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Know How / Sheep / Housing and handling

Well-planned sheep housing and handling systems improve flock productivity, health and welfare. Find information on lambing pen hygiene and construction, race design, drafting pens, foot-baths, weigh scales and electronic identification (EID) equipment.

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Case studies

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LAMBING

How colostrum and new shed helped cut lamb mortality

Meticulous colostrum feeding and a new lambing shed have helped cut mortality and eradicate cases of watery mouth in an organic March-lambing flock. Mortality has fallen from 26% to 17%…

LAMBING

Purpose-built hut reduces lambing intervention on mixed farm

A purpose-built hut set on a raised platform in the centre of the lambing shed is proving the ideal solution for a father and son to keep a careful eye…

HOUSING AND HANDLING

Slatted sheep shed builds resilience into upland farm

Investing in a slatted sheep house has enabled a Scottish upland sheep and beef farm to see the full effect of a breed change, while controlling labour and input costs. …

SHEEP

How an Oxfordshire sheep unit sells 1.92 lambs per ewe

An early-lambing flock is achieving feed conversion rates of 2.5:1 and is selling 1.92 lambs per ewe. Michael Priestley visited Warborough Farm with the Nuffield Beef and Sheep Group to…

LAMBING

How one farmer is delivering 1.8 lambs sold per ewe

Challenging grazing conditions posed by Cotswold brash stony soils that climb up to steep inclines of 750ft make running a low-input, grass-based system untenable at Church Farm in North Stoke.…

WHATS IN YOUR LIVESTOCK SHED

What’s in Your Livestock Shed? visits a £65,000 lambing shed

Doubling housing capacity by building a shed for 600 ewes is allowing a Carmarthenshire sheep enterprise to concentrate its lambing period in an eight-week block. Ben Anthony and Diana Fairclough…

Practical advice

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HOUSING AND HANDLING

6 tips to get best value from a portable sheep yard

Efficient use of a mobile sheep-handling yard can help reduce stress and fatigue, and lower fixed costs, benefiting sheep, dogs and staff. Grant funding has helped more UK farms benefit…

LIVESTOCK DISEASES

What can be done to prevent bluetongue virus?

Insecticides and repellents will not prevent cattle and sheep from being infected with bluetongue virus, scientists are warning. Bluetongue virus (BTV) is an infectious, non-contagious virus spread by Culicoides biting…

LAMBING

Video: How to successfully wet-adopt a lamb

Smell is the most important factor in the successful adoption of a lamb. This makes wet adoption, where the ewe’s birth fluid is rubbed on the lamb to be adopted,…

LIVESTOCK

Video: How to take an integrated approach to rodent control

The best way to deal with rat infestations is not to have them in the first place. Waiting until you see rats running around the farm is too late. Every…

BEEF

How a dedicated isolation unit helped a calf-rearing business

Setting up a dedicated TB isolation unit and selling weaned calves has allowed Farmers Weekly Young Farmer of the Year Bertie Newman to increase output on his 607ha (1,499-acre) organic…

HOUSING AND HANDLING

Alternative bedding for sheep: What to consider

Materials used to bed sheep at lambing must deliver on comfort but other considerations are needed, not least protecting the ewe and her lambs from potentially harmful organisms. Straw is…

Insights

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LIVESTOCK

How rising costs threaten future of Icelandic sheep farming

Tough and resilient – the farmers in Iceland are much like the sheep they have bred to cope with the rugged terrain and sub-Arctic winter conditions. But many, like 44-year-old…