Sheep feeder: top 4 designs, sizes and how to do it yourself
In summer, sheep flocks graze in meadows and glades, where juicy herbs reign. In autumn and winter, it is the turn to feed small livestock with stocked hay, silage, mixed fodder, root crops and grain crops. To make the food metered and comfortable, summer residents put feeders for sheep. There are several types and designs of fixture.
Description and types of feeders for sheep
According to the installation method, fixtures are divided into 3 types. This is:
- Capital constructions. They are mounted in a designated area of the sheepfold or on a pasture. The superstructure of the stationary feeder is rigidly attached to the base.
- Mobile devices. They are used to feed the flock, which was driven away for distant grazing. There, cattle are regularly moved from one place to another. Portable structures are quickly dismantled and transported behind the herd.
- Universal devices. Combine the parameters of stationary and portable feeders. They can be securely fastened to the floors of the sheepfold or pasture soil. When the flock is transported to the next place or to a new room, the structure is dismantled and transferred after the animals.
The structure of the feeder depends on the type of food used. There are two types of devices:
- nursery, arenas, reptuhi for fresh and dry grass (hay);
- tanks, bins for grain, silage (chopped succulent vegetation), gourds and root crops.
Materials for making feeders:
- plastic;
- concrete gutters;
- boards, wooden beams;
- bricks;
- sheet, profiled and pipe metal.
Types of feeders:
Where to buy ready-made version?
It is difficult to buy a ready-made feeder for sheep and rams in online stores. There are few options out there. So, on some farm portals (for example, Agroserver) mounted plastic bins are sold, equipped with a 0.33 × 0.28 m lid. However, a cursory examination is enough to understand that they are unreliable and fragile.
The Avito aggregator publishes many ads for the sale of high-quality plastic containers and steel crèches. However, their price is relatively high.
A good option is to buy a feeder or reptuh (mesh sack made of linen, rope) at a farm store for less money. The choice in it is small, but the products can be returned or exchanged.
How to make a feeder with your own hands
Now there is a shortage of quality ready-made feeders. Therefore, the best option is to make it yourself.
Wooden
For a lumber feeder you will need:
| Support posts | 4 bars 125 cm long and 6×6 |
| Bottom lintels | 2 planks 200 cm long and 5×5 |
| Top rail | 2 slats 200 cm long and 5×5 |
| 14 planks 60 cm long and 4×4 | |
| Nails and self-tapping screws in sufficient quantities | |
Easiest lumber hay nursery option:
 | 4 bars 1.25 m long and 6 × 6 cm in section are cut off. They are knocked down in pairs crosswise. The resulting racks look like the letter X.|
 | Supports are placed vertically on two ends and opposite each other. On both sides of the center of the crosses, the crossbars are screwed with self-tapping screws. The material for them is bars 2 m long and 5 × 5 cm in section.|
 | The same stiffening lintels are screwed on top of the supports. |
 | For the crate, slats 60 cm long and 4 × 4 are taken. They are nailed vertically to the upper and lower lintels, in 0.25 m increments.
Manezhnaya
Some farmers and summer residents use a witty life hack.They use as a feeder a playpen made of wood, plastic, aluminum. It rises 50 cm above the ground or the floor of the sheepfold. When the crate of the wooden arena is too frequent, every second rail is dismantled. In this case, the sheep will be able to freely stick their heads to the feed.
If there is no old arena, its likeness can be knocked down from lumber or welded from pipes.
Bunker
The bunker is a stationary feeder with an inclined platform. It makes it possible to give the animals a certain feeding on a weekly basis. The design is hung on one of the walls of the sheepfold. She plays the role of the rear wall of the structure. The facade of the device is lattice. Its slats are mounted at intervals slightly larger than the size of an adult sheep's head.
In the inner space of the feeder, a wooden or metal slope is placed. On it, the food will slide to the crate.
How to make a combination feeder:
Metal
For the installation of a metal nursery, 2 sections of a tubular picket fence are needed. These blanks are welded to each other at an angle of 90º using electric welding. The resulting letter V is placed on the base of a large steel trough. Then it is attached to it in several places by welding.
The resulting device is durable, practical and very effective when feeding sheep with dry and fresh herbs.
The only drawback of the design is that it is made of relatively expensive material.
S alt feeders
A trough-shaped device for silage, grain, s alt is made from supporting vertical bars. The bottom of the boards, the crate or walls and the groove are nailed to them. The gaps between the rails of the fence are 0.1 m. Planks are stuffed with an internal slope.
The depth of the groove is 0.12 m, the width at the top is 0.15 m, at the bottom is 0.13. So that the sheep do not scatter loose feed and s alt, planks are nailed in the upper part of the trough with a step of 25 cm.
Making a drinker
Sheep need not only feed, but also water. Therefore, they need to be watered periodically. The easiest adaptation for this:
 | A few old truck tires are taken, cut lengthwise and in half with an electric jigsaw. |
 | Smaller tires from passenger cars are inserted into the holes of the ramps. This is done by half their width. Before that, you need to select products that are suitable for the cross section. |
 | Both structural elements are pierced in several places with an awl and screwed to each other with pieces of wire. |
 | The resulting drinkers are placed around the sheepfold and filled with water. |
For watering lambs, plastic eggplants are ideal, equipped with a nipple-nipple on the neck. You can find them at any pet store.
To feed all the babies at the same time, you can take a narrow trough-shaped feeder and make round holes in both of its walls. Insert bottles into them and secure them. So you can not only water the lambs, but also feed very small animals with milk.
How to make an autodrinker:
Farmer Mistakes
Inexperienced summer residents and farmers make a number of mistakes when feeding and watering small livestock. Here are the most common ones:
- There are no drinkers near the feeders. Some breeders are convinced that cattle do not need to be provided with moisture in winter, because they eat snow. This is the wrong approach. Frozen and thus purified water contains very few microelements necessary for sheep.
- There is no drainage near the drinkers. The liquid spills out of them, sometimes the sheep of the device is generally turned over. Sheepfold dirt floors cannot fully absorb moisture. Slush forms on them, which the sheep mix with their feces. This liquid mud is an ideal environment for pathogenic and putrefactive microorganisms.
- There is no proper care for feeders. A lot of stuck food remains in dirty fixtures. It begins to decompose, harmful microbes start in it. This causes the animals to have digestive problems or get sick.
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