[fifixx]

I have to collect 6 lambs from about 15 miles away this week and as I have so far failed to buy a livestock trailer (which I thought was a dead cert on ebay but was outbid!!), I have a friend with a horse lorry who is happy to go with me.

Will it be OK to transport them in the lorry? - they are only 5 months old so not huge - just worried about too much space!

[jaykay]

When I've had to use too big a trailer for not many animals, I've used straw/ hay bales to make the space smaller (and give some cushioning).

[robert waddell]

the angle of the ramp (if it is steep) and no gates on the ramp make it illegal          but these infringments can be overcome just as with the space being made smaller                unless you are in a VOSA hot spot the chances of being stopped are slim to none

[waterhouse]

Hurdles on the ramp and bales inside.  VOSA should park outside our local abattoir if they want a laugh but I don't know they do 0600 on Monday mornings.  Best I saw was a transit sign-painted for a Karate club deivering a couple of pigs (for the chop!)

[bazzais]

I am pretty sure that VOSA and the police in general for that matter wouldnt bother going outside the mart on monday mornings - would be too much paperwork for them - they could make a tidy trade stood next to the washbay giving out tickets for broken lights, wrong number plates, 'un-taxed' 0 tax rated tractors, homemade trailers, trailers with no internal lights, trailers with odd tyres, trailers without breakaway cables blah blah blah lol

As long as you dont drive like a fool pretty much any trailer will do in my opinion, yes you can make it more comfortable with bedding and wadding if you like. Just take it steady and think ahead.

You may want to check what kind of unloading area they have at the mart though - they should have access for lorries as thats what they normally leave in but it may be worth seeing if they can take the size of lorry you intend to unload from.

I use a horse trailer to transport mine around - they dont like it down the mart as its got no side gates but its the only trailer I've got.

Baz

[Fieldfare]

...For non-commercial movements I made a very stout cage in the back of my Berlingo-type vehicle (rear seats removed, windows open and waterproof sheeting and with a ramp). 5 shearlings- lifted/guided into this were very happy. In reality probably as good in terms of animal welfare- or better- than a trailer- but frowned upon by our local Animal Inspector when I asked her (if they were dogs I was moving she would have been happy- but because they are sheep the rules change I guess!

cheers

[Roxy]

They have got very strict now at our marts.  I used to see pigs arriving and leaving the market tied up in sacks, as were geese, and put in the back of cars.  Sheep stood on back seats of cars .......All very posh now, and all new build market, with lots of bays to unload, just back right up, and the animals run straight up into the pens.

Gone are the pigs in sack days!!!  I have been known to transport "things" in the back of our big van .......

[SallyintNorth]

Couple of years ago I took a lamb to the vet.  Back of the jeep seemed fine.  Treatment sorted, popped into the Post Office on the way home. Came out to find several people oohing and aahing at the back of my jeep.  Just in time to hear one woman say, "Oh that's a really cute  dog....    It's not a dog...  ", and then she saw me.    <- she    <- me   

Another time we were on our way back from the mart with a calf in the trailer.  Fancied a chip dinner.  BH parked on the roadside, I went into the chippie.  There was a queue so I was waiting.  Just as someone came in, so the door was open, the calf blared.  Everyone looked around to see whose mobile phone it was!     I laughed and said, "No, it's a real calf - in the trailer out there," and pointing.  A few got it, some never got it, I saw one or two peering into the trailer as they went past with their chips...   

[jaykay]

Our Nissan pick-up doubles as DH's outdoor activity business vehicle and typically he was away in it when the goat needed taking to the billy. So I just put her in the back of my estate car - we caused a few laughs when cars got up close enough to see she wasn't a dog 

And when we picked up our very first sheep, we'd borrowed Dad's little trailer but they were in lamb and only 9 would fit in - so I got the last one in the back of the car again.

I have to say both ladies (goat and ewe) behaved themselves impeccably 

[SallyintNorth]

BH once carried a tup in the back of his Diahatsu 4x4.  He said he never really got rid of the smell...

[fifixx]

Have managed to borrow a small livestock trailer so off to pick up my lambs today!  Very Excited....

[Sylvia]

I remember a neighbour (40 years ago, now) bringing a couple of large weaner pigs home from market in the side-car of his motorbike. He stopped at traffic lights in the town, the pigs escaped and after an hour with onlookers and the police to help they were re-captured, put back in the side-car and a net put over them.
The neighbour admitted to Dad that he was in a muck sweat all the time the police were there. Not because he was afraid the pigs would disappear altogether or even that they may cause an accident, but that the police may notice that he had a Guiness bottle label in place of a tax disc!