Author Topic: Sheep handling - we really MUST build something!!  (Read 20105 times)

Nickie

  • Joined May 2009
  • Gwynedd
Re: Sheep handling - we really MUST build something!!
« Reply #15 on: September 25, 2012, 07:47:57 am »
We're just in the process of building our own permanent sheep handling system. Mainly using old fence rails & corregated sheets we had kicking about.


It is sandwiched between the steel building & a wall, so reasonably sheltered & has gates leading into the first holding pen from both a field & the yard so that we can funnel them in & also reverse the trailer up for loading. It also has 2 further holding pens, running either side of the race & turnover crate, with a shedding gate on the end so that we can separate easily. Leading into the race is a quarter circle hurdle setup (the only additional thing we needed to buy), with a 6 foot gate that swings inside the curve so that we can force them into the race easily.


Still got some finishing to do as some of it is held together with string, but we used it for the first time at the weekend with some new ewes straight off the mountain & it worked a treat - would never have managed without!


We are going to start feeding in the first holding pen so that they get used to going in there twice a day for nice things.

FiB

  • Joined Sep 2011
  • Bala, North Wales
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Re: Sheep handling - we really MUST build something!!
« Reply #16 on: September 25, 2012, 08:34:33 am »
That sounds great NIcky - any chance of a piccy or 2?  I will be trying to use a lot of what we have around - so very interested to hear the bits that you needed to buy.  Did you buy one of those sorting gate at the end of the race (into the sheding pen)?  Cheers, Fi

woollyval

  • Joined Feb 2008
  • Near Bodmin, Cornwall
    • Val Grainger
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Re: Sheep handling - we really MUST build something!!
« Reply #17 on: September 25, 2012, 09:31:29 am »
We use a funnel system too. I have several fields I use about the villages, we make a collecting pen that appears to be the escape route, then use length of poultry electruc fencing stretched tight as a funnel. push them towards it and they think its the way out.....silly things then run straight into penand we close off end of funnel.....works every time as they have memory of an ant at times.... :excited:
www.valgrainger.co.uk

Overall winner of the Devon Environmental Business Awards 2009

Pasture Farm

  • Joined Aug 2011
  • East Lincolnshire
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Re: Sheep handling - we really MUST build something!!
« Reply #18 on: September 25, 2012, 11:09:15 am »
We are very fortunate in the fact our main barn is very close to the house. Our first job when we first moved here was to put water and electric to the barn. I am a firm believer that sheep should as far as possible be a pleasure to treat and handle NOT a chore that one puts off until tomorrow !! We keep around 45 breeding Ewes on four seperate paddocks and also a seperate area for the Tups as with most other people when im treating the sheep on a field with no barn i run a temp fence along the permanent fence funneling to a holding area and finally into a working area. The main barn consists as follows:- Hurdled catchment area funneled into the main race system consisting of Guillotine gate into trap area for oral treatment and injections, turnover crate, weigh crate, drafting gateleft through footbath right either to holding area or out into field. I have made lots of two way gates that fit amongst the hurdles as i hate climbing over. I realise there is a lot of money that for most of the time just sits but like i said i find it pleasurable to treat the sheep.

Pasture Farm

  • Joined Aug 2011
  • East Lincolnshire
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Re: Sheep handling - we really MUST build something!!
« Reply #19 on: September 25, 2012, 11:11:12 am »
A few more

Pasture Farm

  • Joined Aug 2011
  • East Lincolnshire
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Re: Sheep handling - we really MUST build something!!
« Reply #20 on: September 25, 2012, 11:13:52 am »
I hope you can get some ideas from our set up. Probably one thing i would keep making are gates. It just makes life so much easier. :wave:
 
PS I do have a sheep dog  :thumbsup:
« Last Edit: September 25, 2012, 11:18:20 am by Pasture Farm »

woollyval

  • Joined Feb 2008
  • Near Bodmin, Cornwall
    • Val Grainger
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Re: Sheep handling - we really MUST build something!!
« Reply #21 on: September 25, 2012, 12:04:21 pm »
Nice set up! I too believe sheep should be a pleasure rather than a chore and its one thing to be able to grab a sheep when you are 25 and another when over 50! joints and muscles do not recover quite the same so as I am getting older I am sorting out more and more easy handling sheep and equipment which means that when I'm 75 I should theoretically have had lots of use out of it and still be able to manage the sheep!
www.valgrainger.co.uk

Overall winner of the Devon Environmental Business Awards 2009

goosepimple

  • Joined May 2010
  • nr Lauder, Scottish Borders
Re: Sheep handling - we really MUST build something!!
« Reply #22 on: September 25, 2012, 12:07:58 pm »
Oh yes Pasture, that is helpful, thank you.
registered soay, castlemilk moorit  and north ronaldsay sheep, pygmy goats, steinbacher geese, muscovy ducks, various hens, lots of visiting mallards, a naughty border collie, a puss and a couple of guinea pigs

FiB

  • Joined Sep 2011
  • Bala, North Wales
    • Facebook
Re: Sheep handling - we really MUST build something!!
« Reply #23 on: September 25, 2012, 12:17:47 pm »
WOW - Brilliant thank you for sharing!  Yes its the day after the day after and I am aching ALL over (and that's only wrestling 12 - hoping to go up to 20-25 over the next couple of years) and the joints arnt getting any younger!

Pasture Farm

  • Joined Aug 2011
  • East Lincolnshire
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Re: Sheep handling - we really MUST build something!!
« Reply #24 on: September 25, 2012, 12:18:43 pm »
Val my thoughts exactly, everything i look at buying or changing i do so with one eye on the longterm.
 
Last January i broke both bones in my left arm and it was crushed badly i am lucky enough to have my wife and two sons to help me, Ive just had another operation on my arm and back in plaster. The sheep set up has helped my no end.

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Sheep handling - we really MUST build something!!
« Reply #25 on: September 25, 2012, 02:04:33 pm »
Couldn't agree more  :thumbsup:, treating / handling livestock needs to be a pleasure and easy to do, so not put off. 

We're in our 50s so have been gradually upgrading facilities and equipment with exactly this in mind.  We've also ditched the Limousin cattle, the Blackface ewes, ...  ;) and now mostly have laid back, co-operative Angus, Hereford and Jersey cattle and a preponderance of Swaley Mules and their descendents, and Charollais crosses - although there are still plenty of hard-headed, obstinate Texels to give us a good workout  ;) :D

I love my little primitives - small enough that I can do anything I want with them on my own, so that thing about having total confidence that I will catch them and hang onto them can be 100% true. :D
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

SteveHants

  • Joined Aug 2011
Re: Sheep handling - we really MUST build something!!
« Reply #26 on: September 25, 2012, 02:50:23 pm »
I have grazings all over the place, and so any handling system I have needs to be mobile.


Until a month ago, I had 14 hurdles, all 6' in length and some flexinet - I have managed to get 50 ewes and lambs (94 lambs - so 144 animals in total) into this for weaning. If I could make an improvement, it would have been an additional couple of 4' hurdles.


I haven't got a picture, but I'll describe it thus:


Set it up along a fence, so the sheep go in uphill if possible. The far end should be one hurdle wide, withthe next hurdle runing parallel to the fence. If I had 4' hurdles, I would use one here.


Then arrange in a funnel, making sire they dip in towards the fence 2 or so hurdles from the end, then set the last two almost parallell to the fence. run your flexinet out from this to make a huge funnel. Save two hurdles and attach to a fencepost opposite where your hurdle funnel ends, running almost alongside the fence.


Drive the sheep into the funnel until they have gone past the outer hurdles, then dash in and grab the outermost one, tug the lot round like a gate and attach to the two hurdles you attached to the fencepost - your colleague/dogsbody should be pulling these in as you pull yours along.


Your sheep should now be in.


then, by detaching hurdles and sliding them along the backs of the others, make your pen small....


Use the 1 x 1 'far end' as a handling pen, attach some of yoru spare hurdles a bit back from the handling pen and use them to force the sheep...


This would make farm more sense with pictures...I'll try to take some... ;D




I have now expanded and have a Rappa trailer mounted aluminium one, but only because I'll have 200 ewes (plus lambs eventually) on one bit of ground in future. I use it for the first time tomorrow...woohoo....

Nickie

  • Joined May 2009
  • Gwynedd
Re: Sheep handling - we really MUST build something!!
« Reply #27 on: September 25, 2012, 03:04:28 pm »
That sounds great NIcky - any chance of a piccy or 2?  I will be trying to use a lot of what we have around - so very interested to hear the bits that you needed to buy.  Did you buy one of those sorting gate at the end of the race (into the sheding pen)?  Cheers, Fi


Fi


I'll try & get some photos taken, but not today as still hammering it down here & has been since Sunday early evening.


We already had a race (could be made from sheeting & posts), turnover crate (luxury item as OH has a weak back) & shedding gate (very handy, but could probably be made if you are good at DIY). I think we have ended up getting 2 curved hurdles plus a 3 foot gate inside a frame, plus a few hinges & fixings.


We have made use of lots of 'stuff' we already had like rails, sheeting, posts, gates & wooden hurdles OH made several years ago for the lambing shed, but which rarely get used as we lamb outside!

PS just noticed on another thread that you are in North Wales, as are we. You are very welcome to pop over & have a look in person if you fancy a trip out.
« Last Edit: September 25, 2012, 03:21:27 pm by Nickie »

Small Farmer

  • Joined Jan 2012
  • Bedfordshire
Re: Sheep handling - we really MUST build something!!
« Reply #28 on: September 25, 2012, 05:21:30 pm »
As we have about 7 fields of variious sizes and not all next to each other (across the road etc) we need a flexible system... so we just use hurdles and get the sheep into a big pen (always in the corner of the field and as much as possible on the top corner, as ours don't like running down hill, always have the open gate bit on the fence side as they run along the fence line especially the tricky ones. Once a few are in, these are pushed into smaller internal pen, and then open big pen again. Sometimes we need to wait a few minutes until the dopey ones work out where the entrance to their mates is... but it works. Then inside set up a few smaller pens, depending on what you need to do and how you need to divide them up. Also got two girls who think they are sheep dogs... my sheep are also not jumpers  fortunately.
We have found that with a dozen 6ft hurdles we can pretty much do anything that needs doing. Also we load the sheep into the trailer using the tractor, so don't depend on having them collected right next to the field gate. (we don't have 4 x4 car).
If you have your sheep in several fields most of the time, just get a dozen hurdles and move them in the trailer from field to field. Oh and we leave ours always out of view or right next to the house... hurdles do seem to walk off farms quite regularly...
Same problem and same solution :sheep:
Being certain just means you haven't got all the facts

jacob and Georgina

  • Joined May 2010
Re: Sheep handling - we really MUST build something!!
« Reply #29 on: September 25, 2012, 09:11:20 pm »
try this website i found it most usefull  http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/livestock/sheep/facts/02-059.htm  and http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/livestock/sheep/facts/02-057.htm some good diagrams and interesting facts

 

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