Might sound silly, but hauling in this heat will be hard. You could consider
hauling at night, without the sun beating down on the trailer. If you have an
SUV or van, putting the lambs inside the air-conditioned vehicle in dog
crates might make them more comfortable to haul. Also save a bit in
gas money not taking the trailer!! Tarp the floor, crates on top of tarp.
We had some 4-H kids who brought their little Shetland sheep to our
meetings in the crates, inside the air-conditioned van.
An option we use for the horses in heat, long hauls, is to ice the bedding.
This involves getting some bags of pine shaving bedding from the farm
store, to put on the floor of trailer. You want some depth to the bedding,
probably only going to use half or less of the trailer for lambs
anyway. I wouldn't open the bags until almost to the sheep farm, so
they don't blow around in travel. So a couple bags of shavings should be
enough for 2-3" depth in the trailer. Save the extra if not needed, for
use another time.
Then stop at a party store before you get to the sheep farm, get a 2-3 large
bags of ice Slice open the ice bags, dump them onto the spread shavings on
trailer floor. You then mix the ice into the shavings, get ice covered.
Continue on to the sheep farm and pick up the lambs, put them in on
the iced bedding. Lambs will get cooled off thru their hooves, laying on
the bedding, so any heat, high temps, will have less effect on them, should
lower travel stress.
I would give my lambs hay, hang a water bucket, for travel. Other folks
would rather not feed for travel. I figure if they will chew and eat, drink, they
will settle, get working on their cud to quiet down.
Our horses like the iced bedding, are much more comfortable traveling
in extreme heat, over hot roads. They arrive much "fresher", not
distressed when we finally get to our goal. Having cool or cold hooves
lowers the body temps a bit, which is real helpful with the work of riding
in a trailer and a hot day.
Do clean the iced bedding out of trailer soon, since the wet bedding,
enclosed trailer heat, can get molds going fast. We dump the damp/wet bedding
into stalls, horses use it, stalls are cleaned daily, so nothing is wasted.
Shavings or deep sawdust will keep the ice pretty frozen, even in the
summer heat. We have found the ice still solid when cleaning out the trailer
the next day, over 24 hours since we put ice in for a 100F day of hauling.
Horse was bright, alert, when he got home after 14+ hours of driving. One of
"THOSE" kind of road trips from H3LL !! We humans were whipped!!
hauling at night, without the sun beating down on the trailer. If you have an
SUV or van, putting the lambs inside the air-conditioned vehicle in dog
crates might make them more comfortable to haul. Also save a bit in
gas money not taking the trailer!! Tarp the floor, crates on top of tarp.
We had some 4-H kids who brought their little Shetland sheep to our
meetings in the crates, inside the air-conditioned van.
An option we use for the horses in heat, long hauls, is to ice the bedding.
This involves getting some bags of pine shaving bedding from the farm
store, to put on the floor of trailer. You want some depth to the bedding,
probably only going to use half or less of the trailer for lambs
anyway. I wouldn't open the bags until almost to the sheep farm, so
they don't blow around in travel. So a couple bags of shavings should be
enough for 2-3" depth in the trailer. Save the extra if not needed, for
use another time.
Then stop at a party store before you get to the sheep farm, get a 2-3 large
bags of ice Slice open the ice bags, dump them onto the spread shavings on
trailer floor. You then mix the ice into the shavings, get ice covered.
Continue on to the sheep farm and pick up the lambs, put them in on
the iced bedding. Lambs will get cooled off thru their hooves, laying on
the bedding, so any heat, high temps, will have less effect on them, should
lower travel stress.
I would give my lambs hay, hang a water bucket, for travel. Other folks
would rather not feed for travel. I figure if they will chew and eat, drink, they
will settle, get working on their cud to quiet down.
Our horses like the iced bedding, are much more comfortable traveling
in extreme heat, over hot roads. They arrive much "fresher", not
distressed when we finally get to our goal. Having cool or cold hooves
lowers the body temps a bit, which is real helpful with the work of riding
in a trailer and a hot day.
Do clean the iced bedding out of trailer soon, since the wet bedding,
enclosed trailer heat, can get molds going fast. We dump the damp/wet bedding
into stalls, horses use it, stalls are cleaned daily, so nothing is wasted.
Shavings or deep sawdust will keep the ice pretty frozen, even in the
summer heat. We have found the ice still solid when cleaning out the trailer
the next day, over 24 hours since we put ice in for a 100F day of hauling.
Horse was bright, alert, when he got home after 14+ hours of driving. One of
"THOSE" kind of road trips from H3LL !! We humans were whipped!!
