Agri Vehicles Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: 'Dead Lambs' post & Automatic plastic field drinkers  (Read 10905 times)

Dianabooth

  • Joined Mar 2014
'Dead Lambs' post & Automatic plastic field drinkers
« on: April 29, 2014, 01:34:53 pm »
 :sheep:  Since I posted 'Dead Lambs' a few days ago, I was amazed and humbled by the replies I got.  It's been a roller coaster of a time since I posted 'Dead Lambs' and we've been challenged with pretty much everything you could think of including Breech birth, another 'evil' ewe who was so brutal with her twins that I've had to separate them, a birth that we had to assist with, which was fine except  behind the ' good' lamb was a 'atrophied foetus!'   Only another 6 ewes to go!

So now most Mum's and lambs will be out in the field shortly (they are outside in pens at the moment till OH puts up a stock fence around one of the paddocks(today).  However, I now have another worry!  We have these plastic automatic drinker which are low to the ground,put in initially for the horses (pre sheep days!).  I am now paranoid that the lambs will fall into these and drown!  I've thought about putting some wire netting over them so the sheep can still drink but the lambs won't fall in and drown.  I can't raise them up off the ground as it would involve digging up piping etc.  Any thoughts on how I might 'lamb proof' them, please?  Thank You!

Rosemary

  • Joined Oct 2007
  • Barry, Angus, Scotland
    • The Accidental Smallholder
Re: 'Dead Lambs' post & Automatic plastic field drinkers
« Reply #1 on: April 29, 2014, 02:10:30 pm »
Our troughs are on the ground, maybe 15" high. Never seen a lamb get wet.

Put some bricks in the bottom so that it's not so deep, so if a lamb did fall in, it would be able to climb out?

Bionic

  • Joined Dec 2010
  • Talley, Carmarthenshire
Re: 'Dead Lambs' post & Automatic plastic field drinkers
« Reply #2 on: April 29, 2014, 05:21:45 pm »
Our troughs sound the same as Rosemary's. I have never seen a lamb interested in ours either.
Life is like a bowl of cherries, mostly yummy but some dodgy bits

Dianabooth

  • Joined Mar 2014
Re: 'Dead Lambs' post & Automatic plastic field drinkers
« Reply #3 on: April 30, 2014, 10:44:23 am »
Thanks!  That sounds like an excellent idea. :relief:  I'm just a bit paranoid as our luck with lambing thus far is still a little iffy!

Rosemary

  • Joined Oct 2007
  • Barry, Angus, Scotland
    • The Accidental Smallholder
Re: 'Dead Lambs' post & Automatic plastic field drinkers
« Reply #4 on: April 30, 2014, 12:11:42 pm »
Thanks!  That sounds like an excellent idea. :relief:  I'm just a bit paranoid as our luck with lambing thus far is still a little iffy!

You're right to be cautious. We must never underestimate a sheep's ability to get into trouble  ::)

DartmoorLiz

  • Joined Jan 2012
  • Devon
Re: 'Dead Lambs' post & Automatic plastic field drinkers
« Reply #5 on: May 06, 2014, 07:11:52 pm »
+1 rocks.  My mother in law insisted we do it and I thought she was bats but a friend lost a lamb in a water trough last year so now I've filled all my low troughs with rocks.  The gaps between rocks make nice habitat for newts and frogs too. 

The only time I take the rocks out is when cows are using the trough and they drink so fast that the inlet pipe can't keep up.
Never ever give up.

 

Forum sponsors

FibreHut Energy Helpline Thomson & Morgan Time for Paws Scottish Smallholder & Grower Festival Ark Farm Livestock Movement Service

© The Accidental Smallholder Ltd 2003-2024. All rights reserved.

Design by Furness Internet

Site developed by Champion IS