- Location
- West Sussex
We’ve been lambing in polytunnels for 20 years but I think it’s time for a fresh look at the system and layout. We’ve always had a central passage wide enough for a quad bike or our Avant mini loader but nothing bigger.
In the past we fed haylage and concentrate twice a day in the central passage by manually breaking big bales off a quad trailer which is obviously quite time consuming and required a tractor and loader on site (remote) all the time.
For the last 10 years or so we have fed barley straw and concentrates which is convenient but has some big drawbacks. Ewes are in early Jan (8 weeks before lambing) and get quite lazy. I think it’s an unnatural diet for the rumen and leaves slow feeders prone to TLD. It is very expensive in concentrates and most of all I seriously dislike the hygiene of encouraging them to eat their bedding especially once we start getting a few abortions/problems.
My thinking is to leave ewes outside much longer on stubbles or sacrificial grass for reseeding (we won’t have grass after Christmas) on good quality silage and a ewe rolls on clean ground from a snacker and bring them in maybe 2 weeks prior to lambing on the same diet but I would much prefer feed bales whole in ring feeders with more of a loose housing type approach with 2 big pens per tunnel but I am concerned about getting enough feed space.
I like the idea of a U-shaped drive in at each end so we could reach a couple of ring feeders at either end and some concentrates.
What do other people do? How many ewes do you get in? I’d be prepared to drop the indoor ewe numbers a bit to make a better system work and do some outdoor lambing in late April/May.
All thoughts appreciated, we have 2 tunnels approx 30ft x 160ft.
In the past we fed haylage and concentrate twice a day in the central passage by manually breaking big bales off a quad trailer which is obviously quite time consuming and required a tractor and loader on site (remote) all the time.
For the last 10 years or so we have fed barley straw and concentrates which is convenient but has some big drawbacks. Ewes are in early Jan (8 weeks before lambing) and get quite lazy. I think it’s an unnatural diet for the rumen and leaves slow feeders prone to TLD. It is very expensive in concentrates and most of all I seriously dislike the hygiene of encouraging them to eat their bedding especially once we start getting a few abortions/problems.
My thinking is to leave ewes outside much longer on stubbles or sacrificial grass for reseeding (we won’t have grass after Christmas) on good quality silage and a ewe rolls on clean ground from a snacker and bring them in maybe 2 weeks prior to lambing on the same diet but I would much prefer feed bales whole in ring feeders with more of a loose housing type approach with 2 big pens per tunnel but I am concerned about getting enough feed space.
I like the idea of a U-shaped drive in at each end so we could reach a couple of ring feeders at either end and some concentrates.
What do other people do? How many ewes do you get in? I’d be prepared to drop the indoor ewe numbers a bit to make a better system work and do some outdoor lambing in late April/May.
All thoughts appreciated, we have 2 tunnels approx 30ft x 160ft.
