New sheep shed.. slats? feed barriers? Suggestions?

Tommy700

Member
Well lads how are yee all.. hopefully in the summer I’ll be putting up a sheep shed and plan to make it as easy as possible for feeding and bedding/slats ect.. Iv yet to see sheep slats in my part just wondering has anyone on here any pictures of how they designed there’s.. is slats a success with Feed barriers or do they tend to pull too much in and trample it ? Iv an off farm job so this is why I need it to be as efficient as possible. The sheds 60x60 but has a row of pillars up through the middle was thinking slats maybe on one side pens on the other.. it’ll be our second sheep shed as we have one a tad smaller already.. I’d appreciate any tips or pics you have.. thanks
 
Pictures here.


Also talked about here.

 
Don't go spending on posh galv feed barriers.
Ours are made up of 10 inch wood beams.
Then two lengths of 50x50 box sectiom bolted to the girders.
Some of it it 30 yrs old and more chance of it wearing through than rusting!

Same goes for the pens. Buy gates and use twine to hang any that don't need to be opened often.
Then you have gates to make a handling system in the summer. Rather than spend on a mobile one like is in fashion at the moment.
 
What AYF has said above is a good point, have older sheds here with timber feed barriers bolted to the uprights and they are perfect. Last shed was done in galvanise but were home made. It's the same with the slats, plastic works out at 1k a bay roughly and timber slats 300 a bay. Ya will get a good 10 years out of the timber slats. I can get ya some pictures of the timber barriers if ya want
 
Yeah I agree with going mad on spending money on galvanised ones prices are good this weather but not that good anything that’ll be going up I’ll be making it myself.. would their be any need of an adjustable bar on the barriers for bigger ewes compared to hoggets?. No one down here has slats I’d like to see them myself.. have you a tank or what have ya underneath? I think I’d much rather a race and built in foot bath than a mobile race lowland breeds forever have footroth..another thing I wanted to know with slats would it help with that even tho I bed heavily to avoid it.. pictures would be great whenever you get a chance. What kinda way do you run the water to them?
 
For the green cert we visited this shed conversion a few years ago, he said he used to go in every day with a leaf rake and just clean the slats off, one complaint he said was throwing silage up the trough's in the middle, it's built on 2 row of blocks and that was a yrs worth of dung. He lifts them by hand and cleans out with the front loader, I don't know exact figures but it was a relatively cheap setup as the shed and floor were already there..... I'm in 2 minds myself as to do a similar job to a 30x30 here or uproute it and build a new shuttered tank to allow an agitator and have a better passageway and all facilities in one shed when and hope that I get the 60% grant.... Just have to do the sums and see what's the best route.
Anyway pics....
 

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For the green cert we visited this shed conversion a few years ago, he said he used to go in every day with a leaf rake and just clean the slats off, one complaint he said was throwing silage up the trough's in the middle, it's built on 2 row of blocks and that was a yrs worth of dung. He lifts them by hand and cleans out with the front loader, I don't know exact figures but it was a relatively cheap setup as the shed and floor were already there..... I'm in 2 minds myself as to do a similar job to a 30x30 here or uproute it and build a new shuttered tank to allow an agitator and have a better passageway and all facilities in one shed when and hope that I get the 60% grant.... Just have to do the sums and see what's the best route.
Anyway pics....
This is the kind of setup I was thinking about but have the pens/slats fixed onto a frame that you could move with the loader,this would mean you wouldn’t even need a concrete floor to stand them on.
 
Screenshot_20210219-150212_Gallery.jpgScreenshot_20210219-150208_Gallery.jpg
Here's our feed barrier. The wood amounts to about a foot high.
Smaller hogets would pop through but we don't run any so not a bother
Would only need two extra holes to bolt em lower down.
Sheep don't have less lambs because their feed barrier isn't galvanised!
As for water. Small troughs are best. Far far easier to keep clean. I think ours hold about 5L. So scooping into a lick bucket means that a bucket can hold plenty to really clean them.
 
This is the kind of setup I was thinking about but have the pens/slats fixed onto a frame that you could move with the loader,this would mean you wouldn’t even need a concrete floor to stand them on.

Anything is doable i suppose, i would image a 16ft odd wide section and 8ft deep would be easy moved and could be setup in any shed , bit of engineering but would definitely be an improvement , i don't think pulling up the slats one by one every year would appeal to me, but i would say a level floor would be a must going that way, you'd spend as long trying to shim it on unlevel ground.
 
That slat set up looks dead easy to do yourself.. Iv only started the green cert myself so it’ll be a while yet before I’ll be able to get the 60% grant for slats any anyways again I do the maths I’d probably do it a tad cheaper myself but then again the time is the problem especially when I hope to be using the shed next year.. they’d pay for themselves in a few years instead of using straw.. And this years straw ain’t too good compared to the year before it’s only getting worse in quality.. I was thinking of running the 4” pipe along both sides on maybe the slat side and pen side or is it a waste a time ? Dead right just because you get them dipped in galvanise is of no advantage especially while the barriers are indoors all there life.... an aul fella was telling me not to bother with concrete or slats just use straw on top of the hardcore says it’d be better soakage but concrete the passage and where the pens are.. now he has a fair point but I’d nearly rather have a good run off for water instead.. sheds done on 16ft spans would it be a waste of time putting a walk through trough and pedestrian Gate in too ? Yee have been a great help so far.. a picture paints a thousand words as the say..
 
Clearing out straw muck on hardcore is a serious pain.
Our main shed was soil floor till this year.
The concrete is a breeze in comparison.
For the first time we were able to muck out every few weeks. Less depth = less heat for bacteria and a harder surface for the ewes (in theory).
The shed is certainly airyer on a still day with less heat from the muck
 
Clearing out straw muck on hardcore is a serious pain.
Our main shed was soil floor till this year.
The concrete is a breeze in comparison.
For the first time we were able to muck out every few weeks. Less depth = less heat for bacteria and a harder surface for the ewes (in theory).
The shed is certainly airyer on a still day with less heat from the muck
Clay is definitely warmer though and you do get the drainage benefit. Concrete obviously a huge help for cleaning out though
 
Clay is definitely warmer though and you do get the drainage benefit. Concrete obviously a huge help for cleaning out though
If you threw some water on that clay it would stand there for an awful long time.
Not seen any difference regarding drainage.

Hardcore would be better I suppose.
 
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If you threw some water on that clay it would stand there for an awful long time.
Not seen any difference regarding drainage.

Hardcore would be better I suppose.
Yes its hardcore I'm referring to I suppose really, even our clay would be very sandy so drainage would be good.
We have a cattle shed where one span didnt get concreted for a.few years, it was like a magnet for the cows, they'd be crammed in lying on that section and I put it down to warmer base than the concrete
 
Anything is doable i suppose, i would image a 16ft odd wide section and 8ft deep would be easy moved and could be setup in any shed , bit of engineering but would definitely be an improvement , i don't think pulling up the slats one by one every year would appeal to me, but i would say a level floor would be a must going that way, you'd spend as long trying to shim it on unlevel ground.
Over here you can buy 16’ galvanised motorway box barriers,they’d be a good starting point,could even have a couple of trailer jacks at a couple of corners for levelling.
 
When we had sheep here we put a piece of timer down and turned the gates upside down so they could feed through it, savage job as we used the shed for calving afterwards.
 
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Resurrecting a thread here, wondering if it might be possible to modify a link of a slatted shed for sheep, could you fitted slatted mats over cattle slats which were suitable for sheep?
 
Resurrecting a thread here, wondering if it might be possible to modify a link of a slatted shed for sheep, could you fitted slatted mats over cattle slats which were suitable for sheep?
How wide is the tank?
I know someone that done that here with the mats, the sheep were very dirty on them. Not enough space for the shit to go down.
 
Resurrecting a thread here, wondering if it might be possible to modify a link of a slatted shed for sheep, could you fitted slatted mats over cattle slats which were suitable for sheep?
A round bar in the gap and weld it to a piece of flat steel running in the opposite direction across the top of the slat
 
Sorry spell check 🙈 Terram membrane was half roll left over after stoning driveway n to house.
That’s a great idea, cheers 👍

Looks like next week’s weather is horrendous so probably not enough to leave Haybell outside with them , only forty ewes for now so il look about modifying the shed over the summer
 
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