Diet feeder for sheep

[hally]

started feeding ewes this year with a diet feeder and it’s going very well so far. one issue is, due to the drought ( very rare around here ) our bales are a lot drier than normal so the meal is dropping out and the ewes are nosing the silage about to get down to the meal. Will adding water help considering how fussy ewes are and not wanting to upset palatabilty at this stage of pregnancy? TIA?

 

[sticky]

Don't know about water but would a drop of molasses help bind it all?

 

[Derrick Hughes]

I gave up for that reason but plenty doing it so I must have been doing something wrong . Not enough trough space probably as it did work well in the fields

 

[pauld]

Molasses used here. Water would probably improve things a bit but I think you really need the 'sticky' effect.

 

[Pistonbroke]

Water will help for free, molasses better. I would mix the molasses with the meal into a slurry first then add the silage

 

[M-J-G]

We used to use water on straw based diets and it worked fine as long as you mix it every day, otherwise it will dry out and separate again.
Molasses would bind it for longer.
Give silage and water a while to mix first before meal is added

 

[aled1590]

started feeding ewes this year with a diet feeder and it’s going very well so far. one issue is, due to the drought ( very rare around here ) our bales are a lot drier than normal so the meal is dropping out and the ewes are nosing the silage about to get down to the meal. Will adding water help considering how fussy ewes are and not wanting to upset palatabilty at this stage of pregnancy? TIA?

Out of interest what dimensions are your pens and how many sheep in each pen? Trying to work out how I can convert the shed to TMR for next year

 

[hally]

Four different sheds so vary but mainly in batches of 50 and we give them a minimum of 15square feet per ewe and between 6 and 8 inches feed space. Pleased I made the move just need to alter our silage dm down a bit. Ewes very calm and it’s a lot easier on an old mans back

 

[Pistonbroke]

This is our shed,we were feeding tmr before it was built so it's made to suit. Sloping troughs round the outside so there's no pushing up to do and sheep go in or out of pens into middle passage with mothering pens

 

[hally]

This is our shed,we were feeding tmr before it was built so it's made to suit. Sloping troughs round the outside so there's no pushing up to do and sheep go in or out of pens into middle passage with mothering pens

Good set up

 

[tr250]

Wants to be 30% dm. But we have put water in in the past and it works but needs eating quickly or it will heat. If the feed is ad-lib you want a quarter of the sheep able to eat at once