Cheap cattle shelter (High schooler budget)

[mandelke86]

So im a sophomore in high school and I've had one cow in my life. I work on a farm which has sheep and had 4 cows that I raised. So im not really new to cattle. When I did have a cow the farmer I worked for told me to keep it at the neighbor farmers house. However, things got heated once this guys Alzheimers got bad so I sold the cow and left. 4 months later after the slaughter of the 4 cows and the selling of my cow I find my self missing cows and wanting them again. My parents said they will buy a cow if I save up money for fencing and a shed. Right now I have only 200 from my ffa chapter. I know I need more money to start up but I was just wondering if anyone had cheap cattle shelter ideas for 2-3 cows. Thanks for the help!

 

[snake67]

Usually I run from these type of questions but you are young and a bit of advice here will get you on the right track - cheap and easy to build - but you need to do the sweating - not your folks.

Go into the bush with a chainsaw. Cut down some poles for corners, posts and rafters.

Look for used tin to do the roof

Buy some cheap used lumber to sheet the walls.

Don't have a bush? Go to the nearest landfill, dump or whatever you call them where you live.

If you have a dump somewhere near you this material can likely all be had for the hauling and a few dollars.

Remember!! Don't ask - don't get!

Buy 25 pounds of 2 and 3 and 4 inch nails.

Put it all together as a south facing three sided shelter and you are done.

I did this and the total cost came out to about 90 or 100 bucks.

Been using it for about 12 years now.

I have two of them that I built this way and one nice one with store bought everything. Anyone with a brain can see that this shows when I did and did not have money!

Built it with a chainsaw and a hammer and a measuring tape - nothing more.

I hand dug the holes for the vertical posts. If you have cash you can get it done faster and easier with a backhoe or an auger.

It has about 60 sheep sleeping in it this winter but usually it has a few yearling cattle. The manure is piled up a bit but that makes for a warm bed when it gets cold outside - they will sleep on it like it is a heated mattress. About zero degrees F right now and they are as happy as clams laying on it.

It sits right beside a pretty one made with nice material and new tin - but I use this shelter more because it is a bit bigger.

Someone gives me an email and I will send them a few pics of it and they can post it up for you if you need an idea on how it was done.

Being as how it is on your folks place they might not like the "decor" but it works well.

You can make them any size you want - all you need is a picture in your head and then you build it.

You need to put up where you are from on your profile - it does make a difference.

Any person - even one as young as you - who is the slightest bit handy can do this - I made my very first one when I was about 12 or 13 years old. I was the kid in charge of the dairy calves and I hated forking out pens - so I made this shelter and moved them all outside. When it was done it was big enough to handle about 30 3-400 pound calves - so it was a fair size.

Caught a good beating for it but in the end everyone agreed that it was the best way to raise calves - cold and dry works well. It only took a couple days to get over the belt welts. LOL

I will not do anything though until you actually respond to this reply as I hate dealing with one hit wonders that come here - ask a question - and then leave without ever responding to the people who took the time to give them an answer.

Ball is in your court.

Best to all

Bez

 

[mandelke86]

Thanks bez this was very helpful. Yeah I live in a small farming community in northern Illinois about 10 degrees here. I can understand your frustration with one hit wonders but im here to stay and learn more once I get things up and running. Pictures would be helpful

 

[snake67]

I will get someone to post them up so others can laugh at my handiwork as well - stand by for further.

Bez

 

[3waycross]

Thanks bez this was very helpful. Yeah I live in a small farming community in northern Illinois about 10 degrees here. I can understand your frustration with one hit wonders but im here to stay and learn more once I get things up and running. Pictures would be helpful you can send them to me at [email protected]

Don't throw your email out there like that. Use the PM feature here for some privacy.

 

[mandelke86]

Don't throw your email out there like that. Use the PM feature here for some privacy.

Sorry about that

 

[Caustic Burno]

For Bez

 

[Craig Miller]

I like it BEZ. Did you use any certain kind of trees? I though cedar when i saw the side but the back looks diffrent.

 

[snake67]

For Bez

First to CB - thanks my friend - I do truly appreciate what you did and do.

Enjoy that hunting trip.

Now to the shelter.

It is about 34 feet wide, 16 feet deep, 6 feet high at the back and about 14 high at the front. The nail holes in the used tin are not a problem and very little water drips in as the slope is quite steep.

It is 13 years old.

We were broke - BSE came to Canada and the US of A refused to buy our cattle - nearly all others countries closed their borders to our cattle - despite no health issues in our herd - so I sold cattle for as little as 2 cents a pound and never topped 35 cents a pound for the first couple years after the border closed. I needed shelter and I needed it fast because we were expanding when the troubles came. There are two of these on the farm and one nice store bought one that is far prettier but gets much less use.

I honestly went out in the bush and cut down trees for poles - limbed them and built this structure. I did not use a tape measure for the vertical boards - I simply put them all up and trimmed them off with a chainsaw. I could not afford to level the ground so I built it along the grade as seen from the back view - cows do not care if it is level.

Honestly this was done with Cedar trees for vertical poles and rafters. The boards were found at the dump and ten bucks bought them. The tin came from a collapsed barn down the road in exchange for cleaning the barn up and burning it. The nails came from the hardware store. I had no money for bolts to put up the front header so I begged some 12 inch spikes off a neighbour and before pounding them into the post I put a couple of big washers on them to hold everything in once they were pounded in. It took a sledge hammer to get them in but I got it done.

Pretty is nice - functional works and animals do not look at fit and trim and colour.

This is the first shelter you see coming up the laneway. There are many shelters on the place and a large barn and a 40 x 80 shop with a heated section in it. But this shelter is the one I am proudest of - it is the one that showed the world I was not going to go down because of some bull schitte man made frigging political decision to break certain farmers and ranchers because of false science and an American immigrant who came to Canada and caused the collapse of the cattle industry.

Until YOU have to sit down and watch your friends and neighbours get collected up by the banks and bury your neighbours kid when when he shoots himself because he is busted by BSE - you have no idea how determined you can be. This shelter also represents the hard side of me - the side people love to diss at times on this site - but only after you have been there will you ever understand.

I put this up to show a kid that it CAN be done - all you got to do is WANT IT.

So mandelke86 this is for you - put your man pants on and go for it - no one will know if you pass or fail but you - so give it your best shot.

There is a life to be made in cattle and I wish you well.

Good luck and best to you.

Bez

 

[mandelke86]

Bez thank you so much, and that really is a story to look up to. I will try my best and I don't know how long it will take but trust me once it is done you will be the first person to see it.

Thanks much,
Jono

 

[skyhightree1]

I think its nice simple and most important functional.

 

[Grandpa]

As for the support poles, if you are a member of or have a rural electric co-op, they will usually have old used power line poles (we used to call them telephone poles) that have been replaced. Our co-op sells them for $10 (about 33 feet long), but you have to go to their yard and cut them up yourself to haul them away. Even better, when I catch a crew replacing one out here, they usually don't want to mess with taking them back to the yard, and if I ask they will drop them over the fence into my pasture for free. I cut them up and haul them where I need them with the tractor. They will last practically forever.

 

[greybeard]

Ain't nothin' wrong with that shelter Bez!! I like it, and if I had that much good cedar, I'd build one myself.
(I have lots of cedar, but it's the wrong kind--within a year of cutting, 3/4 of the diameter of the log rots away leaving just a little tiny red heartwood--maybe an inch in a 6" diameter log..i tried some for fence posts and regretted it)

 

[Dave]

I have built several smaller versions of Bez shelter using treated timber as the posts. A guy near me gets to treated lumber from Home Depot that is split, cracked, twisted, or broken. He gets it for next to nothing and sells it cheap. I need a 12 foot piece? Just get a 16 footer with a bad end. Chain saw off the broken part and I am in business. 95% of my weather comes from the southwest so I make it a two sided shed. Covering up the south and west sides. I have used old used tin for the sides too.

 

[Phil in Tupelo]

Serviceable... what more does one need if it is cold and wet outside. The livestock will provide the heat if you provide the dry and energy ration. Good structure,Bez. Good luck, Jono.

 

[shortybreeder]

As for the support poles, if you are a member of or have a rural electric co-op, they will usually have old used power line poles (we used to call them telephone poles) that have been replaced. Our co-op sells them for $10 (about 33 feet long), but you have to go to their yard and cut them up yourself to haul them away. Even better, when I catch a crew replacing one out here, they usually don't want to mess with taking them back to the yard, and if I ask they will drop them over the fence into my pasture for free. I cut them up and haul them where I need them with the tractor. They will last practically forever.

We have used the same thing Except when we got ours, we just went out into the road ditch and grabbed a couple that were laying in the ditches... The Co-op said they didn't want them if we could use them. We put ours in the free-stall barn to keep the cows from laying too far forward in the stalls.

Jono, good luck! I started my herd 2 years ago as a Sophomore in High School just like you, with a couple cows from my dad (holstein x hereford's that sell for nothing at the sales barn) and a youth farm loan from the FSA which I used to buy a couple registered shorthorn cows. It has been a great ride, and for at least the next couple years thing's should be good around here with feed and livestock prices being right where we want them! I would suggest looking into the USDA's Rural Youth Farm Loan program, I got $5000 for 7 years at only 1.375% interest! Within the first year I was able to pay it off, but I just keep making payments so that I can build my credit. I think right now my loan officer told me they are at 2.125% interest. Paperwork is super easy, I just printed it off the computer, filled it out, got 2 letters of recommendation from my FFA Advisor and DECA Advisor, and got the money! It also helps you get acquainted with the headaches of having a loan... :lol: If you are going to all the work of building a shelter and managing the "herd" I would recommend having at least 3-5 cows. That way you can have a nice selection of replacement heifers each year and still have a couple bull calves. In my 2 calving cycles from my first 3 crossbred cows I have yet to get a bull calf to sell, but it has also allowed me to grow the herd quickly.

Good luck! Let me know if you have any questions about the process of the Youth Loan! (It is a federal program I believe, so it should be the same for you as it was for me paperwork-wise)

 

[Nesikep]

If you need a cheap calf shelter, I saw a guy use an old truck canopy set on a couple railway ties... might want to take the glass out first though!

If you can do things without loans, I would recommend doing it that way... If your parents can afford it, get the loan from them. I just don't trust banks... they can put up the interest rate to 20% (happened in the early 80's) and well, you haven't done your credit rating any good if you can't pay right?

Good luck though and keep us posted!