[CarolineJ]

This is going to sound like a daft question, but when calculating how many feed troughs I need to buy, based on 50cm space per sheep, do I count both sides?  e.g does 1 metre of feed trough (on the ground with space all around it) accommodate 4 sheep or 2?  I'm assuming 4 - so for 15 sheep I'm going to need 4 metres of feed trough?

[Foobar]

Not really.  I have 3ft troughs and they fit 3 sheep (which ever way around they are facing), or 4 lambs at a push.


Always better to have more space than you need (...unless it's raining lol).

[shep53]

IF you use troughs then you never have enough

[Marches Farmer]

Assuming you have sheep feeding at both sides of the trough and you're putting feed down at intervals during the day, how wide are your sheep when in full fleece?  Width per sheep x no. of sheep = amount of trough space needed.

[Foobar]

The regs state "approximately 30 cm of trough space is needed for hill ewes and approximately 45 cm for the larger lowland ewes".  This is about right, mine are hill ewes so 30cm matches my 3 per 3ft trough.

[CarolineJ]

Thanks - so it's really more about head space in the trough than body space around it?  That makes sense.  Hill ewes, so I guess I need 15 x 30cm/1ft.  Will take the truck into town tomorrow and see what I can find 

[Backinwellies]

Worth thinking about ease of movement ..... long ones are cheaper but a pain to move.

[Womble]

Depending on how, er, enthusiastic your sheep are, it's also worth thinking about how you'll fill it. I have a hell of a job getting the feed into the trough without the ewes knocking either it or me flying! 

[Coastie]

I have stacks of the black round trugs, 4 sheep feed easily at them. Light, safe, easy to clean and throw with one hand!. Not for large flocks but a cheap solution for a few sheep. And the lambs love to curl up in them.

[Foobar]

I have stacks of the black round trugs, 4 sheep feed easily at them. Light, safe, easy to clean and throw with one hand!. Not for large flocks but a cheap solution for a few sheep. And the lambs love to curl up in them.

Yeah - only trouble is that they can stand on the sides and flip them over.  At least mind did!

[Womble]

We have a couple of those trugs, and always put them inside a tyre. That usually works.

[pharnorth]

Ok so daft question time. Is there any real advantage in feeding from trough or will they not happily find anything scattered?  I can see the point if the area is getting messy but the trough itself guarantees the area around gets poached.

[Foobar]

If you feed rolls then no, there is little advantage in using troughs.  If you feed nuts then yes, IMHO, they are better fed in troughs, especially if your ground is wet, you will get a lot less wastage.
You can move the troughs to prevent poaching - just roll them everyday.

[JedM]

I always feed sugarbeet pellets to finish my lambs, and I've never used a trough.  Piles on the ground has always worked fine as long as the ground is dry.

[CarolineJ]

2 x 6ft ones bought this morning, which the agricultural store describes as 12ft ones, so they're obviously calculating each side separately!  The hoggs are currently a bit suspicious of them, hopefully they'll learn over the next few days from the three older ewes.