The Care and Feeding of Livestock in Winter For Beginners

Having livestock on your property is a challenge, especially for the novice.  Having livestock on your property during the winter months can be especially challenging.    With the onset of winter comes rain and snow, which when mixed with manure in confined spaces can create an incredible mess and some serious health and environmental issues can occur.  I freely admit to that novice status, having not yet gone through a winter with the sheep.  Fortunately, I have a lot of very good resources available to me right here in my office.  The District recently introduced the Land and Livestock program to the region and provided a lot of excellent ideas for minimizing the effects of winter on the land and the livestock. 

The first consideration is location, location, location.  We had the choice of several areas to make into a suitable winter paddock for our four sheep and hopefully in early spring, a number of lambs.  One important consideration was the convenience factor.  I needed to have the paddock fairly close to the house so I could plug tank heaters in and be able to fill water tanks without having to haul water.  I also needed easy access to my indoor hay storage which as it turns out is about is about 300’ feet away.  We do have water tight bins that hold at least 4 days worth of feed right next to the paddock and it is easy to replenish that supply.  The spot we chose is about 75 feet southeast of the house and is on the same elevation as the house with a slight fall-off to the south toward the drain-field.  The total area is roughly 8,000 square feet in a slightly oval configuration.  There are several pine trees within the paddock and outside which will provide some shelter from the wind and a bit of thermal cover. 

With the site chosen and enclosed using the 16’ cattle panels and “T” posts, we needed to start thinking about building a shelter of some sort.  I thought about several different designs and chose a structure framed with wood and covered on the sides and back wall with plywood.  It took about 8 hours to build and another 45 minutes in the hot tub that evening!  The dimensions are 8’ deep and 7’ wide.  The roof is corrugated fiberglass panels screwed to 2x2’s.  The open front of the shelter is 4’ tall, sloping to 3.5’ at the back wall.  The shelter opening is pointed northwest toward the house so we can see inside and so it provides protection from the prevailing winds. Four animals will comfortably fit inside the shelter along with the feed bins.  The feeders are plastic storage bins with cutouts on the front.  Another consideration was to armor the high traffic areas like the water tank and the gate to prevent the formation of mud.  I excavated about 6” deep at both areas and filled them with 3/8’s minus gravel which I compacted a bit.  The water tank sits next to the north fence so it can be filled from outside the pen with the hose.   The bare earth inside the shelter will be covered with wheat straw which can be quickly changed when manure begins to accumulate.  The advantage of using straw is it composts quickly and easily and will be great for the gardens.  I am also moving the chicken coop into the paddock with the sheep.  They are free range during the day and this will eliminate the need for me to let them out every morning and put them into their pen at night.  They will still be able to have free range during the day and I won’t have to worry about predators at night.  The hens being the gregarious girls that they are, spend all day in with the sheep anyway.  I will locate the coop close to the water tank so I can run one extension cord with a gang block to provide power for both water heaters and a heat lamp for the hens.  And I can still collect eggs without having to go inside the pen, just by reaching through the cattle panel and lifting the roof section over the nest boxes.

 I hope that all of the preparations we are going through make for a successful and healthy winter habitat for the sheep and the hens; and make it easier on us.  Maybe it’s just me, but I feel a bit of trepidation knowing that winter weather is imminent.  I just hope I haven’t missed something important.  Time will tell and with any luck at all, we can look forward to lambs next spring!  I’ll share the photos!