Monday, August 20, 2007
Sheep Feeder Issues...
Ya' know, we built this new sheep feeder a couple weeks ago. Last week we got the final parts (a couple of 4x4 screen panels) which are designed to limit how far into the hay the sheep can get their heads.
Well, after using it for a week, the sheep are still pretty pissed off. Seems we humans may not have ordered the right panels.
When you're a rookie at things, you can easily make mistakes just because you don't have anything to compare. Nothing provides a good education like a mistake... call it the "education process of learning by doing, and doing again in a different manner".
Yesterday, we had a dust/windstorm with sustained winds in excess of 30mph. Now, I thought turning the feeder due E/W so the sheep would have their backs to our "normal" southerly winds made good sense. It did, until this silly farmer had to fork the hay into the feeder from the north side.
I had alfalfa leaves in places no woman should ever have alfalfa!
The sheep are so pissed at me, they keep going over to our ram's area and reaching as far through the fence panels (8x8) as possible. Mind you, he gets exactly the same feed, so it's obviously a matter of access.
This week (tomorrow) we'll be removing the panels, and if I have my way, we'll also relocate this beautiful feeder adjacent to the entrance gate and place it more north/south. That should make things better on all accounts.
With the panels costing about $14 a piece, we'll re-think that process for a couple of months. Until the lambs are born, the current occupants are too large to crawl through the feeder and go walkabout.
When we get the job done, I'll post before and after pictures. Hopefully I'll show you happy sheep again.
Labels: Around the farm, Sheep
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