:05:27 am »
A few years ago I bought plant troughs from the garden centre, OH put wooden legs on and bob's your uncle. Works a treat for sheep and the pigs. Also use for their water.

ewesaidit

  • Joined Aug 2011
Re: A ridiculously easy sheep trough design
« Reply #13 on: December 21, 2014, 12:26:20 pm »
wow nimbusllama - wouldn't want to be messing with Arthur!    :o

Womble

  • Joined Mar 2009
  • Stirlingshire, Central Scotland
Re: A ridiculously easy sheep trough design
« Reply #14 on: December 21, 2014, 03:42:47 pm »
Wow, those are some serious horns. Do you dare even let him near wire fencing?

Re the blowing away thing, we're pretty exposed up here too, and it's been very windy for the last week (quite a bit of next door's roof ended up in our field on Friday night for instance). However, the troughs have stayed put ok.

The guttering won't be nearly as strong as a heavy wooden trough (and if you can buy one of those for £15, why wouldn't you?). However, our Zwartbles (including big Mr Ace) have been jumping on the plastic one for a month now with no sign of issues, so I'm not too worried. I just wouldn't use it for anything bigger than a sheep.
"All fungi are edible. Some fungi are only edible once." -Terry Pratchett

 

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