A little work done on the sheep tunnel today

FE35

Member
Location
Cumbria
@JohnGalway if I was going to replace the sheep netting on my tunnel I'd go with Yorkshire boarding - like you say anything horizontal is no good as they'll climb to near the plastic. My tunnel looks more sheltered than yours but I found with gutters fitted it made a massive difference to keep water out - think I'd go with gutters/netting/plastic & see how you get on - maybe save some work & money?!
 
@JohnGalway if I was going to replace the sheep netting on my tunnel I'd go with Yorkshire boarding - like you say anything horizontal is no good as they'll climb to near the plastic. My tunnel looks more sheltered than yours but I found with gutters fitted it made a massive difference to keep water out - think I'd go with gutters/netting/plastic & see how you get on - maybe save some work & money?!

Well I've the net and most of the guttering done on one side now, have the boarding ordered but the supply centre have to order it in themselves so that'll be next week probably.

I reckon myself if I were doing it again what I might do is boarding on the tunnel and put the net a meter or two out from the tunnel, have it 1.5 or 2 meters tall. The idea being to slow down the windspeed and stop the rain from driving in. Don't think my set up of net and boarding together will be effective, Dad tried it on shed before and we found the big drops turned to mist and got carried in on the wind.

So why I did it again is a mystery to me lol.
 

Seth 2

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
limousin
IMAG0367.jpg IMAG0369.jpg Hi John G. Interesting watching your progress. We put up a sheep tunnel 18 months ago, best thing we ever done. The light cover make it a great place to work. 32m long x 9.5m wide.
We wouldn't get the same weather as you, but it amazes me how solid they are.
 

Chris123

Member
Location
Shropshire
Looks a tidy set up Seth just out of interest how much was that poly tunnel if you don't mind me asking. Just interested to compare it price wise against a Permenant shed.
Is the feeder and walkway made out ply?
 

Seth 2

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
limousin
The walkway legs and rails are made from acacia, and the troughs are softwood planks. The tunnel came from a supplier in uk. It cost less than 3.5k for the hoops, cover and gutters, including the shipping to france.
A couple of mates came over and it took about 3 days to put up, and a week or so on my own to finish all the bits and pieces. At 300 sq meters I doubt you could buy a cheaper covered area!
 
View attachment 110256 View attachment 110258 Hi John G. Interesting watching your progress. We put up a sheep tunnel 18 months ago, best thing we ever done. The light cover make it a great place to work. 32m long x 9.5m wide.
We wouldn't get the same weather as you, but it amazes me how solid they are.

That's a fine looking tunnel Seth, brighter than mine as no light comes through. Is the cover a greenhouse type one, or an ivory stock cover? I didn't have a stock cover option that let in as much light.

Mine has been through 130kmh winds just fine.
 

Seth 2

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
limousin
Take it you just roll the bales down and put feeder over them
Ye we use the bales to keep any wind out and we use them as it warms up. As you say we roll the bales about inside and put the feeder ring over them. The front of the tunnel is open so i drop bales into each side with the loader.

That's a fine looking tunnel Seth, brighter than mine as no light comes through. Is the cover a greenhouse type one, or an ivory stock cover? I didn't have a stock cover option that let in as much light.

Mine has been through 130kmh winds just fine.
I first seen this cover on a calf house on a dairy farm. Apparently it is normally used for growing, to simulate a forest canopy!!! Its probably a bit too warm to use after April.
We have an insulated tunnel too, that's ok all year round realy though it is a bit dark inside.
 
I first seen this cover on a calf house on a dairy farm. Apparently it is normally used for growing, to simulate a forest canopy!!! Its probably a bit too warm to use after April.
We have an insulated tunnel too, that's ok all year round realy though it is a bit dark inside.

That was my concern with the growing plastic too, it sure was lovely and bright inside but I was worried it would give the sheep health problems in any decent weather. Even on a clear sunny day it was noticeably warmer inside compared to an overcast day.
 
Door frame work today. The instructions said to bury the bottom of the door frame in a concrete casing, in what I'll admit was a clever way. I wanted to keep the bottom off the door frame off the ground a tiny bit so got some "wall plates" I think they're called. Basically big metal L's, cut and bent to make small metal L's and screwed one behind each door frame and then screwed down into the concrete footings.

I'm going to mix some more concrete to put in the middle of the door ways so I can drop in some rebar lengths into pipe to strengthen the doors when they're closed.

Bit of plastic and netting to be trimmed and tidied up in the photo. Also need to temp block off under the gable netting, will put concrete there probably in the Summer. Also have some timber battens to put vertically along the net to keep it tight, although I did get it very tight already.

Inside looks darker in photo than in person.

Can see two of four taped up nicks in the plastic.......

tunnelfrontdoor.jpg
 
I am wondering about the best way to divide the tunnel up. I intend making wooden hurdles with the stack of 4x1's in the far right hand corner, so I can make those to suit which ever way I decide. I bought a 9 inch drainage pipe I intend to split length ways for troughs. I intend to find some metal to fashion brackets so I can hang the troughs outside the pens and also I can make the bottom of the pens tighter spaced to help prevent newborn lambs escaping out of their pen or into another pen.

Initially I intended to have two pens at the back of the tunnel taking up a little more than half of the length, with a two or three foot walkway between them so I could feed in the middle and on the front face of the pen if I needed to.

Doing a lot of intending in this post............

But now I am looking and wondering would I be better off stacking the straw along the length of the tunnel on the left hand side where the pallets are (where most - but not all - of the weather will be coming from), and having two long pens on the right hand side where the quad and assorted materials/junk is in the photo.

The tunnel is 42 foot by 23 foot. If I were to go with the long pens down one side (say 10 foot wide, 21ish foot long each) I'd be able to accommodate roughly 30 ewes at 14 square feet per ewe, but only feed 28 if given 18 inches per ewe feed space.

The first plan of two pens at the far end would mean two pens roughly 24 foot long, and 10 feet wide, with a 3 foot walkway/feed space between them. This would mean I could have 34 ewes between the two pens at 14sq feet, and have feed space for 40. But, this leaves me with less space for straw storage and uses more than 50% of the tunnel (and more than the long pens idea above).

The two pen idea would be to split up twins and singles and feed accordingly. I realise I've left no provision for mothering up pens but I'd intend to move out some straw to make room for that.

Open to other thinking also.....

Decisions, decisions........

20150204_165812.jpg
 

renewablejohn

Member
Location
lancs
How do you get on with condensation and keeping the straw dry. Maybe others could advise whether it will be a problem I know my plant tunnels drip but then plants unlike straw dont mind getting wet. Before we had the solar kilns we dried logs and kept plants in the same tunnel but had to install a plastic wall to stop the condensation moving into the wood.
 
How do you get on with condensation and keeping the straw dry. Maybe others could advise whether it will be a problem I know my plant tunnels drip but then plants unlike straw dont mind getting wet. Before we had the solar kilns we dried logs and kept plants in the same tunnel but had to install a plastic wall to stop the condensation moving into the wood.

Never had sheep inside one, so I can't answer about condensation. I can't imagine it'll be an awful problem. I can add extra airflow by taking out a triangle or plastic each side of the doors, and if it's a real problem next time I have to resheet I can go farther up with net at the gables. I'd rather not though when "driven rain" is taken into account, as we get both a lot of wind and rain.

Was your tunnel one which had plastic right down to the ground?

Are you feeding nuts or meal John?
If nuts, bucket and chuck it works really well ime, and you won't have to worry 5 feed space.

I've heard of lads chucking nuts into bedding PBH, tbh I wouldn't be a fan for no other reason than ya don't sh1t where ya eat :D

Idea for feeding is the half drainage pipe possibly mounted to the side of the pen. I was thinking I don't actually need a 3 foot walk way if I do it like that, so more space for ewes. I may use the pipe as stand alone troughs so ewes can eat from both sides but then I'd have to move them in and out of pens and am not keen on more messing.
 

Poorbuthappy

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Devon
I've heard of lads chucking nuts into bedding PBH, tbh I wouldn't be a fan for no other reason than ya don't sh1t where ya eat :D

What do they do outside then? :D

As long as you keep them well bedded it's not a problem. And much easier than fighting with them to put it in troughs.
Just a suggestion however.
 
That green netting is now on the official useless item list, along with rubber nails, sky hooks, and chocolate teapots.

Pig of a day here with heavy rain accompanied by wind in the afternoon. Inside of the tunnel was not at all dry, even a few small squares of hay on a trailer in the middle of the tunnel felt damp. Bedding would have been drenched.

So, first attempt at a solution was an extra layer of netting inside the existing one, slight improvement but still seeing rain drops 3 feet inside, so no good.

Second attempt was to attach netting to the IBC tank and bandstands/trestles outside. This netting would be higher then the one attached to the tunnel to try to stop the high angled driving rain coming in. Again, a slight improvement but really not good enough.

Third attempt was going to be a temporary removable canopy attached to the battens holding the net under the guttering outside, the other end to be attached to a fence I will erect later to keep sheep away from the tunnel. Reconsidered this, as I foresaw the wind catching the canopy and it hitting the tunnel plastic. Still think that idea has some merit but it'd need to be better planned for during original construction than I had done.

In the photo you can see a bodged canopy section (it wouldn't look like this, just wanted to test the theory) screwed onto the inside of the tunnel. This gave me a better, simpler - sigh, more expensive - idea.

Inside the tunnel I will be putting up sheep wire to keep them off the netting. There will be a gap between the netting and the sheep wire, into which perspex/clear roof lights can be laid on their length. I'll need to trim them to about 80 cm in height, as the top 20 cm of netting is sheltered by the outside guttering. I can leave that 20 cm open for airflow on wet days. The sheets of perspex are light, so easily moved, relatively hard to damage and being thin makes them easy to store. Only thing is I'm told they can be expensive so will have to suss that out tomorrow.

Unless anyone else has a better idea? By the by, why I am going with the clear sheeting is to still let light in, I don't want to end up in a cave.

20150215_163203.jpg
 

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