The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: craig on September 11, 2010, 04:10:52 pm
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Has anyone got any drawings diagrams or links to sites of handling system layouts??? Shedding race, working race,holding pens,forcing pens etc etc.
Cheers. Craig.
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Hi,
Have a look at : http://www.coxagri.com/alligator/1/priorityascending/catalogue.html (http://www.coxagri.com/alligator/1/priorityascending/catalogue.html)
We are Cox agents so if you need any of it pricing up give us a try.
Thanks
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This might be of some use
(http://www.viableselfsufficiency.co.uk/handling system.jpg)
As seen in "The Sheep Book for Smallholders".
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"You can never have enough hurdles" was said to me by a smallholder before we got the sheep. So I bought 20 and then used most of them as treeguards, so I bought 20 more. Then I found them around the beehives so I need some more. They beat pallets...
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Tim's book's really good, by the way. I bought one (a signed copy, no less) for a chum of mine and she's gone off on holiday for three weeks. Hope she's read it by the ime she gets back, so I can borrow it.
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A friend of mine has a Modulamb system that seems very good. In particular, she has a crate for holding individual sheep for, well, almost anything - and it's raised to save the old back!
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To save money I invented a forcing gate that hinges in the middle made out of 2 small hurdles. The point of this is that you dont need expensive curved hurdles for the gate to follow and you dont need the sliding reversable type of forcing gate becauce you can fold the gate back on itself to collect the next batch. I hope the photos are clear enough, as you can see orkney's a bit foggy this evening.
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here's another
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and another
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and a bigger one
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Thanks for the info guys, how many sheep do you farm Humphrey???
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great set up
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38 breeding females I think
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here are some lambs squashed up in the forcing pen
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They go into the race of their own free will
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heres the last couple going in with the forcing gate closed right in
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great photos of the system, the sheep and the dogs... what breed sheep are they humpfry?
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these are this years lambs. Some are pure shetland and some are shetlandxsuffolk
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I thought I could see some suffolk in them, how do you find them to handle? are they good parents at lambing time? do they need much assistance at lambing? what do they taste like? ;D ;D
I hope you dont mind me throwing you some questions?
cheers
andy
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suffolks are easy to handle because they are docile although they are quite big. All my ewes are shetland. I have no suffolk ewes because they are not good mothers and would often require assistance at lambing time, I have a suffolk ram who I use on the shetland ewes to make butchers lambs. I use a shetland ram on the gimmers so they have a smaller lamb for their first time. The female pure-bred lambs are for breeding and the wethers I sometimes grow on for mutton. This year I am also selling some female suffolk shetland cross lambs as breeding ewes.
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Thats interesting, so shetlands are very good mothers? and medium sized? and you use the size of the suffolk ram to give good lambs for meat. The flock I am getting in a few weeks are suffolk x kent ewes...ive never heard of a kent ewe but hopefully are better mothers
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shetlands are small