Feeding at side of Polytunnel

[ISCO]

We are planning a polytunnel for sheep housing for next year 100ft x 30, it was to be for this year however, did not get around to it more's the pity. I do not like the idea of central feed passage as wastes a lot of space. Current thinking is to split into 3 pens, let first pen out to feed in troughs on yard and then feed next pen on straw in empty pen and move next lot up and so on.

For silage I was wondering if we could put a feed passage on the outside with a feed barrier instead of galebreaker and feed with bale unroller but concerned that this may make tunnel more prone to wind damage. Does anyone have such a system and does it work. Feed barrier side of tunnel would be about 12 feet from existing buildings and sheltered.

 

[Longlowdog]

Some years I built to customers design three tunnels with concrete feed 'passes' on either side. Gale breaker material was lifted by about two feet from inside floor and pass was about a foot high on the outside so sheep put their head through rather than under. They were feed by a Keenan. They worked well, withstood Aberdeenshire's worst and like you say lost no space inside. If I remember rightly the pass was built on either side due to space calculation for feed space centimetres per ewe to optimise accessibility and reduce competition/preferred grazing by more aggressive ewes cherry picking the nicest bits from the feed.
An excavator dug the inside floor and left the feed passes such that a skin of cement was laid to form a surface to feed on to with minimal shuttering and a reduced need for cement. It required longer female base tubes as the tunnel was built to conform to the 'normal shape from the height of the feed pass not the inside floor.