Considering covering sheep yards? Do the benefits outweigh the cost? How can you get the most out of your covered sheep yards?
A roof over sheep yards is valuable infrastructure for sheep studs, lamb producers and woolgrowers alike. Whether it is part of a modern shearing shed complex or a simple roof-only set-up, covering your sheep yards can provide substantial benefits.
Some of the benefits are obvious. For example, the ability to work out of the heat of the summer sun or keep your yards dry in the middle of a wet winter.
That benefit alone can make covering your sheep yards a no-brainer! Yard work out of the sun and rain? Yes, please!
But have you considered some of the flow-on effects such as attracting reliable labour with your new and improved facilities, productivity gains, making low-stress livestock handling easier – or simply protecting your yards from weather damage?
There’s a serious case for covering sheep yards – and that’s what we discuss in this article.
We also discuss how to plan and design your sheep yard cover so that you can take full advantage of these benefits.
And if you are looking for inspiration for your project, you’ll find that too!
Let’s get started!
5 Benefits Of Covering Your Sheep Yards
Here are five key benefits that make covering your sheep yards a smart investment.
First up, improving working conditions and worker welfare.
1
Improving Working Conditions & Welfare
It’s hard to go past the improved working conditions when discussing the benefits of covering sheep yards.
It’s simple. No matter the climate or the season, working under shade or shelter is always better.
Working out of the prevailing weather is safer, reduces fatigue and the risk of strain and injury – and makes yard work a much more enjoyable task.
Really, everyone benefits from covered sheep yards.
These improved working conditions also contribute to other benefits such as protecting your business from unreliable labour and increasing productivity.
2
Securing & Retaining Reliable Labour
Providing safe and up-to-date facilities is a proven and sustainable way to help your enterprise recruit and retain reliable staff.
We have seen this play out in the wool industry. Shearing teams and contractors are continuing to prioritise wool growers with safe shearing sheds and good amenities.
With labour shortages a common challenge in the industry, covering your sheep yards is one way to strengthen your reputation as an employer of choice.
And more broadly prioritising worker welfare and safety positively contributes to the wider industry image too.
3
Increasing Productivity & Efficiency
Increased productivity and improved profitability are sure signs of a wise investment – and a sheep yard cover can do just that.
For example, in wet weather a sheep yard cover can increase productivity by ensuring you are not held up by muddy working areas.
Similarly, a yard cover can increase productivity by keeping sheep dry ahead of shearing.
Again, the principle applies in warmer weather too. A well-designed and well-planned sheep yard cover will provide shade and airflow in working areas.
It is also worth considering that up-to-date sheep yard facilities can improve profitability by being more labour-efficient.
Finally, contributing to this increased productivity is the flexibility covered sheep yards can provide.
4
Taking Advantage Of Flexible Working Hours
A roof over your sheep yards can provide flexible working hours – rain, hail or shine.
You could take this flexibility a step further by including hi-bay lights in your yard cover design, allowing you to safely work in low light hours.
This provides much more flexibility in your schedule as you aren’t dictated by the weather or the time of day.
For example, the yard work usually reserved for dry days can be done on wet ones.
This allows you to prioritise more important or urgent tasks – or even spend more time with family and friends.
5
Multipurpose Facilities Provide Good Value For Money
Sheep yard covers provide much more than simply shelter over your yards.
A yard cover can provide excellent value for money by being designed to address other operational requirements.
A classic example of this is incorporating covered sheep yards into your shearing shed design. This has two clear advantages.
Firstly, an adjoining sheep yard cover reduces the amount of grating required in your shearing shed.
Grating is expensive and covered sheep yards typically work out to be much more cost-effective.
Secondly, a sheep yard cover is much more versatile than having sheep on grating.
Covered sheep yards are useful year-round and not just at shearing time.
For example, your covered yards can be used for wool classing, drenching or scanning.
For sheep studs, creating a multi-use yard cover by including a sale area or arena is another way to get more bang for your buck.
This leads us to our next discussion point – how to get the most benefit from your covered sheep yards.
11 Ways To Make The Most Of Your Covered Sheep Yards
Project planning is an important step for any farm shed project – covered sheep yards included!
A sheep yard cover project can be a substantial investment, and you may only do it once – so it makes sense to get it right! And that starts in the project planning stage.
1
Address Airflow & Weather Protection
Addressing airflow and weather protection is a good starting point for your project planning.
This is because effective airflow is essential for comfortable working conditions, particularly for large covers or multipurpose set-ups.
Similarly, weather protection is usually the overarching reason for building a yard cover – building a cover without effective protection will defeat the purpose.
So, how do you address these details with your yard cover design?
The most common way to find the ideal balance between weather protection and airflow is to use gable infills and partially clad walls.
Larger sheep yard covers with enclosed walls or covers adjoining shearing sheds can also benefit from ridge vents and/or wall vents.
It is important to also consider the orientation of your cover and the direction of the prevailing weather. These details will influence how effective design features such as gable infills or wall vents are.
Sliding doors can also be used in enclosed covers for access and airflow.
2
Reduce Shearing Shed Project Costs
As we have already discussed, a sheep yard cover is a great way to reduce the cost of a new shearing shed build by reducing the amount of grating required.
Yard covers can also be a great addition to an existing shearing shed if you need to keep more shed dry ahead of shearing and you are limited by grating area.
If you are considering a combined shearing shed and yard cover facility, there are two main configuration options available.
Firstly, there is the dual gable configuration. This is often used when adding a yard cover to an existing shearing shed.
Secondly, there is a single gable configuration. This is typically more cost-effective than a dual gable option as it is faster to manufacture and easier to install.
However, the best configuration for your project will largely depend on your shearing shed layout, such as the position of the pens.
3
Incorporate A Ram Sale Arena
Sheep studs often choose to incorporate a ram sale area in their yard cover. This is a great way to ensure you get the maximum benefits from the infrastructure and maximum return from your investment.
For example, you could consider including a sale arena space in one gable end. This provides a versatile space throughout the year and could be used with portable yards, a crutching trailer – or simply as an equipment storage area.
4
Upgrade Your Yards & Embrace Technology
It is important to remember that your yard cover facility will only be as good as your sheep yard set-up.
That’s not to say you shouldn’t cover your existing sheep yards.
But consider whether there is new equipment or technology that could contribute to the functionality, safety and productivity of your covered sheep yards.
For example, Peter Stone invested in a Te Pari Racewell HD4 Sheep Handler to make working with large ewes safer and easier – as well as taking advantage of efficiencies and convenience of features like automatically weighing and drafting four ways.
You can learn more about Peter’s set-up (under an Action yard cover) here – Upgrading For Efficiency: Peter Stone’s New Racewell HD4 Sheep Handler
5
Use Lighting For Safety, Versatility & Flexibility
Good lighting is essential for shearing shed projects, especially over the board – and it is an important inclusion for safe and functional sheep yard covers too.
Lighting is particularly important for large, multi-use covers and when undertaking tasks like wool classing and data collection in your yards.
Skylights are the most common lighting option for sheep yard covers. Skylights are popular because they allow you to take advantage of the available natural light and can be installed in the roof, walls and gable infills.
We install high-quality opaque skylights to ensure the material doesn’t become brittle and need replacing – and being opaque helps eliminate shadows.
While skylights are a great inclusion, if you are using your cover in low light hours, we recommend installing hi-bay lights. High bay lights are also recommended for tasks like wool classing.
6
Concrete Working Areas
Covering your sheep yards helps to reduce dust in the summer and mud in the winter – and concreting your yards is a great way to make sure they stay this way.
For example, you could consider concreting the main working areas such as around your sheep handlers and drafters.
This is a popular option for large shearing shed setups to help with dust suppression when a large number of sheep are moving through the yards.
7
Increase The Length & Width
As we mentioned earlier, a sheep yard cover without effective weather protection isn’t much use!
This is why our building consultants recommend allowing an additional one or two metres of coverage on each side of the cover.
The extra coverage ensures that there is effective protection even in wet and windy weather conditions.
It pays to consider whether your cover provides enough coverage in the initial design stage. This saves time and money extending the cover later – and is a shed ever too big?
8
Capture Stormwater With A Custom Gutter
A roof over your sheep yards provides an excellent opportunity to capture and store stormwater run-off – which is why an Action custom gutter is a standard inclusion.
The Action custom gutter system uses a 200mm wide rolled gutter which is supported by heavy-duty hot dip galvanized brackets.
This system allows downpipes to be plumbed to the end of the cover rather than down the face of the columns – this helps prevent damage to the downpipes and helps keep stormwater run-off out of the yards.
Curious about how much rainwater you could capture off your sheep yard cover? Try out the calculator below.
Rainwater Harvest Calculator
If you are wondering about the volume of rainwater you could potentially collect from a shed roof, use the stormwater calculator.
9
Use A Canopy For Column Placement & Coverage
A cantilevered canopy is a popular design option for farm sheds as it provides cost-effective coverage.
This is because it is typically more cost-effective to install a canopy than to upsize the span. For example, a standard 24m span with a 6m canopy is often more cost-efficient than a 30m span.
So, that is one way to take advantage of a canopy on a yard cover.
A canopy can also be used on a sheep yard cover to avoid column placement interfering with the yard layout. This is one of the ways we can design a cover to fit seamlessly over existing sheep yards.
If you are covering existing sheep yards, read on to find what else you need to know about the process.
10
Covering Existing Yards? Book A Site Consultation
If you are covering existing sheep yards, we recommend booking a site visit with one of our building consultants.
Not only does this ensure we can provide accurate project pricing, but it also allows us to guarantee that the cover will work with the site slope and not interfere with gates, ramps or working areas.
For example, once we have measured up we can vary column lengths to accommodate any fall over the site and vary bay spacings to adjust column placement to work with the yard design.
You can learn more about the process in the 2025 Sheep Yard Cover Guide – download your copy here.
11
Use Custom Signage As A Finishing Touch
Looking to make a statement with your sheep yard cover – and why not? Custom signage is a great way to do this.
Installing signage such as your stud or property name is the perfect finishing touch. For example, it is a great branding opportunity if you are using your yard cover to host ram sales or on-farm events.
We can laser cut your logo or property name in-house, on Corten steel.
So, that’s a wrap on ways to make sure you can capitalise on the benefits of covered sheep yards.
We hope that the discussion has provided ideas for your project – but we know that sometimes the best place to get inspiration is from real-life examples.
Scroll on for an inspiration gallery of sheep yard cover projects from sheep studs, wool growers and prime lamb producers – and a collection of videos from customers sharing their experiences covering sheep yards.
Covered Sheep Yard Success Stories
Here’s a collection of videos from customers sharing their experience building sheep yard covers with Action.
First up, Tim Leeming of Paradoo Prime.
Cameron Small covered his sheep yards before upgrading his shearing shed in a two-stage project.
Covered sheep yards have improved working conditions for Matt Kelly.
Peter’s covered sheep yards and ram sale shed is a well-designed facility.
Convinced on the benefits of covering sheep yards?
Need expert advice for your project? Our building consultants are available to assess your site and provide size and design advice. Call us on 1800 687 888 to book a project consultation.
