Handling facilities which are well designed and allow tasks to be completed in a timely and safe manner generally encourage tasks such as weighing animals to be carried out more often or health treatments to be administered promptly when required.

Last week, the Irish Farmers Journal travelled to the hills of Donegal and met with Charlie Doherty from Carn Agri Products to see an example of one such design.

The company had recently finished a state-of-the-art sheep handling unit which was designed to allow a 120 ewe flock and their progeny to be handled in the unit by one person.

The flock is run on a farm with 50ac of lowland or semi-improved pasture, along with having a share in a 200ac block of mountain grazing.

The shed

The handling unit is located along the gable end of an existing shed measuring 45ft in length (13.72m) and is 24ft wide (7.32m). The positioning allows the gable wall of the shed to be used as one perimeter, reducing on this cost, and also provides some shelter.

As detailed in Figure 1, the unit is designed so that sheep move in an anti-clockwise direction.

Gates

Oone of the most beneficial aspects of the unit are the sliding gates. The unit is designed to be efficient with space and the sliding gates allow each pen to be filled to capacity side by side.

Sliding gates allow sheep move easily from one pen to the next.

This would not be possible with swinging gates, which would also put more stress on the operator when trying to move sheep from one pen to the next.

The fact that sliding gates were used allowed the right hand side of the race to be split into three pens ahead of the last forcing pen. This provides an opportunity to keep sheep pushed up towards the forcing unit and also bring the pens back into use for sheep exiting the race.

Charlie says that sometimes people are hesitant to include sliding gates over standard hurdles, as they are twice the cost. He explains that when people are trying to weigh up whether or not to include them, the best way to inform their decision is to visit a unit when sheep are being handled.

This advice applies to any component of a unit and is something Charlie is keen to stress as an important part in reaching the best design.

The forcing gate provides great control when filling the race.

Forcing pen

The forcing pen is installed in three units, with two sheeted circular gates and a small sheeted straight gate. The forcing gate can be closed at three positions.

Charlie explains this is generally sufficient for the flock, with the race typically capable of handling the number of sheep for each positional change of the forcing gate.

The forcing gate can run along a runner to sit parallel to the race if desired.

More closing points can be easily provided in the circular gate to meet a farmer’s personal preferences. The forcing gate is also on a runner, meaning it can be adjusted to sit parallel to the race if desired.

Race

The sheeted sides of the race aid in encouraging sheep to move with ease through the race. There is a guillotine gate at the back, which works great with the forcing pen. The insertion of an anti-backing gate midway along the race is also a great addition for a one-person setup.

The race has sides to aid flow of the sheep. There is a guillotine gate at the back and an anti-backing gate half way up along the race.

Sheep can be encouraged up along the race and cannot try and back out while the second half of the race is being filled. Two gates can be quickly removed, allowing an IAE rollover crate to be quickly incorporated into the race.

The race is also adjustable at the bottom, which makes it narrower, to allow for working with large numbers of lambs or smaller breeds of sheep.

The guillotine gate is a great addition for filling a race and cuts down on the stress of trying to open and close a swinging gate at this important position.

Drafting gate

A two-way drafting gate is present at the top of the unit. This drafts sheep into the first unit they accessed the unit by or into a batch footbath. Charlie explains that the batch footbath is again designed to hold the number of sheep in the race.

The two-way drafting gate allows stress free sorting of sheep.

This allows the farmer to fill the batch footbath with sheep and start working on the next batch. By the time this is complete, the sheep will have received a good treatment.

Cost of the unit

The entire handling unit satisfies Department of Agriculture specifications, with Charlie explaining that all gates are manufactured using high-spec 32mm tubing. The cost of this equipment fitted was €5,500 plus VAT. The IAE rollover crate cost €1,500 plus VAT, while a weighbridge set the farm back €800 plus VAT.

The whole yard area was also concreted with 100mm of concrete and this was costed at €3,500 including VAT.

The total costs for this build ended up at €11,300 plus VAT, including its design of the facility build and fitting.

The farm was approved under the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS II) for a grant of €5,000 excluding VAT for this job, which left the overall cost at over €6,300.

VAT has been excluded from the overall cost, as farmers not registered for VAT have an ability to claim back this cost.

Charlie comments that the rising cost of steel is now adding significant expenses to sheep handling equipment, with costs of materials and fittings increasing anywhere from 15% to 30%. He also comments that the value of grant aid through TAMS II has reduced on the back of an increase in costs.