SCORE! Sheep Handling Equipment

[Ridgetop]

For some reason my computer is acting weird. The top left picture is of the first double wooden stanchions DH made. The next on on the top right is of the portable stanchion with a sheep head, while the lower left picture above is of the portable with the dairy stanchion head and hoop for the grain bucket. I posted a lot more on my Ridgetop post.

 

[Mike CHS]

We were really surprised and disappointed when we started doing fecals. We had so many that indicated worming due to what seemed to be low FAMACHA scores that didn't need it and several that appeared to have high scores that did need it. We don't even bother doing FAMACHA anymore and see quite a few sheep producers that are seeing the same.

 

[Baymule]

Amazing. Utterly amazing. This is a fantastic tool for animal husbandry. I am beyond thrilled to know how to do this. It has, in one fecal test, totally changed how I view my flock and how to best manage it.

 

[Baymule]

Look what I got today!!! @Ridgetop, if you have packed one, you can unload it. Fill that space with something else vitally important.

Another Craigslist bargain. They were asking $250, BJ offered $200 and they took it. I am good at finding the bargains, BJ is good at getting the price down. This will keep me from being all bent over and having an aching back! So now we rig up the sorting gate and make a cowpanel chute to the stanchion, cause I sure got a terrible eye problem with my sheep happily walking up that ramp--I don't see that happening!

Bring on the shears @Ridgetop! We got a stanchion!

 

[Mike CHS]

I'm looking forward to videos of you getting that done.

 

[Baymule]

If it is anywhere near as much fun as running them through the chute, it ought to make the $100,000 winner on America's Funniest Videos!

 

[Mike CHS]

I had to go back and see how you have your entry into the chute set up. Are you just herding them along your fence into the chute or do you have a crowd pen? The reason I'm asking is there is a lot you can do in a crowd pen without running them all through the chute. We have two of our 30 adults that need to be wormed so we will move the lambs into the next paddock and call the 30 back into the entry stall with feed. I'll run them all (or most of them) into the crows pen and they are so tight that I can walk through the girls and give the drench to the two that need it. At that point they are done and I just open the gate to let them out.

 

[Baymule]

We have a small square pen before the chute. I guess that's the crowd pen, but I ain't got enough sheep to crowd.

Today we ran them through so we could worm the 4 ewes with the high count again. We are getting better at this and the sheep are getting more familiar with the chute. BJ thought we were done, I told him in 10 days we run them all through again, take fecals and see where we are. He looked at me and said WHY? Me-Because that's what we do. BJ-

 

[Mike CHS]

If I only have a few to work I have a piece of T-111 (?) that is about 4 feet long and only a couple of feet wide that is light enough that I can hold it parallel to the ground and use that as my sweep. I do have a 2x2 inch piece on one side to use as a handle. A funnel shape works better than a square since they have no corners to put their heads down in and anything you can use as a sweep works better. A buggy whip with some plastic trash bags works as good as a sweep. I guess you are seeing that once they have been through a time or two without being devoured by the wild ogres they don't mind too much.

 

[Baymule]

You could put a couple of these on your sweep board. I always keep a few of these around, I find all kinds of places to use them.