Sheep winter housing

Sheepfarmer21

Member
Mixed Farmer
hi all, something weird and wonderful happened on my farm today.. a ewe had 2 lambs back at the beginning of April.. she has been out with the other mothering sheep for the past 2 and half weeks. This morning this same ewe gave birth to two more lambs. Has anyone ever heard of this before? Very very strangely
 
hi all, something weird and wonderful happened on my farm today.. a ewe had 2 lambs back at the beginning of April.. she has been out with the other mothering sheep for the past 2 and half weeks. This morning this same ewe gave birth to two more lambs. Has anyone ever heard of this before? Very very strangely
She's nicked another ewe's lambs first time now lambed her own ... make sure the new lambs get a belly full of colostrum from somewhere
 

unlacedgecko

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Fife
hi all, something weird and wonderful happened on my farm today.. a ewe had 2 lambs back at the beginning of April.. she has been out with the other mothering sheep for the past 2 and half weeks. This morning this same ewe gave birth to two more lambs. Has anyone ever heard of this before? Very very strangely

@MJT did you sell this ewe? 😂
 

Sheepbadge

Member
Livestock Farmer
Depends on length and width etc but £2.5 - £3 sq/ft
Seems reasonable would cost nearly double in straw working on what’s been discussed further up the thread. Would that price include the beams? What sort of distance can the beams span without being propped in the middle?
 

StormurShepherd

Member
Livestock Farmer
The farm I worked on in Iceland and others I was shown photos of, all used slats, albeit wooden ones. The newer sheep sheds are built with the plastic slats mind you. House from November to May and saw no foot issues in the 800 or so there.

As previous posters have said, you save loads of money on straw, which is rare as hell in Iceland to start with. The only maintenance I had to do was use a 7ft long scraper/pokey tool between a few slats if any haylage/poop mix blocked a hole. I'd scrape each slatted bonding pen out between each set of ewe + lambs, followed by sanitising powder. and bit of sawdust on top. Much easier than concrete or dirt shed floors.

Much preferred this system to any I worked with before or since.
 

case 5140

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Lleyn peninsula
I had 400 ewes in from end of dec started lambing end feb done by april ,used under 20 rounds of straw, mix of sheds and polytunnels. Slats would cost a lot more than straw for me! all sheds are dirt floor too!.
 

DanM

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
West Country
500 of my ewes are on plastic slats from the end of November until lambing time in March, zero lameness, they are only dear the day you buy them, if o had all ewes on straw this year we wouldn't have been able to source enough straw it's gone that scarce

Do you have any photos of how your slats are supported/suspended?
 

Paul86

Member
The Plastic slats I have here, this is how their supported. 6x4 concrete lentils running between the pillars.
Snapchat-1753836326.jpg
 

Paul86

Member
the slats are supported with fibre glass runners over a 4foot6 deep tank with 8ft agitation points a spine wall runs up the centre of each tank with gaps at each end to allow the slurry to circulate when mixing, tanks are half full of pig slurry at the moment View attachment 958880
The tanks I have with timber slats are done the same way with the wall up the middle and the opening at each end for it to circulate. Very easy to mix, no solids like cattle slurry and its serious stuff to grow grass even without the pig slurry.
 

Sheep92

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Ireland
The tanks I have with timber slats are done the same way with the wall up the middle and the opening at each end for it to circulate. Very easy to mix, no solids like cattle slurry and its serious stuff to grow grass even without the pig slurry.
I was advised to go that route to leave it easier mixed, glad I did now
 

Sheep92

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Ireland
Absolutely beautiful shed. You have b&b pigs in the summer?
Thank you, that shed originally just had a gravel floor and was straw bedded, dug the tanks and made a better job of it. No not yet anyway, used for handling sheep all summer and finish lambs in it in the back end as well
 

Sheep92

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Ireland
Thank you, that shed originally just had a gravel floor and was straw bedded, dug the tanks and made a better job of it. No not yet anyway, used for handling sheep all summer and finish lambs in it in the back end as well
I should add, the shed allows us to winter the ewes relatively cheaply on good pit silage compared to renting a lot of winter grazing which has become stupidly expensive and almost non existent now in this area
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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