ANOTHER WOOLSHED WITH COVERED YARDS

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32381, 21 August 1970, Page 15

ANOTHER WOOLSHED WITH COVERED YARDS

For an outlay of $7730, Mr A. T. Metherell, of Loburn, has built a woolshed and covered yards of an area of 5200 sq. ft, as seen in the accompanying photograph.

As far as shearing sheds are concerned, it is a departure from the usual type of building, although the layout of the shed proper is little different. Designed and supplied by Fletcher Timber, it has cost $1.48 per sq. ft, an incredibly low figure on today’s building costs. This does not include the cost of three new machines, but it does include the cost of installing electric power. The woolshed itself, is 80ft by 25ft, and the covered yards 80ft by 40ft. Before deciding to erect this combined building, Mr Metherell priced a shed only, designed to hold 400 sheep, at $5500. But by adding the covered yard, he gained a further 3000 sq. ft of covered space for less than $2OOO. The secret of keeping the cost of the whole building down to such a low figure per square foot rests on two factors: it is a low building, so that structurally it requires less material than a raised shed; and second, the low cost of erecting a covered yard helps offset the cost of the woolshed proper. Fletcher Timber’s representative on farm buildings (Mr B. W. Gillbanks), said the. major part of the cost was taken up in the woolshed; the covered yard cost around 75c a sq. ft. Mr Metherell’s shed is designed to serve as many functions as possible in the handling of sheep. The covered yard, on the left, has a drafting race running just inside the eave. There is also a concrete loading-out pen, which is also used for “spot” dagging.

A metal track is fitted at roof level to run the length of thes pen, and from it hangs an electric unit with a handpiece. The covered yards hold 600 to 700 ewes, while the pens in the woolshed can take a further 100. But with such an extensive covered area available, Mr Metherell does not bother to fill the catching pens overnight The woolshed is, in every way, very functional. The wool room is at ground level, the only raised area being the shearing-board, and the catching and accommodation pens. Shorn sheep are put down chutes, from where they pass under the catching pens to counting-out pens at the top end bf the shed. The designers of the shed must have earned the thanks of the shearers already. There is no chance of draughts whipping up through the chutes, as they are covered by hydraulically operated platforms. The weight of a shorn sheep pushes the platform down, but once it jumps off down the chute, the platform springs back to floor level. In the catching pens extensive use has been made of lift-up counter-weighted gates, and the counting-out pens, once shearing is finished, can be converted to - any sort of storage. At the other end of the shed, the concreted bay for storing the bales of wool is used as a garage in the offseason. Both bays at the ends of the woolshed have access by sliding doors, so that any number of types of farm implements could be put under cover.

There is a very sound reason for the saw-tooth design of the roof—namely light. As can be seen in the photograph, fibre-glass corrugated sheeting has been run the length of the woolshed near the apex of the roof. The same thing has been done on the roof of the covered yards. Apart from the halftrusses in the roof, which are New Zealand Oregon, all the timber in the woolshed and yards is rimu, sent direct from a West Coast mill. Exterior covering consists of corrugated aluminium, thus cutting maintenance to almost nil.

The builder of the woolshed and covered yards was Mr A. Riley, an Australian who settled in Canterbury some years ago after coming to New Zealand for a holiday.

Construction took two months. Mr Riley had some help from time to time; otherwise he worked on his own.

The shed is not the first of its kind in Canterbury. Fletcher Timber has supplied a similar shed to an Orari farmer, and is about to build another at Omihi.