Designing A Barn

[upfrombottom]

I have a place that I'm wanting to build a new barn. I have it in my mind to build my cattle working facilities in the barn also. I really want to pour a concrete floor in the barn and put sleeves in the slab to put removable panels in for the stalls. I would like to be able to remove some of the panels and make room for a tractor, that I feed with, in the winter and then put them back in when I need the stalls and for working the cattle. I also could make the stalls any size I need. Maybe a far fetched idea.

Do any of you have a concrete floor in your barn? I have electricity on the place but no running water and am a little concerned about keeping the slab clean.

 

[novatech]

Cows will often get the runs while being worked. I would not like to be the one cleaning up behind them. Nor the one that had to take the pens up and down when changing operations. Basically I think you are creating more work for yourself.
Another thing is that cow manure and urine is corrosive. As the urine evaporates it creates corrosive gas. Cow patty dust settles on everything. When the humidity rises or you take the equipment out in the rain it becomes corrosive.

 

[bbirder]

I'd also be worried about that concrete getting slippery when working those cows. Not worth splitting one. Hard enough to make a profit as it is.

 

[upfrombottom]

Thanks guys for your help, but what I wanted to know is:

Do any of you have a concrete floor in your barn?

 

[Kingfisher]

Thanks guys for your help, but what I wanted to know is:

Do any of you have a concrete floor in your barn?

No. I don't think that is recommended when working with beef.

 

[bear]

Couple of dairy operations around here have concrete floors. Very coarse finish to keep cattle from slipping. It is so coarse that it takes a power washer to clean it. Most power washers require 3-4 gpm supply to run them. I have a 250 gallon water tank that I set in the back of the truck and use a 12 volt in line transfer pump to pull water from the tank to the power washer. Wire a trailer plug to the transfer pump and plug into trailer plug on the truck. Turn on parking lights to use transfer pump. You could probably strategically locate a couple of trench drains in your working pens to direct the wash towards. This would help to minimize wash time and reduce water usage. Trench drains could be day lighted to area outside barn. The 250 gallon tank will give you an hour plus wash time.
Bear

 

[backhoeboogie]

Don't use concrete. Just trust everyone on that. If you gotta do it, slope it with the terrain and use grates like a dairy would.

I've been in barns that I hated. Been in some I loved. Seems like every time I wanted to start a barn I already had something in mind.

 

[dun]

Concrete can work but it will be more work then not having it. The concept of movable pens sliding into sleeves dosn;t work. Our old milk parlor is set up like that, all of the pipe (when we could finally get them out of the sleeves) are rusted through. If you will want to build/configure different pen arrangments through time, drive T-posts where you want them, chain the panels to them. When you want them moved just pull the T-posts.

 

[plumber_greg]

I think that cleaning the concrete would be the killer. I know that you have mud, and if you store your tractor in on the concrete, and it gets as muddy there as here, you would be scraping and cleaning the rest of your life.
The guy that runs the hoe for me has a concrete floor in his machine shed that he can pull the truck and loaded backhoe in and just from the roads he deals with a lot of dirt and mud in his barn.
As a tip, he uses a leaf blower to blow the dried dirt out of the shed and off his approach. He says it works a lot better than a broom. gs

 

[novaman]

If you do put concrete in I would groove it for added traction for the cows. I would not make it coarse as this will file on the hooves of the cows and is no good.

 

[ChrisB]

Our working facilities are in an ex dairy barn with a concrete floor. The concrete is grooved though, and the crowding tub, alley and chute happen to be in an area the didn't have concrete. I don't see a problem with concrete - in fact I like it. As for keeping equipment in there I would think after you clean and the floor dries you wouldn't have a rust problem but that is just a guess. We clean ours with a skidsteer - have never power washed it.

Maybe you could just pour concrete in some areas?

 

[canadianfarmboy]

I wouldnt build a barn that was meant to keep cattle in without concrete floors . Makes cleaning a lots easier. Before BSe my farther ran a small feedlot ( 1500 head) and conrete worked great . The yards had orginally had pavemnet in them the skid steer loaders tore that up quickly . The conrete was grooved where the cattle would be worked or moved alot .

 

[Dave]

I have concrete floor in the barn, at the feeders, and the working area. I wish I had more. It is easy to clean. I have a tractor tire cut in half mounted on a three point frame with the bead cut off on the bottom. Scrapes off the manure just fine but doesn't wear out the concrete. The only work it adds is that I end up spreading a lot of manure. But the advantage there is I put the manure where I want it.

The sleeve idea doesn't work. I tried it. They pack full of manure and are a royal pain to get to working. I ended up building everything with gates big enough to get in with the tractor and laid it out so I can just open gates and scrape away.

 

[CKC1586]

I put concrete in mine, glad I did. The cattle don't "live" in there. Keeping it clean is much easier. The run ins on the lean to side have concrete as well, wish I would have went another 10 feet with it. Works great.

 

[Stocker Steve]

I lease a pole built loafing shed with 12' centers and a cement floor. I busted out the floor to put a head gate and a wood chute along the back. I chain HD panels to the posts to make a holding area. Works fine with some straw bedding but the poles are rotting out...

I have a hard time justifying cement for a beef operation, so I have been using woven mat covered with class 5 for heavy use areas, and a little crushed concrete on slopes where class 5 washes.

 

[upfrombottom]

The ones that have concrete, highly recommend it, and the ones without say... noway. I actually suspected that would be the outcome. Nothing I do is welded in stone until the day after its done, and sometimes not then. Thanks guys.

 

[backhoeboogie]

That concrete may have to do with environments too. We don't have a lot of mud problems round here.

 

[1wlimo]

The pens in my barn are just pannels that fix to the wall at the back and each end of the barn. This means that you have problems if you want a pen in the middle, but other wise is really good.

We used to use old wooden railway ties as posts when they were in a sleave. This works good, only you need the loader to pull them out.

A good hard packed clay floor can be as good as a concrete floor. It does need to be sloped like you would with concrete and have no holes for water to collect. Depends on the water table etc

 

[Angus Cowman]

The pens in my barn are just pannels that fix to the wall at the back and each end of the barn. This means that you have problems if you want a pen in the middle, but other wise is really good.

We used to use old wooden railway ties as posts when they were in a sleave. This works good, only you need the loader to pull them out.

A good hard packed clay floor can be as good as a concrete floor. It does need to be sloped like you would with concrete and have no holes for water to collect. Depends on the water table etc

Well right now the water table where Upfrombottom lives is anywhere from 4-12ft above ground level

 

[jedstivers]

I've seen two high line poles almost under an I know of several pivots that are all the way under. There is land here that goes under at 20 something feet on the Memphis guage and it's going to crest at 48' so around 28' of water there.