Better than bought, and cheaper too

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SBMF 2015

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We bought an eleven acre homestead last fall. It's less than a quarter mile from my main farm, and has enough concrete for a 75hd feed lot. I'm converting the lean to on the corn crib into a permanent working facility.
Already had the chute, a crowd tub and scale will come eventually. I needed an alley. I priced around. One company had a used pdr river 20' alley for $2,200.
So I scrounged through what I had laying around from other projects, fired up the welder, and here's what I came up with.IMG_20220130_093312.jpgIMG_20220130_120052.jpgIMG_20220130_120445.jpgIMG_20220212_093221.jpgIMG_20220212_105023.jpgIMG_20220216_180443.jpgIMG_20220216_180544.jpgI'll build a sliding door on the back, I just have to get back to the junk yard for more box steel. The bows are 2x2x1/4" box. The alley is two seven rail and two six rail continues fence panels from GoBob. I had to buy the 5/8" ply wood. $309 ouch!
The best I can figure I have $1,061 in materials, about five half days welding and assembling. My nine year old son helped me put the ply wood on. So that was a quality time bonus.
 
How wide is the alley? Do you mostly just feed fats?
27.75"
We feed cattle, but the future main focus on this place is going to be yearling replacement hfrs.
We have another alley on a different farm the same width. The calves turn around and around and around, but our cows fit (1,250-1,600lbs)
 
Just an update. What I did back in February was working okay, but needed to be safer. We were vacc ing fall cows going to pasture. I got a phone call I needed to take and stepped out of the barn. When I returned my (then 9yr old) son had loaded the last draft of cows in the alley. He was so proud, I was proud and scared at the thought of what could have happened.
I started looking for a crowd tub that night. Almost pulled the trigger on a Powder River one, but it had a 90 day lead time and was $11,000. I just kept looking and found this used Linn tub that was a little over 1/4 the price.
The cattle work and flow better than I could ever dream of. Worked 120 cows that had never been through this set up (some hadn't been through a chute in years). Didn't even have any climb on each other in the alley.IMG_20220916_110737.jpgIMG_20220916_110852.jpgIMG_20220916_110758.jpgIMG_20220916_110909.jpgIMG_20220916_110942.jpg
The cattle flow in a circle now. In the small door, through it system, then out the end of the building take a right turn and in to a holding pen.IMG_20220916_110716.jpgIMG_20220916_111020.jpgIMG_20220916_111036.jpg
 
That took some time playing Legos with those concrete blocks!

Place looks like it'll work some animals very well. Nice!
Thank you.
We moved 130 of those blocks last summer. The kids just groaned when I told them we were moving them again.

The goal is to be able to work all my cattle plus be a centralized location for our vets and the people I consult for. Last spring, we semen checked nine bulls and preg checked 38 cows in one morning. The vets like only setting up once, and it's a better set up than any of those owners have at home.
 
We are using concrete blocks similar to those for the sides of the silage bunker we are putting in. 30x100 and then set the blocks to act as forms rather than form and put the blocks on the floor because the concrete has gone through the roof. Wound up with a 26x93 length; 6 inches thick. Blocks are 2wx3hx6L ft (?maybe 2x2x6?) and weigh 3800 lbs each. Can haul 4 at a time on the trailer. Takes the backhoe to move them and set up... have 1 row all the way around 3 sides and 1/2 the second row up. Got a bunch setting ready to put up. Corn chopping this week so need to push it. 45 yds concrete in the floor; had 48 3/4 yd total... did a base for a water trough where it was broken up and water leaking and used the last little bit to do an apron to go into the barn where the skid loader kept digging out the gravel, and fixed another place where there was a drop off from the concrete to the field and some broken concrete from the previous owner letting things go. With the cost being so much higher than 2 years ago when he was thinking about it, but didn't have the closing on the farm done.... 9,000 in the concrete and probably about the same in the blocks... planning 3 high. But the bags we were using have gone up so, and renting the bagger and having to have trucks with a side unloader to put the silage into the bagger; figure it will pay off in 7-8 years. Can always use the concrete pad for other stuff if he stops doing silage too.

Looks like a nice working facility and under cover is a big plus....
 
What is cattle consulting?
I am their go to answer guy. If they have a question , my phone will ring. It varies between customers. One cow calf / feed lot calls any time a calf caughs. I do all their vaccinating, sorting, hauling. A feedlot I work with has me sort and market their finished cattle.
I go by Smith Bovine Management Firm. Pretty much anything from cattle handling facility design to sale orders for seed stock production sales and everything in between.
 
We are using concrete blocks similar to those for the sides of the silage bunker we are putting in. 30x100 and then set the blocks to act as forms rather than form and put the blocks on the floor because the concrete has gone through the roof. Wound up with a 26x93 length; 6 inches thick. Blocks are 2wx3hx6L ft (?maybe 2x2x6?) and weigh 3800 lbs each. Can haul 4 at a time on the trailer. Takes the backhoe to move them and set up... have 1 row all the way around 3 sides and 1/2 the second row up. Got a bunch setting ready to put up. Corn chopping this week so need to push it. 45 yds concrete in the floor; had 48 3/4 yd total... did a base for a water trough where it was broken up and water leaking and used the last little bit to do an apron to go into the barn where the skid loader kept digging out the gravel, and fixed another place where there was a drop off from the concrete to the field and some broken concrete from the previous owner letting things go. With the cost being so much higher than 2 years ago when he was thinking about it, but didn't have the closing on the farm done.... 9,000 in the concrete and probably about the same in the blocks... planning 3 high. But the bags we were using have gone up so, and renting the bagger and having to have trucks with a side unloader to put the silage into the bagger; figure it will pay off in 7-8 years. Can always use the concrete pad for other stuff if he stops doing silage too.

Looks like a nice working facility and under cover is a big plus....
We had a shelter built out of concrete blocks, but they do have notches, similar to assembling Legos. Keeps them cool in the summer (think of a basement) but throw in some bedding in the winter and they're super warm.
1664752312725.jpeg
 

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