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Amy
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There's a whole new generation of cheap pvc fencing I think. You can buy it in panels and perhaps in pieces too. Home Depot would be a good place to start. I have seen it on the web too. This would meet your light and mobile requirements. It probably isn't cheaper than building them out of junk wood though. That's the best I can do Amy. smile.gif

 

As for keeping it upright, one option might be to driving stakes in. You could probably tie foresters tape on the stakes and pound them all the way into the ground when you weren't using them. But hey, what do I know?

 

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Margaret

retired terrierwoman, border collie newbie

drumlins@adelphia.net

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Thanks Margaret, but I don't think pvc would be strong enough to hold my sheep.

 

I've no problem using wood..just trying to come up with a system of hooking the panels together, where as they would come apart easily. And some way of anchoring them in place.

 

My hired man thinks I'm certifiable anyway so I have to have an iron clad plan before I hit him up with it.

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Guest PrairieFire

Calf panels.

 

Mine are 8' long, about 36" inches high, and have pins on one end that fit into hinges on the other.

 

They are wonderful for everything from jugs to setting pens, to temporary gates to you name it...

 

I get mine from an itinerent gate salesman named Greg Baldock out of Liberty, KY...he drives around the country selling them off the back of a trailer...they cost about $45 each but I've got some that have been around for years including setout pens at trials and have taken VERY severe beatings...

 

I seem to have lost Greg's phone - but his mailing address is 6471 KY Hwy 49, Liberty KY 42539 - his boss is (I think) Larry Scott and you could search for a phone number...

 

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Bill Gary

Kensmuir, Working Stockdog Center

River Falls, WI

715.426.9877

www.kensmuir.com

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Calf panels!

 

Great..Those must of been what the sheep shearer set up when he came (Yea I now have a sheep shearer, I'm coming up in the world!)

 

Think I will try to track some of them down.

 

I can see where they would come in handy for quite a few things. With my new ram and hopefully a population explosion next year I will need a new system for worming, etc.

 

You know I sometimes shake my head in amazement..all I did was go to some dumb little herding clinic that was attended by a bunch of barbie collies..I was convinced that trainer beat his dogs with a 2x4 hey why else would they lie down and move so fast??

 

Here I am a couple of years later. A flock of sheep, a ram, obsessing about lines, crossdrives, sheds..This is crazy!

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Hi Amy,

 

It might be less expensive to build wooden hurdles (panels) that you could link together with hook-and-eye stakes. The stakes can be driven into the ground for stability.

 

If you want to go really high tech, I can send you information on the Alligator mobile handling yard that we bought this spring. It all packs up into its own trailer, and a system that can corral and worm 300 sheep weighs just about 1,100 pounds, including the trailer.

 

The same unit would be adequate for 600 to 1,000 sheep if you had a sturdy fence that could serve as one side of the holding and sorting pens.

 

(Disclosure -- I am considering setting my company up as a distributor for these units.)

 

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Bill Fosher

Surry, NH

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Bill F.

 

Thanks but I think that's a little much for my small flock..even with the hope of a population explosion, I'm not planning on three hundred sheep.

 

BUT then I only set out to get three or four sheep to train with..so who knows?

 

AND I already have some AKC types who want to buy some really dead broke sheep to train their alternative herding dogs on. Even have had some people stop looking for pets..

 

Hmmm!

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I've built a lot of my holding/sorting pens out of wood. Where I attach the panels, I use large eye bolts (I think this is the name for them). I simply line up the eye bolts - 2 on top and 2 on the bottom (each eye bolt a the pair is attached to a different panel). A metal bar slides through the 4 eye bolts to attach the two panels. When the panels are made out of 1" x 2" pine they are light weight. I also use Premier's metal panels (4' and 6' lengths) to make portable pens. I use the "O" shaped metal connectors that screw apart or those rubber "bungees" to connect the panels. The latter option is more expensive, of course, and maybe a little heavier. Premier's panels are heavier weight (stronger) then the livestock panels I can get locally and seem worth the cost (shipping is what cranks up the price - see if you can have them delivered to a local business to bring down the cost if you decide on this option). You probably would want to support the panels with metal fence posts. I find zip ties the easiest way to temporarily connect fencing to metal posts (although I have some snow fence protecting my fruit trees that been connected this way for at least two or three years and is still standing).

 

Kim

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I just noticed that you want to use the panels to hold your sheep in the Nativity scene. Extra support is not necessary when you use 4 Premier/wood panels as holding pens. I use these all the time for lambing pens, to hold lambs that I'm taking for processing, treatment pens for sick / injured sheep, etc. - I even set them up in the back of my pick-up truck to move the sheep - without any difficulty.

 

Kim

 

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Black Dog Farm

http://www.blackdogfarm.com

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