The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: pharnorth on August 19, 2015, 10:15:27 am
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So I have just been lucky enough to buy a second hand sheep race, guillotine gate, and a shedding gate. I have a dozen sheep and probably won't go for more than 30.
Any thoughts on layout and where? I have an over winter field, a field for the lambs followed by tupping, and a field usually used for ewe and lamb turn out. Any one position better than the rest or am I likely to keep lugging it around? My first activity will be to feed into the turn over crate for pre tup MOT
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We have ours at the highest point of our fields, as sheep like to run uphill for safety.
It is also in about the smallest one to minimise any running around.
It is positioned by a gate, so when we have completed a task on each sheep we can pop them through into the next field. This is because we don't always complete every task on one day, so we know who's done and who's not.
Our fields have connecting gates all the way round, so we can play a kind of musical sheep, to get the group we want into the catching field ie the one with the pens.
Our tups are in a separate area across the road, and they are caught in a pen which is set across a bottle neck in a tiny paddock at one end of their pasture.
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Yes at a gate between fields is usually a good place. I've got mine trained to come to my shout and can move then easily between three fields sometime they get a wee bit of feed but mostly it's just a bluff.
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Thank you both that is helpful, narrows it down to two locations. My fields were a square once which would have made the interconnecting bit a good prospect but one got sold before my time so now I have an L shape of 4 connecting fields, the lambing barn is off the middle of the L. ( wish I had Wombles drawing skills). So 3 gates to choose from. Hmmm time for a walk
I'd struggle with the uphill! Still in the undulating bit before the fens but nonetheless a good 4 miles to the nearest hill. I do have a home built 'goat mountain' which is all of 2m high.
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How about mounting it on an old flat trailer, then you can move it where you like and just need to pull out the hurdles for the catching pen, a bit like the pratley system
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Yes the trailer idea is a good one but as I don't have one and only paid £250 for the race is will more than double the cost, and I don't have much ground to cover. So at this stage I will make a guess on the best location given the advice above and then over a year or so see how often I wish I could move it!
Incidentally I did look at Tim Tynes book and the relevant pages on this site before posting but it is very helpful to get the live reactions from you guys