Cattle barn floor help...

[Ohio Cowboy]

Looking for some ideas to help in my barn. I bring my cows home for the winter and am fortunate enough to be able to feed inside my barn. The problem is my barn floor is dirt. Im looking for the best way to alleviate the knee deep mud that it eventually turns into where they stand and eat. If I just run a drain tile in the floor will that work ? Should I tile and then cover in stone ? Concrete would be great but for now it is not in the budget.
For those that have stone do the cows eventually work it into and mud pit with stone mix in it or does the stone stay firm. Can you scrape the manure off and leave a majority of the stone ?
Thanks

 

[Littlejohn]

http://www.farmanddairy.com/news/cl...build-solid-heavy-use-pad-reputation/649.html

Build it up like a heavy use area. I feed on one and scrap it every couple week to keep the manure from building up. You have to add back the lime over time, but it hold up pretty well. Make sure you put the fabric down, or the rock will disappear over time.

 

[cbcr]

We used to have a barn that had about the same issues. If you have a good slope and drainage, then you could put some drain tile down. Just be sure that the first rock that you use is 2 - 3 inch. Using rock this size will help to hold up and not keep going further down. then you can top this rock off with some AB3 or reject lime. This has worked quite well for us.

 

[wacocowboy]

I use crushed limestone inside all my barns. I don't keep my cows in there all the time, but have one I use to feed hay in when I don't use it store hay and never have any trouble with it getting muddy. I have the limestone packed down real hard so I can drag the manure and straw out with a blade and don't mess up my rock.