Sheep Car

How do you move a little flock of sheep across and down the road to their new pasture without a herding dog or a lead sheep?  This is a question that vexed us since we started to use a field across and down the road last summer.  ​Until we invented the sheep car....

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​The past four years, we have been rotating our sheep around one large field, moving them every few days and passing over the entire field two or three times per year.   We use moveable electric netting to set up their paddocks, and by setting up fenced chutes we’re able to guide them each day over some distance from the barn to their paddock of the day and back again. 
 
Last year, I wanted to start using a new field and it was – as mentioned - across the road and down a way.  Our experience is that while most of the flock will follow a person with a bucket of grain, there is inevitably one sheep, or a small group, that gets side-tracked by a tasty morsel, an intra-flock sheep tiff, or plain old sheep orneriness.   Add cars and unknown territory to that baseline situation, and it was clear that if we tried to lead them to the new field, they would be scattered all over the place.

The original sheep car (not very classy or simple to use!)

To manage this, I invented what I call – tongue-in-cheek – the sheep car.  In its original incarnation, the sheep car was four pieces of cattle panel held together into a rough rectangle.  We would have one piece open, get the sheep in there from the barn in the morning, and close that piece with a couple of carabiners.  This created a kind of bottomless and very wobbly cage with the sheep inside – the sheep car.  A group of four of people was needed to pick the sheep car up a few inches above the ground and gradually start walk to the new field.  The sheep inside the car walked along.  But it was a long, slow process, because we had to manage the four loosely connected panels and keep them in a rectangle form, coordinate how far it was above the ground, and ensure that everyone was walking along at the same pace.  It was funny-looking, and we got a lot of looks from passersby in their human cars!

This wobbly construction needed an upgrade.  I wanted a sheep car that would hold its rectangular shape on its own, and that was easy to pull or push with just one or two people.  We made one that is 4x11’ and holds about up to 10 sheep at a time.  It is inexpensive and simple to build. Here is what we did.

The new and improved sheep car

​Materials
6 x 10’ metal conduit ½” diameter
1 x 5’ metal conduit ½” diameter
4 x coupling for ½” conduit
2 x cattle panels
Two fat wheels around 12” diameter with 5/8” bore
72” threaded rod ½”
Washers
2 x End nuts ½”
To tie conduit to cattle panels: strong twine, zip ties, or small, metal hose clamps
 
Tools
Conduit bender for ½” conduit
Wrenches to tighten nuts
Screwdriver if you are using hose clamps.

​Directions
 
1.Bend four of the 10’ conduit rods into U-shapes with the conduit bender with the arms each 3’ long and the bottom of the U 4’ wide.  There are good videos on YouTube that show how to get the measurements for bending.  Working with the conduit bender for this part was very easy - and it was a fun sensation to bend the metal rods.
 
2.Bend both 16’ cattle panels into U-shapes, with the arms of the U being 6’ each and the bottom 4’ wide.  To give the panels a tight, 90-degree bend, we found the conduit bender worked best.  This is not exactly what the bender is designed for, but with a little finagling it can be made to work.  Put the cattle panel on the ground, with the horizontal rods of the panels underneath the vertical rods (this is to prevent the horizontal rods from popping off when you bend).  Bend one rod of the cattle panel at a time, maybe bending 45 degrees first and then going back for a second pass. 

3. Set the two bent cattle-panel up so that the open ends face each other and bring them together so that the two 8” wide rectangles of each end overlap.   Tie them together with your twine, zip ties, or small hose clamps.  We used twine that we wrapped tightly around the two panels.  It is a bio-degradable product if we use flax twine, or recycled if we use the twine from our hay bales.  Also, it’s easy to remove in case we want to adjust sheep car or re-use the cattle panels for another purpose.  That said, for a more permanent sheep car, I might use little hose clamps.

4. Put two of conduit U’s inside the cattle panel frame, each one against an opposite end of the frame.  Measure the distance between them and out of one of the remaining 10’ conduit pipes, cut two lengths of pipe so that all the conduit pieces put together will make a rectangle that fits exactly inside the cattle panel frame.   Join the U’s and the connecting pieces together with four of the conduit couplers.  Make a second conduit rectangle in the same way.

5. Fasten the two conduit rectangles to the inside of the cattle panel frame, one near the top and one near the bottom.  The bottom one should be at a height so that it can be joined with the axel for the wheels in the next step.  This height will depend on the diameter of your wheels.  You want the frame to ride 1-3 inches above the ground – low enough so that no lambs or sheep feet can get caught under it, but high enough so that it doesn’t drag too much along the ground and grass.  You can fasten the conduit to the frame with rope or twine, or zip ties, or small metal hose clamps.

​6. Cut the a few inches off the remaining small 5’ length of conduit, so that you can attach it at the back of the sheep car frame with a bit of extra length on either end so the wheels don’t interfere with the frame.  This is your axel holder.  Attach this to the conduit and/or the cattle panels.  Again, make sure that the height of the axel is such that your sheep car frame will clear the ground by a few inches. ​

7. Put the threaded rod through your axel holder conduit piece.  It is a tight fit, but it is possible to get the rod through the conduit.  You can also use two shorter pieces of conduit on either end, but in this case, you need to wrap a little bit of tape around the threaded rod so that it will be firmly stuck inside conduit. 
 
8. Attach your wheels.

9. Cut a door opening out of the cattle panels at the back of the sheep car.  Take another small piece of cattle panel or other sturdy grid material for the door and attach to the sheep car.  The simplest is to use a couple of carabiners, but you can also make it more official and use hose clamps.   Use carabiners for closing though – it’s simple and works.

​10. Optional: you may want to attach handles to the front to make pulling easier.  We did not in this version, but think it would be a good addition, especially if you need to take the sheep car over rougher pasture.    

Watch a clip of the sheep car at work!