Holding Pen Size

[mdt192]

I'm looking at adding on to my working pens to make a weaning / holding pen and would like to pick y'all's brain on size.

It will be used for catching (when not in use), weaning calves (no more than 20 for 4 weeks), and holding cows while in an ai protocol (no more than 25 for 2 weeks)

Would this 72'x48' addition be suitable for housing that number of cows / calves? Of course, water and feed would be brought in.

The other two pens would also be opened most of the time, but I need to be able to get by with one if needed.

Most of this work should be in fall and early spring, so I am hoping my lack of shade won't be a major problem? There are tree lines 100 ft both north and south, but not much east and west.

Not in the picture are temporary panels tying the squeeze chute and lower most gate, so that animals can be sent back to corrals after chute service.

 

[bird dog]

I would say thats kind of small for that length of time. I would build a pasture with high tensile net wire connected to it that was about a acre in size.

 

[Warren Allison]

I'm looking at adding on to my working pens to make a weaning / holding pen and would like to pick y'all's brain on size.

It will be used for catching (when not in use), weaning calves (no more than 20 for 4 weeks), and holding cows while in an ai protocol (no more than 25 for 2 weeks)

Would this 72'x48' addition be suitable for housing that number of cows / calves? Of course, water and feed would be brought in.

The other two pens would also be opened most of the time, but I need to be able to get by with one if needed.

Most of this work should be in fall and early spring, so I am hoping my lack of shade won't be a major problem? There are tree lines 100 ft both north and south, but not much east and west.

Not in the picture are temporary panels tying the squeeze chute and lower most gate, so that animals can be sent back to corrals after chute service.

Yeah, you could keep them in that, but it will be like keeping them in a stall. You'd have to keep free-choice hay available to them the whole time. And, you will have a lot of manure to deal with. Might be quite a mess if it rains while they are in there.

 

[Ebenezer]

I'm looking at adding on to my working pens to make a weaning / holding pen and would like to pick y'all's brain on size.

It will be used for catching (when not in use), weaning calves (no more than 20 for 4 weeks), and holding cows while in an ai protocol (no more than 25 for 2 weeks)

Would this 72'x48' addition be suitable for housing that number of cows / calves? Of course, water and feed would be brought in.

The other two pens would also be opened most of the time, but I need to be able to get by with one if needed.

Most of this work should be in fall and early spring, so I am hoping my lack of shade won't be a major problem? There are tree lines 100 ft both north and south, but not much east and west.

Not in the picture are temporary panels tying the squeeze chute and lower most gate, so that animals can be sent back to corrals after chute service.

The smaller, the worse the mud. Shade is an issue as the SE USA has the ups and downs that make some days hot even in the fall and sometimes the spring. Remember that the cattle have to acclimatize to the season and sudden changes can be a shock. I think that extension has 40 sq. ft. per cow as a minimum. And you will need to be able to get in there easily and often with hay or feed. They will learn that routine and make it a challenge for a guy and a tractor.

 

[greybeard]

Might be quite a mess if it rains while they are in there.

Might? Even without rain, the manure and urine is going to make a muddy mess on surface, and around the water source, but with rain, it will become a bog. I agree with Bird dog. Create a dedicated small pasture, (1 acre minimum) even if you have to do it with temporary electric fencing. If I did the math right, 72' X 40'=0.066 acres.

(I built exactly 1 (ONE) temporary fence in 20 years and it stayed there for a year)

Putting enough hay in the small area you've drawn up for even 2 weeks is going to result in a lot of waste hay strewn about, which prevents the ground from drying up.
You can't go wrong with a bigger area to hold them in and any that won't follow feed into your actual working area, you need to send down the road anyway.

You're looking at it as 2 week or 4 week periods of time, but you have to have longer vision. Look at how many YEARS your work in building a bigger paddock is going to be spread out in. You always benefit in the long run with plenty of crossfencing.

 

[Lucky]

I try keep about 60 calves in a pen about twice that size for 7 days when weaning. I say try because they rarely make it that long. 5 days is usually the max if it even lightly rains. You can run them in a seperate pen and clean up the manure once a week easy enough but once it rains you'll have a knee deep slop pit that you can't do anything with.

 

[Warren Allison]

Might? Even without rain, the manure and urine is going to make a muddy mess on surface, and around the water source, but with rain, it will become a bog. I agree with Bird dog. Create a dedicated small pasture, (1 acre minimum) even if you have to do it with temporary electric fencing. If I did the math right, 72' X 40'=0.066 acres.

(I built exactly 1 (ONE) temporary fence in 20 years and it stayed there for a year)

Putting enough hay in the small area you've drawn up for even 2 weeks is going to result in a lot of waste hay strewn about, which prevents the ground from drying up.
You can't go wrong with a bigger area to hold them in and any that won't follow feed into your actual working area, you need to send down the road anyway.

You're looking at it as 2 week or 4 week periods of time, but you have to have longer vision. Look at how many YEARS your work in building a bigger paddock is going to be spread out in. You always benefit in the long run with plenty of crossfencing.

Well, he wouldn't have to put 2 or 4 weeks worth of hay in there at one time. He could feed them every day. But, you are right.... even with no rain and daily feeding, it will turn into a big mess. Maybe he just needs to do this once a year, like at weaning or time to work them, but after they are gone, he'd have to let it dry, then get in there with something to scoop it all out, and haul it off somewhere. I agree with using electric fencing to make about an acre lot beside the pens.

 

[wbvs58]

I have a smallish but secure pen where I will wean about 30 calves. They stay in there exclusively for 2 days until the desperation period is over then I let them out into an adjacent reasonably well fenced 11/2 acre paddock during the day but lock back up at night for a few more days. Seems to work well for me. I find the 2nd night is when they try to make a last ditch effort to escape.

Ken