Flooring material in feed area

[greggy]

I am using one side of panels for feeding, will depend on weaner size, mine are prob smaller size as are bottle calves.

For 15 calves I have 6m of panels, 5 spaces per 2m panel, so 40cm each.

I would prob do a slab 1.5m or so wide by however long if permanent. There are good designs out there in pdf if making a permanent feed area.

 

[greggy]

Just FYI, went to look at and get granite, spoke to guy driving bucket and he suggested another material with some name....something dust...

Anyways, asked him what it was made of and he said crushed limestone

Will see how it goes

 

[SBMF 2015]

Thanks for the update. We just redid a sorting alley. It was getting knee deep in me. Kind of hard to sort a when you can't move.

 

[OutdoorFarmer]

We are having the same issue in our calving barn. The prevous owner left it as a clay floor and didnt do any landscaping in it. So now all the water runs to the middle of the pens because of the cows digging. We did debate about pouring concrete but to spend $10k for something that only gets used 4 months of the year doesn't make sense to us. We did look into other things too but most of them besides gravel were hellish price. The plan I came up with is to make a base out of old bridge planking. Most of it is 3 to 4 inches thick and made out of cedar. As for feeders, my uncle solved that with old rail road ties. He would set the feeder in the center and build around them. Works really good once you do some landscaping and find the ties. Also instead of rail ties, you could use old discarded rig matting from oil rigs. They hold up really good and are really hard to break. Trust me, I used a K!2 saw on them and it had fun trying to cut some of the mats

 

[greggy]

I used a 7ft box blade and cut out the muck, also cut a run off so water can slowly drain away, but is on clay that is sloped already.

I will try and put up some shots later, but first will see if it stands up at all.

It also pays to keep them well fed, they do not push and shove as much.

Concrete would def be the go if a permanent spot and year after year.

 

[greggy]

Thanks for the update. We just redid a sorting alley. It was getting knee deep in me. Kind of hard to sort a when you can't move.

Yeah, you cant work like that, in a feed area, they waste time and effort too when knee deep, and look like pigs when covered in clay.....

 

[SBMF 2015]

Thanks for the update. We just redid a sorting alley. It was getting knee deep in me. Kind of hard to sort a when you can't move.

Yeah, you cant work like that, in a feed area, they waste time and effort too when knee deep, and look like pigs when covered in clay.....

It's just where we sort. All the cattle are in concrete yards. Then from 800lbs to finish our strs are in a slated floor building. They stay really clean.

 

[greggy]

How is the floor cleared...a small fel tractor or skid ?

And underneath, it is raised so it can be cleared.....just curious.

 

[SBMF 2015]

How is the floor cleared...a small fel tractor or skid ?

And underneath, it is raised so it can be cleared.....just curious.

It's an 8' deep pit. We pull one 4'x8' gang of concrete slats, put a pump in and pump the manure out to a liquid manure spreader.