Watch: polytunnel – the low-cost option for housing sheep

Robert Bailey started farming in his own right in 2015 after he took on the lease of a local farm in Fethard, Co Tipperary. He is a busy man working by day in Coolmore Stud Farm and helps out on his father’s farm at home, while managing his own beef and sheep enterprise on the leased block.

Leased farm

On this leased farm, there was already an existing slatted cattle shed but unfortunately there was no sheep accommodation. Robert wanted to have a good supply of early grass for ewes and lambs in March after lambing. Having early grass in the spring would be an impossibility without a shed he felt. However, because the land was leased he did not want to go to big expense building a shed. There was an existing silage pit on the farm which presented a ready-made floor and walls for sheep accommodation. He looked into erecting a steel shed to cover this pit but with quotes exceeding €12,000, he felt that was not going to be the most feasible option.

From making some enquiries, he decided that polytunnels would be a good low-cost alternative. He got in contact with PJ Leavy from Leavy Polytunnels in Offaly who assessed the pit and confirmed that it would be suitable for a polytunnel installation.

The new polytunnel sits on top of the existing pit walls. The tunnel fits in nicely with the farmyard and on first glance you would easily mistake the plastic tunnel as an ordinary steel shed. Specially made steel plates allow the steel frame to be bolted down on the concrete walls securely. The silage pit is 32ft wide and 46ft long. It took four days to erect the tunnel. PJ says he buys the frame in lengths of straight steel piping. He then bends the pipes with pipe turners to suit each specific job. “The tunnel on Roberts’s farm was not as straightforward as other jobs because the pit walls were not even and I had to make slight adjustments to the main frame but it was fine once I took this into consideration,” explained PJ.

Erecting the steel frame was the most time-consuming part of the process because all the support bars had to be bolted together and the entire frame had to be bolted to the walls. Once the frame was up, the heavy gauge plastic cover was pulled over the steel work. It was then tensioned and secured with timbers along the perimeter base of the tunnel.

Inside, the sheep look very comfortable and at ease. The tunnel was kitted out with feed barriers and gates suppled by Tully Allen Products based in Drogheda, Co Louth. Robert sent on the measurements and drawings of what he was looking for and they sent back the feed barriers and gates made to his description. A local man erected the penning for Robert when they arrived. He already had the pillars for the gates which was a great saving.

Steel plates were welded to the base of the pillars to allow for bolting to the floor. “It can hold 80 ewes comfortably and there is enough feeding space for them all to eat at once,” said Robert.

The passageway in the centre is narrow at 7ft and is not suitable for a tractor. To feed the sheep, he drops a bale of hay at the entrance to the passage and rolls it out. He says a bale normally lasts three days before it runs out and because the passage is narrow he hasn’t far to fork it. The sheep are bedded routinely with straw.

There is a wind breaker at the gable end of the shed which prevents rain blowing in on top of the straw bedding but, importantly, allows air to flow through the structure.

Robert already had field gates hanging in front of the pit because he used it as an all-weather facility for his Clydesdale mare last year. These gates close at a pillar in the centre which sits in a sleeve in the concrete floor. The gates will prevent cattle breaking into the new sheep accommodation if they were being handled in the yard. When all the sheep are gone to grass, the pillar in the centre of the passage will be removed and the first feed barriers will be taken down to make way for a bobcat to clean it out.

Two simple barriers were constructed from the timbers off used pallets at the front of shed to keep the sheep in. There is an existing low concrete wall at the far gable which serves the same purpose.

Cost

Robert said that it cost him €5,700 for the erection and supply of the polytunnel. The barriers and gates cost €1,300 including delivery. He said water cost approximately €200 for piping and troughs.

In total, the setup cost Robert approximately €7,200. He is delighted with the outcome. The tunnel can be moved to another farm if needs be.

PJ said that the life expectancy of the cover is approximately 15 years and farmers can get it re-covered. He said the steel structure should last a long time.

Robert commented the weather last week was quite stormy but it didn’t seem to have a significant effect on the tunnel.