Twin Willows Farm - Cleaner
Fleece Sheep Feeders
People
ask me all the time how we keep our fleeces so free of VM (vegetable
matter). Feeders that prevent the sheep from wallowing in the
hay
are the key.
  Here are
two feeders I am using with my flock of Border
Leicesters.
It's not a perfect system, there is some waste, but not a
terrible amount and more importantly, this keeps most of the VM out of
the fleeces, except the top of the neck.
What you see here are two feeders side by side. One is 8' and
the other 6', because that's what fits here in my barn.
You can
make them any size you need. The feeders are only attached to
the
combo panels by baling twine. They can be taken down and
moved to
any hog panel or combo panel where I need them.
  Since we
run pigs in the
barn after the sheep go out in the spring, this means I can
move the feeders out of the way of the pigs. That
also means that what waste there is will be eaten up later, by the
pigs :)
You can see that I used a very flimsy 1/4" plywood for the
backing, if I was buying materials, I'd get 1/2", but I had the 1/4"
laying around. First rule of farming, use what you have on
hand.
My 2"x 4" are all actual size, we're lucky to have an
Amish neighbor with a sawmill who sells rough-cut boards.
Standard 2"x 4" will work fine.
I ran
one along the bottom for the flakes of hay to sit on. The
others are just for supports.
 
Sizes
would depend on your breed. I wanted
that
bottom board even with the bottom of my Border Leicester's
necks.
That height works well. They don't get wool out
onto the
backs
of their neighbors this way.
These feeders work so well because the sheep do not have to
put their whole heads in the feeder to reach their hay.
Mature
sheep will only poke their noses in
to get a mouthful of hay. This prevents the hay from being
pulled
out in large bunches and dropped on the ground or a neighbor.
The
back is close enough to the panel that wide flakes don't settle all the
way
to the 2"x 4" bottom until they get eaten away a bit.
I'm sorry I don't have any real "plans", I just cobbled these together
but
I like them! I used to use a similar feeder, but it wasn't
portable. This is better.
Contact Pegg
Thomas at twinwillowsfarm@gmail.com.
|
|
|
Twin
Willows Farm
