Many people across the world rear sheep for meat, wool and milk. In traditional sheds, sheep and goats are often kept on the ground putting the animals in direct contact with their urine and droppings. This leads to poor hygiene that make many animals sick.
To solve this problem one can easily make a raised platform inside an existing shed that can easily be cleaned underneath. There are no diseases with a raised platform, its easier to clean the shed and one can make fertilizer from the droppings.
Construct a platform
Measurements of the platform are taken, the legs of platform are constructed, based on the height of the shed the bamboo is cut to the required length to make polls for holding the platform for easy clearing of manure. If possible the platform should be at least 1m high.
A notch on one end of the poll is made, half a metre hole is dug close to the corners where you want to place the polls. Depending on the size of platform, some polls will be needed in the middle, each poll should be about 1m apart and all the polls should be firm and stable.
The bamboo horizontal beams are placed on top of the polls and locked within the notch in the poll. Straight bamboos are then selected to make slats for the floor. The bamboo is cut based on the width of the shed.
Minimize injury risk
Sharp notches are scraped and smoothen so that the animal are not hurt. Each piece of bamboo is sliced into four equal parts, sharp edges are scraped to smoothen the slats, the bamboo slats are placed on top of the horizontal beam platform, two slats are then nailed on each side.
From the fixed slats, the other slats are tied side by side from the top towards the centre with a rope in such a way that they can be rolled up for cleaning. Gaps should not be left with green bamboo. A staircase of sand bags can be made to help the sheep’s and goat go in and out.
The platform should be cleaned everyday for animals to be healthy.
