The Rural Voice, 1998-06, Page 22WELLESLEY
SHEEP FEEDERS AND
SHERK'S HORSE FEEDER
SHEEP FEEDERS
6' x 6'
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hi i� .KIK
.
Keeps chaff out of sheep's hair
• made of 1" x 1" tubing 1/2" rounds
• 2 7/8" apart
• can be shoved closer as bale gets smaller
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f 6.K.
• Ruggedly built yet convenient feeder
• Manufactured with 1" x 1" tubing and
14 gauge sheet metal
• 32" wide trough with 3/8" rod V-type manger
Rods are 2 1/2" apart for less hay waste
• Grains and other fine particle feeds can be
fed. Sizes available: 4', 6' and 8' long.
Other sizes available upon request.
SHERK'S HORSE FEEDER
ifs
• Trough made of 14 gauge sheet metal
• 6" deep trough 32" from ground
• V•type manger made of 3/8 rods, 3" apart
Sizes available: 4' or 6' or 8' all 6' high
Can be used for grains
Canadian
and other feeds 146 ' Made
TILMAN SHERK
R.R. 3, Wellesley, Ontario
519-656-3338
519-656-3429 evenings
18 THE RURAL VOICE
The Ilallams built a new barn last year but it's a simple structure compared to
barns going up for pig or dairy operations.
barn twice a day milking cows. In the
winter time the workload is about
equal to a dairy farm, he feels.
They could also get along with
Tess land than they would for a dairy
farm, Tracy points out. They own
100 acres, rent Steve's father's 60
acres and buy about 35 acres of hay a
year.
The sheep boom has been fueled
by prices. "When I started you
might get S65 for a Iamb in
the summer and we're almost at the
point we're disappointed if we don't
get 5100 now. And at Christmas and
Easter we were geeing S130 or 5 140
per 60 -pound lamb."
He does his own shearing,
learning by watching the shearer and
starting by working with him. "1
found out it wasn't quite as easy as it
looked," he chuckles. It's a skill you
have to practice at, he says. Today he
can shear 30-40 sheep and trim their
feet in one day. Professional shearers
can do 100 to 150 sheep a day. "I
look pretty slow compared to them
but I get it done. It probably saves us
S1,000 a year in shearing costs."
That's part of a philosophy of
cutting costs by, wherever possible,
doing work themselves, Steve says.
Sheep farming is catching on.
There are now four sheep farms in
the neighbourhood including Steve's
former boss who sold his cows and
quota and got into sheep. Another
neighbour got out of pigs to go into
sheep.
Part of the attractiveness of sheep
is the low cost of housing. Just like
pork and dairy farmers, Steve and
Tracy put up a new bam last year. It
cost considerably less, however,
because they did most of the work
themselves. Steve visited other new
shccp barns before starting his,
picking up ideas. Theirs is a simple
160 by 60 -foot pole structure with an
insulated ceiling to cut down
moisture condensation. There is no
insulation in the walls. The floor is
clay.
"As long as you keep drafts off a
sheep it's okay," Steve says. "When
they're not lambing they don't even
have to be inside. They run in and
out.
They also make use of two
smaller barns at Steve's father's
farm.
The new barn allows them to
drive right into the barn with large
round bales so they've abandoned
using small square bales. "I don't
miss it at all," laughs Tracy.
The alley is along one side of the
barn and mangers separate the pens,
which are along the other. They can
set a large bale at one end of the
manger and unroll it the length of the
pens. Their chore time on the home
farm has been reduced to a half-hour
morning and night (Steve's father
looks after another 75 ewes at his
farm).
Starting from scratch in the sheep
business, Steve took advantage of
two OATI courses (beginners and
advanced) on sheep production
offered in Walkerton. They went on
farm tours and got a lot of advice
from their friendly shearer.
"I really like it now. We can kind
of set our own hours." Steve says it
suits him better being his own boss
than working for someone else.
"We're a lot less tied down than
my parents are," says Tracy of her
dairy -producer family. She keeps one
cow and calf to remind her of her
days growing up on a dairy farm.
For non -sheep producers the myth
of lambing season as a marathon of