Sheep Barn Plan for 100 Ewes: Zones, Areas and Layout

A practical sheep barn plan for 100 ewes needs about 500-560 m² under roof and roughly the same again in open yards, so about 1,000-1,100 m² in total before tracks. It includes two ewe pens of 50, about 12 lambing pens, a lamb creep area, a weaned lamb pen, a ram pen, a sick pen, a separate quarantine pen, a feed store, water, a handling race and a manure store.

This article turns the usual space-per-head ranges into one concrete plan you can copy, adjust and hand to a builder. The figures are planning guides, not official standards. Breed size, climate and your feeding system change them, so check the final drawing with a local technician or vet. For the general principles behind each zone, see our guide to sheep farm layout and space per head.

The zones of a 100-ewe sheep barn

For 100 ewes, plan one place for each stage:

• Ewe pen A: about 50 ewes that are dry, in mating or in early pregnancy.
• Ewe pen B: about 50 ewes in late pregnancy, then ewes with their lambs.
• Lambing pens (jugs): small individual pens where a ewe stays with her lambs for the first days.
• Lamb creep area: a corner next to pen B with a gate that lets lambs in but keeps ewes out, for early feed.
• Weaned lamb pen: lambs after weaning, grouped for growing or sale.
• Ram pen: 3-4 rams behind a strong fence, so mating happens when you decide.
• Sick pen: for animals under treatment, separate but easy to watch.
• Quarantine pen: for newly bought animals, at the far end of the farm and downwind.
• Feed store, water tank, handling race with scale and loading ramp, manure store.

Space per head and equipment

Common planning ranges in intensive and semi-intensive systems:

• Covered area: about 1.5-2 m² per ewe, about 2-2.5 m² per ewe with lambs, about 0.8-1.2 m² per weaned lamb, about 2-3 m² or more per ram.
• Open yard: about 2-4 m² extra per ewe if you have the land.
• Lambing pens: about 1 pen for every 8-10 ewes, each about 1.5 x 1.5 m. For 100 ewes, that gives about 10-12 pens.
• Trough length when everyone eats at once: about 40-50 cm per ewe and about 25-30 cm per lamb. With feed available all day, much less is needed.
• Water: at least two drinking points per pen, in the shade, at a height lambs can reach.
• Feed alley: about 2 m wide for a wheelbarrow or small trailer, wider if you feed with a tractor.

Zone table: areas for 100 ewes

This is the plan used in the rest of the article. The main barn is 40 m long and 12 m wide (480 m²): a 2 m feed alley in the middle and a 5 m deep row of pens on each side. Open yards are 6 m deep.

So the whole plan is about 1,060 m². Add internal tracks, turning space for the feed truck and room to grow, and a plot of roughly 1,500-2,000 m² is comfortable. Pen A gives 20 m of trough front for 50 ewes (about 40 cm each) and pen B gives 26 m (about 50 cm each).

How the plan is laid out

Picture the plot from above, with the barn's long axis running east to west and the prevailing wind assumed from the west. If your wind comes from another side, mirror the plan.

1. West end, at the entrance gate: feed store, water tank and the handling race with sorting gate, scale and loading ramp. Trucks unload and load here without driving between the pens.
2. Main barn, centre of the plot: the 2 m feed alley runs the full 40 m. Troughs line both sides so workers fill them from the alley without entering the pens.
3. South row, from west to east: lambing pens (10 m), ewe pen B (26 m), lamb creep area (4 m). The lambing pens sit at the end closest to the gate and the worker's room, for night checks.
4. North row, from west to east: weaned lamb pen (15 m) near the loading ramp, ewe pen A (20 m), ram pen (5 m) at the far end with a solid fence.
5. Yards: the north yards open from pen A, the weaned pen and the ram pen; the south yard opens from pen B.
6. East side, downwind: the sick pen a short distance from the barn, so it is checked at the end of each round. Further away, in the far corner, the quarantine pen with its own trough, water and tools, and the manure store away from water and feed.

Hot and cold climate adjustments

Hot climate (Gulf, Sahel, North Africa in summer):

• Keep the east-west axis so the shade stays under the roof most of the day.
• Raise the roof, often about 3 m or more at the low edge, with open sides and a ridge opening for hot air.
• Use insulated or light-coloured roofing, and put shade nets over part of the yards.
• Shade every trough and water point. Size the water supply for the hottest month.

Our guide to sheep pen design for hot climates covers roofing, floors and drainage in more detail.

Cold or rainy climate (highlands, winter rains):

• Close the windward side with a wall or curtain, but keep the ridge open for air.
• Plan more covered area, since animals spend more time inside, and keep bedding dry.
• Avoid draughts at lamb height in the lambing pens and creep area.

Building in phases and running it in Throf

You do not need to build everything on day one:

1. Before the animals arrive: roof over the barn, pens A and B, ram pen, feed alley, water, feed store, perimeter fence and a quarantine pen. Hurdles are enough for quarantine at first.
2. Before the first lambing: sheep gestation is about 147 days, so you have about 5 months after mating to add the lambing pens, creep area and sick pen.
3. Before the first weaning and sale: weaned lamb pen, handling race, scale, loading ramp and manure store.

Once built, make the records match the barn. In Throf, create one group per pen with the same name as the sign on the gate: Pen A, Pen B, Weaned, Rams, Isolation. Move animals between groups when their stage changes, or change the stage of a whole group at once, so you always know how many head are in each pen and what they cost. Our guide to organizing pens and groups explains the method.