The outdoor area as part of the sheep barn

Janne Brodin (English translation Ane Skjelfjord)

New floor space requirements in ecological sheep husbandry means that each individual is to have twice as much space at its disposal as before. This means either half the number of animals, or building twice as large barns. Looking for possible solutions, PhD student Grete Meisfjord Jørgensen has posed the question of whether outdoor areas can be integrated into the total area in order to give each animal more space.

Grete Helen Meifjord Jørgensen Photo: Håkon Sparre

In her doctoral thesis “Physical and social environment for sheep”, one of the main objectives is to inquire into the sheep’s natural needs for space.

The new EU regulations for ecological sheep husbandry state that each individual must have 1.5 square metres of space, as opposed to 0.7 – 0.9 m2, as is usual in conventional production. This doubling of the floor space requirements poses practical challenges and quite substantial economical costs for the ecological sheep farmer.

Another new regulation requires half the area to have a firm and solid base, to make a more comfortable resting space. Usually, all of the pen area has a slatted floor or flooring of expanded metal, which is not defined as a solid base.

Temporary dispensation
Norway has a temporary dispensation from the new EU regulation on a solid base, but starting January 1st 2011, the area requirement of 1.5 m2 comes into force.

Uninsulated combination barns
In one of Jørgensen’s experiments, an uninsulated barn was built to house 20 animals in four groups of five, and where half the area was out of doors. The sheep still had only 0.75 m2 indoor space. The animals could get into and out of the barn when they wanted to. Inside, the floor was compact, with deep litter of straw, making for a soft, nice and solid bed. Outside, the pen floor was a compact concrete platform. Concrete was used to make for easy cleaning, since the pens were cleaned daily.

Drawing of the barn Photo: Grete Helen Meifjord Jørgensen

The barn had four pens. In two of them, the outdoor area was roofed, in two it was not. Two had outdoor feeding, two had indoor feeding. The animals were rotated once a week, so that all the groups spent several periods in each combination of feed placement and roof / no roof in the pens.

In sunset Photo: Grete Helen Meifjord Jørgensen

Registration
Besides 24 hours’ video recording of the animals’ behavior, weather factors were recorded. The experiment lasted from November to March.

Outdoor area Photo: Grete Helen Meifjord Jørgensen

Weather conditions and temperatures were of course an important factor of the experiment. Five weather categories were registered, focusing on precipitation and temperature: above zero temperatures with and without rain, and below zero temperatures with and without snow. There was little wind, so the wind factor was not included.

The weather had no great effect
The results showed that, overall, the weather had little impact on the animals’ behavior. Weather variations had little effect on feeding or on lying down / walking behavior. However, one weather type stood out: in mild and rainy weather, fewer animals chose to lie down outside.

The lack of wind meant that Jørgensen could not test the combination of rain and wind which is so typical for the northern and western parts of Norway, and which might have caused the sheep to stay inside more.

Roofs help
The roof covering the outdoor space had a positive effect on the amount of time spent outside. In mild and rainy weather – “disgusting weather” – more animals in the roofed over outdoor pens chose to stay outside, whereas those housed in pens without outside roofs went inside, says Jørgensen. Those who could stay outside under a roof did not go inside even in rainy or snowy weather.

Eating area Photo: Grete Helen Meifjord Jørgensen

Important: sufficient feeding and resting space for all
We have registered social interactions in several other experiments and have found that sheep are quite hard on each other. The lowest ranking individuals are ousted from feeding as well as resting spaces – which in a worst case scenario may lead to reduced feed uptake over time. This emphasizes how important it is to take competition amongst the animals into account, even though sheep are thoughts of as unaggressive animals – especially as compared to goats, who often can be seen fighting each other physically. For the most part, ousting and “quarreling” between ewes occur when there are no humans present. Reducing the number of feeding and resting places in relation to the number of animals may therefore be highly detrimental to some low-ranking individuals in the flock.

Indoors Photo: Grete Helen Meifjord Jørgensen

Floor space requirements
The big issue was whether there was space for all the animals to stay inside at the same time, as each individual sheep was allotted only 0.75 m2 indoors space. In the experiment, the Norwegian White breed was used. This is a fairly large and heavy breed, with individuals weighing up to 80-90 kg. They also have a preference for leaning against a wall while resting.

“In some of the groups, all five managed to lie down indoors. Generally, those who were lying down inside moved a bit as another sheep came in.”

The further sheep are into the gestation period, the more space is required by the ewes. A per animal indoors space of 0.75 m2 will make for a tight fit if all the animals want to stay indoors – which may well happen: according to Jørgensen, the animals will not be comfortable lying outdoors on a hard concrete floor when well into the gestation period.

Feed placement
In two of the pens, the feed was in the outdoors area. This did not mean that the animals spent more time out of doors.

“I thought that they would spend more time outside when the feed was there, but there was actually no difference.”

Even so, it was positive to keep the feed outside, as this meant there was no spilt feed inside in the resting area. In order to avoid deterioration of the feed, all the pens had roofs over the feed, even when the rest of the outdoors area was not roofed over.

Eating Photo: Grete Helen Meifjord Jørgensen

The animals were given fresh hay once a day. All of them fed then, and then went to lie down, either inside or outside. On warm days they often chose to lie down outside.

“Sheep are very synchronous. They all feed at the same time and rest at the same time.”

More aspects of space requirements and physical environment for sheep
This doctoral work is ambitious and contains as many as five experiments. Previously, Jørgensen has examined whether it is possible to mount a narrow wooden resting platform on top of the expanded metal in existing pens for use as a resting area. Since sheep seem to want to lean against a wall while resting, one of the experiments has been on putting up extra partition walls inside the pens. She has also considered whether increased group size lowers aggression.

“We have seen in several other animal species that larger group sizes lowers aggression. When there are many others to relate to, it isn’t that easy to “pick a fight” with the others. Mostly you look after yourself,” Jørgensen concludes. In the sheep experiment, however, there was no difference in aggression levels in small groups (9 individuals) and large groups (36 individuals). Other factors probably come into play here, emphasizing that further research is necessary in order to provide sheep with the best possible environment during the indoors feeding season.

Grete Meisfjord Jørgensen defends her thesis on December 3rd 2010.

Published: 16.09.10
Updated: 20.09.10
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