Sean Hoban farms out past Westport in Co Mayo. He keeps a flock of 170 ewes, 120 of which are Mayo-Connemara Blackface mountain ewes. The remainder of the flock are lowland breeds. Sean recently made a major investment in his sheep housing facilities to streamline flock management.

“My wife works full-time off the farm so I balance farming with minding our three children,” Sean said. “Before the shed was built I used to be out feeding meal to ewes in the runup to lambing on hills. You could be slipping about the place in the bad weather. It was just not safe going around with a head lamp.

“It was a double-edged sword – we would have the ewes in the fields near the yard in the runup to lambing to make it easier to feed, but then we wouldn’t have any grass on these fields after lambing so in the end I was feeding more meal after lambing too.”

Sean has seen a big difference this year, with ewes and lambs turned out to strong grass covers after lambing.

“It was the first year that I didn’t have to feed meal to ewes after lambing, I know it was a good winter for grass growth, but any other year we would have the grass ate.”

The farm has also had difficulties with grey crows attacking young lambs.

“They can be a massive problem around here, especially with twin- or triplet-bearing ewes. They would attack the weak ones and can cause considerable losses. At least with the shed they can stay housed until they are strong enough,” Sean said.

“It is also the first year that we haven’t had ewes put their bed out after lambing and I am putting that down to the shed as we would have very hilly land here which can make ewes more susceptible.”

Picture one

The shed was completed towards the end of February, with ewes being housed from 1 March 2019.

“We start lambing from the beginning of April so we just got in on time for feeding the twin- and triplet-bearing ewes. We had been feeding for a few weeks before they were put into the new shed,” Sean said.

“I had a good idea of the design I wanted in the shed I wanted a mixture of large group pens and smaller pens that I could group twin- and triplet-bearing ewes together for different feeding rates.”

Air movement was also important for Sean, who wanted to ensure good ventilation in the shed.

He said: “170-ewes sharing the one airspace can be a lot. I wanted the shed to be fresh when you come into it.”

The decision was made to construct the shed adjoining an existing handling unit and shed. However, this meant a lot of groundworks were required to dig out the hill where the new shed now sits. This added considerably to the overall costs of the shed.

Picture two

The new shed is 17m wide and 14.4m, or three bays long. On one side there are three large group pens while the other side is broken down into a series of smaller pens. The shed stands at 3.6m to the eaves and rises to 6.4m at the apex.

As the shed was put up with the help of a Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) grant, there are ventilation requirements that must form part of the design. As the shed is more than 15m wide, there is the requirement to leave a continuous opening directly beneath the eaves of 600mm.

However, where vented sheeting is in place for a depth of at least 1.5m, the opening can be reduced to 300mm as was the case with this shed.

The opening at the apex of the shed must be 600mm wide, due to the width of the shed, and the raised ridge cap must be at least 350mm from the roof of the shed.

Access is provided to the shed through a large sliding door at the front of the shed, while there is also a smaller access door in place.

Pictures three to five

On one side of the shed there are three large group pens. Walkthrough troughs are in place to allow all ewes in the pens to eat at once (picture four).

“We kept the majority of the mountain ewes on this side of the shed this year and it could hold over 90 ewes. You would get just less than 30 in the two smaller pens while you could fit nearly 40 ewes in the middle pen,” Sean outlined.

Pens are 6.2m deep with sheep slats in place. The two edge pens are 4.2m wide, with feeding on two sides. Total feed space for these pens is 10.4m. Floor area for these pens is 26m2.

For 50kg ewes the recommended area on slats is 1m2 (this is less if ewes are shorn) which would mean each of these pens can hold 26 ewes. Feed space requirements for meal is 400mm, which again would mean there is space for 26 ewes in each of these pens.

The centre pen is 4.8m wide and has feeding on three sides. This gives total feed space of 16.6m, with a floor area of approximately 30m2. Feed space in this pen could cater for 41 ewes if required.

Two of the pens can be linked together using a 5ft sheep hurdle which means ewes can be managed in a large group, or move between pens easily (picture five).

Individual water drinkers are in place in each pen. There is a 5.1m wide tank in place on both sides of the shed with a spine wall running down through the tanks.

The tanks are 15.8m long and are 1.2m deep, while the sump area at the agitation point is 2m deep to facilitate agitating.

Pictures six and seven

On the other side of the 4m wide feed passage is another set of slatted pens. However, these are designed to cater for smaller groups.

“The smaller pens for the doubles and the triplets mean that I can control the feeding. These pens generally hold the crossbred Mule-type ewes, which we would have about 50 of,” Sean said. “We only have the crossbred ewes for the past 10 years but they can leave as much after them as the mountain ewes.”

There are four smaller pens, each measuring 2.3m wide and 6.2m deep. Each of these pens has feeding on two sides. Each pen has a floor space of 14m2 while they have feeding space of 8.5m.

The remaining span of the shed on this side of the passageway was setup with lambing pens this spring but Sean has plans to install a walkthrough trough to allow a large group of ewes to be housed here.

While the majority of the land is mountain type there are some decent lowland fields that the crossbred ewes are kept on for a lot of the year. That said, any of the crossbred ewes that have been weaned have gone up to the hill and won’t come back down until 15 October according to Sean. Last year the Mule-type ewes scanned at 1.94 while the Mayo-Connemara ewes scanned at 1.2.

Investment

While the shed was a considerable investment for the farm, it is one that Sean believes will ensure he can stay sheep farming.

“The shed has to work for you besides just lambing. It can’t just be used for six to eight weeks of the year. We also use it for shearing and weighing among other jobs.

Sean Hoban farm near Liscarney, Westport, Co Mayo.

“Last week we were weaning lambs and we were able to put the ewes in for a week and feed them hay to help dry them off, it just makes management much easier,” Sean said.

“As the household is not relying on the farm as the sole source of income it means that I can direct some of the farm payments to help pay for the new shed. Having good facilities really does take the slavery out of the job.”

The plans for the shed, as well as the planning permission, TAMS application and payment claim were all completed by Carroll Consultancy from Swinford, Co Mayo.

The reference cost for such a shed according to TAMS reference costs, is €68,000 excluding VAT. However, one issue with these reference costs is that they do not take into account any groundworks that are required for a development. As Sean is a general applicant he will be eligible for a 40% grant aid on the reference costs of €68,000, or €27,000. The total cost of the shed will work out at approximately €110,000 including VAT. Between VAT and grant aid Sean expects to receive approximately €45,000 back which will leave the net cost at €65,000. The entire project was completed by TRD Carpentry and Roofing. Penning was supplied by Cormac Sheep Equipment, while the shed came from Halcon Steel. Plastic sheep slats were supplied by Jetwash International Ltd.