Plastic slats matting

[cmurphy]

Well all, question for anyone that has put plastic slats in. Do they mat much? Have been tried different things this end to reduce matting but it still happens and have to scrape them twice a day to keep on top of it

 

[TS2]

What are you feeding, and how much are you feeding at the one time?
I’m feeding chopped silage to my ewes on plastic slats and I feed them twice a day and give them as much as that they will have all cleared up before the next feed.
Also my ewes are clipped at housing and the tighter they are stocked the cleaner they will be (feeding space permitting).I would have to brush some pens occasionally may be once or twice a week depending on what pen needs done. Also I would sometimes wash with power hose and turbo jet.

 

[MJT]

Feed chopped silage to ours and never a problem. Did have some problem with some long haylage. Have you got enough sheep in the pen to keep the slats clean.

 

[cmurphy]

What are you feeding, and how much are you feeding at the one time?
I’m feeding chopped silage to my ewes on plastic slats and I feed them twice a day and give them as much as that they will have all cleared up before the next feed.
Also my ewes are clipped at housing and the tighter they are stocked the cleaner they will be (feeding space permitting).I would have to brush some pens occasionally may be once or twice a week depending on what pen needs done. Also I would sometimes wash with power hose and turbo jet.

Feeding short hay and would feed them twice a day. They would have cleaned the whole thing but still stuff being pulled and matting. It's worse closest to the barrier where you would expect but other patches on the middle of the pen is matting aswell. I wouldn't clip my ewes pre housing but I would as many ewes in as that can feed at the one time. My shed was a cattle shed and has spacing between the sheets on the roof, could that be part of the problem with extra water getting through and more moisture? I put in mesh on the other side of the shed and it was a disaster aswell for matting? (my brother has mesh in and never had problems like I did, with a sealed roof).

 

[cmurphy]

Feed chopped silage to ours and never a problem. Did have some problem with some long haylage. Have you got enough sheep in the pen to keep the slats clean.

I fed chopped haylage other years and still would have had problems, maybe not to the extend of this year from what I can remember. Would have as many ewes in as feeding space allows