Many sheep farms across the country operate with limited labour. There may only be one labour unit, so routine management tasks like drafting lambs and worming can become difficult to implement or can take up the best part of the working day.

Purpose-built sheep handling facilities or mobile handling equipment can take a lot of the headache and backache out of handling ewes and lambs.

While building pens can be expensive, they are an investment that will repay the farmer in many ways. Freeing up time by speeding up handling tasks provides much valuable time to be spent on other tasks, such as grassland management.

Where labour is limited, many tasks, such as drafting lambs, are carried out at weekends or late evening when there is a family member or neighbour available to lend a much-needed hand.

With purpose-built handling pens, drafting can be carried out regularly with one labour unit. Increased drafting will reduce the number of overweight lambs going to the factory, which the farm is not paid for.

Patrick Gallagher farms 350 ewes on 190 acres with his wife Louise at Galdonagh, Manorhamilton, Co Donegal. In 2008, he built a new handling facility for his lowland farm and it has greatly eased the workload on farm. This series of photographs outlines some of the main features he installed.

Picture 1

A circular forcing pen was built and serves as the central hub of the unit. Many forcing pens are built at one end of a unit and, while useful, they can be potentially under-utilised. The forcing pen feeds the sheep dipper, foot bath and two races for dosing, tagging, etc. It also feeds the loading pen for livestock trailers.

Picture 2

A turnover crate was installed on one race to make it easier for paring sheep’s feet. The crate is removable and can be used elsewhere in the unit or on an outfarm if required.

The crate means the mature ewes and rams can be safely handled by the operator. As sheep are not tipped up onto their hindquarters, the fleece is not soiled, which increases the risk of blowfly.

Picture 3

The main drafting race has a guillotine gate operated by a pulley that is accessible at either end of the race. This makes it easy for loading lambs when operated by a single person.

The weighbridge links into the race. It also serves as a footbath and can hold 25 mature ewes in one pass. The entire breeding flock can be footbathed and dosed in under two hours.

Picture 4

This dividing gate is designed for a one-person unit. The exit gate on the race can open overhead as a guillotine gate, or as a hinged gate. There are three exits for sheep – straight ahead, left or right – and all exits are operated by the overhead ropes.

Picture 5

Sheep are still dipped via a plunge bath. Patrick opted for a round bath, as it required less space than the traditional bath. There is a guillotine gate on the left-hand exit of the bath, which is used to prevent sheep from exiting too early from the bath.

Picture 6

Exit and entry gates open by sliding action, rather than on a hinge. This makes it easier for the operator to move sheep out of a pen when they are caught, rather than trying to open a hinge gate while holding a mature ewe.