Next up in the Back in Focus series sees Agriland revisit a trip down to Co. Kerry to check out a four-bay slatted sheep unit.

The shed, which was built in time to house sheep at the beginning of 2021, belongs to Claire O’Connor, who runs a dry hogget system on her 20ac farm.

Claire currently keeps a flock of just over 70 sheep, with 66 of those consisting of dry hoggets. A handful of ewes and lambs also reside on the farm.

Up until the slatted shed was erected, Claire was housing her sheep in sheds on her father’s farm that would have been home to cattle in the past. In recent years, she had also been outwintering her stock.

However, biting the bullet in 2020, Claire decided to streamline the farm and make the winters that bit easier by having a standalone shed that would house all her sheep, incorporating have handling facilities to carry out any routine jobs like footbathing.

Claire’s hogget ewes

Speaking to Agriland inside the new shed, Claire said: “I had been debating putting up a shed for a few years and in 2020 I decided to bite the bullet.

“Between housing the sheep up in my father’s yard and then outwintering them for a few years, I felt it was time to have a shed to keep them in and make my life easier during the winters.

“I run a simple system where I buy in ewe lambs, generally Texel-cross Cheviot ewe lambs, and sell them on as hogget ewes to customers in Cork mainly.

“I wanted a shed that I could obviously house the sheep in but have it set up that I can run them and carry out any routine jobs on them, such as dosing and footbathing, while having it big enough to store hay to feed the sheep with in the winter.”

Layout

The new sheep shed was built on what was once the site of a pig unit. Therefore, it meant that not a huge amount of digging work was required, except for digging out the tank for the new shed.

The new slatted shed measures 64ft long and 30ft wide. The two outer slatted pens measure 5.22m wide and 4m long, while the two centre slatted pens measure 4.62m wide and 4m long, respectively. The slatted tank measures 5ft deep.

Sheep can be moved between the two centre pens without having to exit at the front of the pen, as two gates fixed to a post were hung to allow Claire to move sheep between the two pens.

Moreover, sheep can be moved to the pens at either end of the shed at the back of the centre pens, which are also incorporated as part of the handling race.

The walkthrough troughs measure 760mm wide and 4.62m long. the handling race at the back, which covers the width of the two centre pens, measures 6.5m long and 600mm wide.

The feed barriers measure 3.05m long, while the small access gate into the pen which also double up as a feed barrier measures 940mm wide.

The feeding passageway measures 3.9m wide and 18.8m long.

Internal layout of the shed. Design source: O’Donovan Engineering

Features of the four-bay slatted shed

Looking at the features of the four-bay slatted unit, it includes, as mentioned, four pens that have a capacity to hold 25 sheep each.

This winter gone by, however, Claire had roughly 16-17 sheep/pen.

As you walk into the shed, either by opening the sliding door or by opening a standard six-bar gate with mesh fitted on it to keep out any wandering dogs out of the shed, you are met with a feeding passageway that doubles up as storage area for the square bales of hay that the sheep are fed.

The entire inside of the shed was kitted out by O’Donovan Engineering based in Co. Cork, with Claire’s nephew Tadhg Ferriter fitting all the gates, barriers, drinkers and slats.

Each pen was fitted with horizontal feed barriers that are height adjustable andthat have stockboard fitted at the bottom. To gain easy and quick access to each pen, an access independent of the feed barrier next to it was installed.

This access gate doubles up as extra feed space as it is the same in makeup of the main feed barrier.

Sheep can be let out of each pen either through the small access gate or out through the main feed barrier (as can be seen below).

To increase feed space in the shed, Claire opted to install walkthrough troughs, which means each pen has two sides in which sheep can be fed from.

In order to feed meal to the sheep and also to be able to walk along the walkthrough without standing on the meal and dirtying the feeding area, Claire put another timber board on top of the already existing middle board.

Looking to the inside of the pens, plastic slats were fitted into each pen. Claire said that the sheep are very happy on the plastic slats and while they are being fed hay, they stay very clean. Hayracks can also be found in the pens.

At the back on each pen, a small water trough was installed, with each drinker hooked up to a water tank outside the shed.

The feature of the unit that caught my eye the most was the handling unit at the back of the shed inside, spanning across the two centre pens.

Claire, as mentioned already, wanted to have a handling unit incorporated into the shed, rather than having one set up outside the shed or even a mobile unit.

So, she decided on incorporating one at the back of the shed, that takes up very little space and connects up to all four pens of the shed.

Sheep can enter the race from any of the four pens. This is facilitated by not having the walkthrough trough spanning the length of the pen.

Instead, it falls short of reaching the back wall of the shed by 600mm. This allows for the sheep to access the race through either of the outer pens.

A wider gate, spanning 740mm, was hung in both centre pens for sheep to enter/exit the race.

Looking at the race itself, the gates where sheep enter and exit the race are operated using a rope pulley mechanism.

The race can be slit in two, with a gate fitted in the middle of the race which folds back to the wall.

One half of the race consists of a footbath and by having the gate in the middle of the race it prevents the sheep who are in the footbath from walking back towards the other side of the race, away from the footbath. The other half of the race is used to carry out routine jobs such as dosing.

Yorkshire boarding was installed on one side of the shed, while on the other standard galvanised sheeting was installed.

However, on this side of the shed, where the galvanised sheeting is, in order to increase airflow in and out of the shed, the sheeting slopes out from the eaves to the top of the walls of the shed.

Furthermore, skylights were installed in each of the four bays of the shed, in order to brighten up the inside.

Cost

Claire decided to fund the cost of the build herself, opting not to apply for a grant under the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS II).

Having begun construction of the build in April 2020, and with it ready for sheep to be housed at the start of 2021, Claire managed to build a fine-spec shed just in time before the cost of building materials soared. She said if it was to be built now, it could have cost an extra €20,000-30,000.

The shed is standing to Claire at €49,150, including VAT.

Cost breakdown of the shed:

  • Groundswork: €1,250;
  • Tank and concrete floor: €7,800;
  • Shed itself including shuttered walls and steel frame: €30,000;
  • Gates, barriers, drinkers and handling race: €5,750;
  • Plastic slats: €4,350.

Kennedy Plant Hire carried out the groundswork; Conor Hanifin Agri stood the tank of the shed and laid the concrete floors; and Diarmuid O’Sullivan of OS Engineering stood the walls and frame of the shed with Tadhg.

Claire gave a special mention to her nephew, Tadhg Ferriter, for getting the shed fully ready for sheep to be housed at the start of last year.

Looking back on her decision to bite the bullet, Claire said she is very happy she went ahead and built the shed.

She added: “It’s not just me who’s happy with the new shed, the sheep are very content in it, and now the days of feeding outside during the winter or having to move them up to another yard is over.

“It’s been a joy to work in and make use of since I got to move the sheep into it last year.”