How to Build a Sheep Shed? A Detailed Guide to Scientific Construction Methods

“To do a good job, one must first sharpen one's tools.” A sheep shed is a major tool for raising sheep, and building a good sheep shed will be “twice the result with half the effort” for sheep farming. So how should it be built?

Choosing the Location for the Sheep Shed

The sheep shed should be built in the center of the pasture, close to a water source, with convenient transportation, open terrain, warm in winter and cool in summer, good drainage, and preferably on level ground on a south-facing slope with a slight gradient.

Construction Standards for the Sheep Shed

Because Guizhou Province has a rainy and humid climate, it is best to build a two-story sheep shed. The upper floor height is 2 m, the door width is 1 m, and the sheep shed wall height is 1.2 m, with the top open or fitted with glass windows that open outward to help regulate the indoor temperature. The platform is 0.8-1.5 m above the ground, and the ground below the shed slopes outward at 45° toward the outside of the shed so that sheep manure and urine flow into the manure pit. The length of the sheep shed depends on the scale of sheep raising and the site, but it should be divided into several small pens of 4×3 m specifications to facilitate classified feeding and management of the sheep flock. The sheep bed can be laid with wooden strips 10 cm wide and 3.5 cm thick, slightly sloped, with gaps of 1-1.5 cm so that sheep manure and urine can drip smoothly below the bed and the sheep stay clean all day. The exercise yard must be connected to the sheep shed, with three sides built into courtyard walls and partition walls of brick, 1.5 m high, to prevent the sheep from escaping. The ground of the exercise yard should be treated with cement, required to be level and have a 2° slope, with ditches around it. The yard must not accumulate water and should be kept clean and dry.

The Area of the Sheep Shed

The area of the sheep shed can be designed according to the scale of breeding. Too large an area causes waste, while too small an area is not conducive to large-scale production. Usually, the area per sheep is calculated at 1 sq m, and each breeding ram and ewe is calculated at 2 sq m. Rams and ewes should be housed in separate buildings. The lambing shed can be built at 20% of the number of base ewes, and the exercise yard area is generally 2-2.5 times the area of the sheep shed. If the flock is large and the site is wide, a double-row sheep pen can be built; if the number is small or the site width is less than 6 m, a single-row sheep pen can be built, and the single-row type can be built at half the dimensions of the double-row type.

Feed Troughs and Hay Racks in the Sheep Shed

They are used for supplementary feed, water, and salt. They can be set up separately or combined into a joint hay and feed rack. A movable long trough rack nailed together from wooden boards is the most practical. Generally, the feed trough is 2 m long, 20 cm high, 35 cm wide at the top, and 30 cm wide at the bottom. It is generally placed outside the sheep shed so that the sheep's feet do not step into the rack and feed does not fall onto the sheep's body.