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Author Topic: How wide is a pregnant ewe?  (Read 2002 times)

kernow64

  • Joined Dec 2016
  • Brecknockshire
How wide is a pregnant ewe?
« on: September 15, 2018, 02:10:42 pm »
Hopefully not an entirely stupid question - I am sorting out some pens for lambing next year and am wondering how wide to make the gangway between the pens so that a preganant ewe can get through it.

Sheep are Black Welsh Mountains so smallish and I am hoping to have room for 4 6’x4’ pens with a gap down the middle but want to make sure that there is enough room to get the ewes through to the back pens without losing two much space in the pens themselves.

Is 2’ enough?

Thanks.

YorkshireLass

  • Joined Mar 2010
  • Just when I thought I'd settled down...!
Re: How wide is a pregnant ewe?
« Reply #1 on: September 15, 2018, 02:58:48 pm »
I would have thought so, though I've not kept that breed.
Might also be handy to consider the width you'd need for a wheelbarrow or easily carrying a bale of hay / buckets of water?

sheeponthebrain

  • Joined Feb 2016
  • Turriff
Re: How wide is a pregnant ewe?
« Reply #2 on: September 18, 2018, 07:20:01 pm »
i agree with yorkshire lass a ewe is smaller than a sleep deprived lambing sheperd with 2 buckets of water

Anke

  • Joined Dec 2009
  • St Boswells, Scottish Borders
Re: How wide is a pregnant ewe?
« Reply #3 on: September 18, 2018, 08:06:16 pm »
6 x 4 is quite big - my lambing pens are only 5 x 3 (as per Tim Tyne's instructions) and they have mostly Shetlands in but also had Texel X Suffolk ewes with twins in them…. so unless your hurdle size is fixed, you could make the pens smaller. I think 2 ft is quite a narrow gangway, esp if carrying water/feed hay etc.

twizzel

  • Joined Apr 2012
Re: How wide is a pregnant ewe?
« Reply #4 on: September 18, 2018, 08:14:21 pm »
6 x 4 is quite big - my lambing pens are only 5 x 3 (as per Tim Tyne's instructions) and they have mostly Shetlands in but also had Texel X Suffolk ewes with twins in them…. so unless your hurdle size is fixed, you could make the pens smaller. I think 2 ft is quite a narrow gangway, esp if carrying water/feed hay etc.


Most of my lambing pens this year were 6ftx3ft and they did the job fine, but will do 6x4 next year as I leave my ewes in them for an extra 24hrs before turnout, rather than having a nursery pen. Lleyn and lleyn x texel ewes majority 60-70kg. Then have a couple of bigger 6x6 pens for triplets/adopters

kernow64

  • Joined Dec 2016
  • Brecknockshire
Re: How wide is a pregnant ewe?
« Reply #5 on: September 19, 2018, 07:52:04 am »
i agree with yorkshire lass a ewe is smaller than a sleep deprived lambing sheperd with 2 buckets of water

True, but unlike a pregnant ewe, a shepherd carrying buckets can turn sideways to get along a narrow gangway. :)

kernow64

  • Joined Dec 2016
  • Brecknockshire
Re: How wide is a pregnant ewe?
« Reply #6 on: September 19, 2018, 08:41:54 am »
Thanks folks for all the replies - I am making my own hurdles so can adjust the size within the confines of the small field shelter/shed I am using.

I only have room for four pens (two either side of a gangway) so I can make the gangway a bit bigger. I’d based the 6’x4’ size on the commercially available pens I’d seen and forgotten the section in TT’s book but on rereading it, I may have subliminally taken some of it on board as I had decided to use eye screws and bamboo to hold the hurdles together.

TT does say that 5’x3’ is slightly on the small side so if I go to 6’x3’ or 6’x3’6”, that will give the ewes plenty of room and plenty of room between them.

The hurdles I made last year were just 2”x 2” with bits of 80cm stock netting I had lying around. These were very cheap, seem to be high enough and worked. Not seeing anyone else doing this - is there any problem with this arrangement? :)

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: How wide is a pregnant ewe?
« Reply #7 on: September 19, 2018, 09:57:55 am »
The hurdles I made last year were just 2”x 2” with bits of 80cm stock netting I had lying around. These were very cheap, seem to be high enough and worked. Not seeing anyone else doing this - is there any problem with this arrangement? :)

Untensioned stock netting is potentially dangerous yes.  Foot through, struggle, foot wrapped in wire, properly caught now, etc.  Horned head through, wire wrapped round horn, etc.  I have experienced both of these scenarios.  Both resulted in a dead ewe, one broke her neck as someone tried to rescue her and the other had to be euthanased because the foot was dead.

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

kernow64

  • Joined Dec 2016
  • Brecknockshire
Re: How wide is a pregnant ewe?
« Reply #8 on: September 19, 2018, 11:53:48 am »
The hurdles I made last year were just 2”x 2” with bits of 80cm stock netting I had lying around. These were very cheap, seem to be high enough and worked. Not seeing anyone else doing this - is there any problem with this arrangement? :)

Untensioned stock netting is potentially dangerous yes.  Foot through, struggle, foot wrapped in wire, properly caught now, etc.  Horned head through, wire wrapped round horn, etc.  I have experienced both of these scenarios.  Both resulted in a dead ewe, one broke her neck as someone tried to rescue her and the other had to be euthanased because the foot was dead.

Good points although the wire in the hurdles I made last year is fairly tight, although not as tight as a properly strained fence. I’ll see how tight I can get it and maybe rethink.

That said, for obvious reasons, horns won’t be an issue and the pens will only be used for a few days and checked constantly with the ewes and lambs being turned out into a field surrounded by similar netting.


twizzel

  • Joined Apr 2012
Re: How wide is a pregnant ewe?
« Reply #9 on: September 19, 2018, 01:38:54 pm »
I think the concern with the wire netting is getting caught up in it whilst in close proximity- whereas in the field it’s not such a problem. Investing in a few hurdles will be the best thing you can do, so many uses for them.

kernow64

  • Joined Dec 2016
  • Brecknockshire
Re: How wide is a pregnant ewe?
« Reply #10 on: September 19, 2018, 03:10:46 pm »
I think the concern with the wire netting is getting caught up in it whilst in close proximity- whereas in the field it’s not such a problem. Investing in a few hurdles will be the best thing you can do, so many uses for them.

OK, I’m convinced - I’ll make up some 6’ x 3’ and 3’ x 3’ hurdles as per Tim Tyne (the exact dimensions will need to be tweaked to take account of the quirks of my shed) and as you say, they will have loads of uses - I’ve been making do outside the shed with some full size steel cattle ones I inherited which are great but are way too big and heavy. :)

Old Shep

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • North Yorkshire
Re: How wide is a pregnant ewe?
« Reply #11 on: September 19, 2018, 04:02:01 pm »
6 foot by 4 foot pens are fine.  Personally I think 6x3 are too tight.  I know this forum quote Mr Tyne most loyally,but his way isn't the only way ;)
Helen - (used to be just Shep).  Gordon Setters, Border Collies and chief lambing assistant to BigBennyShep.

 

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