New Barn Questions

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JBowen

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I have a few Ideas I want to run by smarter people than I am.

1. I am building a Concrete Barn (Floor, Walls, and Roof Concrete) with heated floors and covered with a painted on {Bed liner Like} covering. I am wondering if I put drainage tiles in stalls and have a flush system for the alleys will they still need bedding?

2. Hay will be in an attached Concrete hay shed and will have a pulley system to bring it into a hay loft in barn to be fed. I am wondering if I have it ventilated the barn well is there a reason I could not use wood for the loft?

3. I was wondering if should heat the concrete at the entrance and exit of barn to prevent slip and fall accidents?

4. How many cattle should I be able to keep in a 30' by 30' pen overnight if need be?

5. Does anyone grow Fodder to be feed daily to their beef cattle like made with the Farmtek Fodder Pro?

6. is it ok to feed plants out of garden to cattle in the fall when they are done producing?

Just for information I am in West Virginia and my wife and I are disabled veterans. We raise Beefalo Cattle (Plan on about 60 - I sell the Beef locally), Dairy Goats (For personal milk, weed control, and fiber), Hogs (1 Boar, 3 Sows, and then piglets until big enough to butcher for Meat for me and to sell), Guineas (5 for bug control and alarm system), and chickens (60 for eggs and meat). I have pens planned for each type of livestock. Anything anyone can think of I need to consider? I plan to do clean up with a hose and a broom.
 
That barn sounds like a lot of overkill to me.. just sounds prohibitively expensive!

On #4, I'd say every cow needs about a 4x8 ft space for one of those "If need be" situations, so that works out to about 28 cows.. would be pretty snug in there though if they wanted to lay down.

Welcome to CT!
 
JBowen":qtrkxjx6 said:
I have a few Ideas I want to run by smarter people than I am.

1. I am building a Concrete Barn (Floor, Walls, and Roof Concrete) with heated floors and covered with a painted on {Bed liner Like} covering. I am wondering if I put drainage tiles in stalls and have a flush system for the alleys will they still need bedding?
A stall barn? 4x8 stalls?
Cattle mattresses in each stall... you can get away with no bedding, although some will still use a little sand or something like sunflower seed hulls.


2. Hay will be in an attached Concrete hay shed and will have a pulley system to bring it into a hay loft in barn to be fed. I am wondering if I have it ventilated the barn well is there a reason I could not use wood for the loft?

3. I was wondering if should heat the concrete at the entrance and exit of barn to prevent slip and fall accidents?
IF you are building it in Florida... then it wouldn't be of any use.

4. How many cattle should I be able to keep in a 30' by 30' pen overnight if need be?
temporary overnight 30-40 hd

5. Does anyone grow Fodder to be feed daily to their beef cattle like made with the Farmtek Fodder Pro?

6. is it ok to feed plants out of garden to cattle in the fall when they are done producing?

Just for information I am in West Virginia and my wife and I are disabled veterans. We raise Beefalo Cattle (Plan on about 60 - I sell the Beef locally), Dairy Goats (For personal milk, weed control, and fiber), Hogs (1 Boar, 3 Sows, and then piglets until big enough to butcher for Meat for me and to sell), Guineas (5 for bug control and alarm system), and chickens (60 for eggs and meat). I have pens planned for each type of livestock. Anything anyone can think of I need to consider? I plan to do clean up with a hose and a broom.
 
If you are "for real", welcome to the board. I have my doubts.
I live in upstate NY and I wouldn't want heated floors for my cattle.
I doubt if a painted on "liner" for the floor will hold up to cattle.
Clean up with a hose & broom??? Maybe for the chickens. Have you ever picked up a pile of manure from a mature cow?
 
Jeanne - Simme Valley":2dzcgewm said:
If you are "for real", welcome to the board. I have my doubts.
I live in upstate NY and I wouldn't want heated floors for my cattle.
I doubt if a painted on "liner" for the floor will hold up to cattle.
Clean up with a hose & broom??? Maybe for the chickens.
Have you ever picked up a pile of manure from a mature cow?
Of course not... both he and wife are Disabled former government employees.
Hence the plan for a Concrete Roof and the question if wood is suitable to use for building.
 
This reminds me of the joke how do you end up with $1 million in cattle? Start with $2 million. This plan would get you well on your way.
 
M.Magis":194ixdju said:
This reminds me of the joke how do you end up with $1 million in cattle? Start with $2 million. This plan would get you well on your way.

Or the story about the farmer that won $1,000,000.00, and someone asked him what he was going to do with it. He replied "I guess I'll just keep farming until it's all gone."
 
Thanks Nesikep, Son of Butch, msplmtneer

I appreciate those of you that are helping me. I know wood is good for building but was told the wood would draw moisture to much being in a concrete barn. It will have 8 - 12' x 12' stalls (along sides) and 2 - 30' by 50' pens (in Middle). Cattle Mattress is a cool thing I did not know about (Thank You, Son of Butch). The clean up with hose and broom will only be to move stuff to the alley for flush to carry away and sometimes you need a little brushing to get it all cleaned up. Msplmtneer, It is being built on an outcropping of bedrock so it is on solid rock, but thanks for suggestion, and we are in Grant County, WV.

I have done research and the amount it costs to heat and cool the area would be a lot less. I will be doing heated floors in the house, garage, garden nursery, and maybe barn. I know of a equipment garage that uses I think Duracoat of the floor and it holds up great running dozers and stuff on it and is easy to repair. I thought it would be good to stop slip and falls and make it easier on the animals. I am doing complete concrete because where I am building it is not uncommon to get 80mph winds a few times a year the concrete stands up better than anything else.

I hope this helps you all understand what I am trying to do, I was told I would be in a wheel chair by the time I was 35 yrs old, so I am trying to make it accessible to me at all times. My wife and I find the animals calming, so we would love to make it self sustainable. My moto has always been I would rather build it and never need it, than to need it and not have built it.
 
You're both disabled, but are going to have a self sufficient farm, and do all of the work? Sounds like someone had a good lawyer.
 
JBowen":2ews1bmk said:
Thanks Nesikep, Son of Butch, msplmtneer

I appreciate those of you that are helping me. I know wood is good for building but was told the wood would draw moisture to much being in a concrete barn. It will have 8 - 12' x 12' stalls (along sides) and 2 - 30' by 50' pens (in Middle). Cattle Mattress is a cool thing I did not know about (Thank You, Son of Butch). The clean up with hose and broom will only be to move stuff to the alley for flush to carry away and sometimes you need a little brushing to get it all cleaned up. Msplmtneer, It is being built on an outcropping of bedrock so it is on solid rock, but thanks for suggestion, and we are in Grant County, WV.

beautiful area and where my "people" are from! Are you near Greenland Gap?
 
Jordan Run very near Greenland Gap

And sim I sell my cattle for a nice profit, I own a gun shop and work as a gunsmith, and never had an attorney. No jobs in my area and good help is easy to find and want to put as many people especially veterans to work as I can. I am selling my home and vacation property (I was forced to go to by family) to build this place. My daughter is in college and I can do stuff for me now. I never said I get a payment for being disabled. I said I am disabled. I make stuff so I can do it with my handicap, I am sorry if that offends you. I hope you never have a disability and if you do I hope no one just assumes you just "had a good attorney". Our disability came while serving in the military. My wife and I were both in the US Military and met the first time in Iraq. I am glad you are appreciative of your freedom.
 
I'm just thinking that if Beefalo are as hardy as they're made out to be, just a good windbreak ought to suffice for them... We get cold winds here in the winter and the cows are outside.. a full belly is all they need

This was after a night of freezing rain turning to snow, and waking up to about 5F
[youtube]https://youtu.be/mVHDbCosXFA[/youtube]
 
JBowen":21u2chrr said:
Jordan Run very near Greenland Gap

And sim I sell my cattle for a nice profit, I own a gun shop and work as a gunsmith, and never had an attorney. No jobs in my area and good help is easy to find and want to put as many people especially veterans to work as I can. I am selling my home and vacation property (I was forced to go to by family) to build this place. My daughter is in college and I can do stuff for me now. I never said I get a payment for being disabled. I said I am disabled. I make stuff so I can do it with my handicap, I am sorry if that offends you. I hope you never have a disability and if you do I hope no one just assumes you just "had a good attorney". Our disability came while serving in the military. My wife and I were both in the US Military and met the first time in Iraq. I am glad you are appreciative of your freedom.

I thank both you and your wife for your service. While your question is a little different from a farming perspective, you do not deserve the ridicule that you have received from at least one member. Some people have never had to face and/or live with adversity. You should be applauded.
 
I'll admit I was also skeptical. I've just never heard of someone building a barn like that to shelter farm animals. I know the weather in West Virginia isn't the same as Texas, but it still seems excessive. However, it's your money, and if that's what you want then by all means go ahead. And I'd also like to thank you and your wife for your service.
 
Thank you and your wife for your service. Yes, it sounds like overkill to the average farmer, but the reasoning you have sounds like it is something you have thought out, so good luck. I would think that you will not need to worry so much about the beefalo animals in the weather if they have decent places to get out of the wind. Cattle and even more so buffalo are able to take some pretty cold temps if they can get out of the wind. Having pastures that have good thickets of cedars or other windbreaks will be a big plus, even manmade wind breaks. I am thinking that the barn would be more to house the younger animals during bad weather. If you time your calving for the later spring months, then the housing will not be as critical. Still, I am like you, I would rather they have a place to go in and decide they don't want to, than to have them huddled out in the bad weather and not have anywhere to go.

The coating that you are looking at might be good for high traffic areas or heavy use, but will it be good with the kind of acidity that you will be dealing with from cattle manure and urine? If it didn't hold up, there are companies that do grooving in concrete. Most dairies have had walkways and areas of cattle traffic grooved over the years to keep cattle from slipping and splitting from slick concrete. Concrete is hard on the animals joints as well as people. Most confinement dairies have shorter lifespans in their cattle than those that are off concrete.

i don't think heated floors for cattle are necessary, or even good. Good deep bedding would make the transition from inside to outside weather easier. If they are kept too "comfortable" then they will be less hardy when they do go outside in the wintertime. An area with a heated floor will make it easier on the humans, and for say baby pigs and such, a help in the winter months but you don't want to lose the inherent hardiness of the livestock.

Concrete buildings tend to be damp. Have worked in some hog barns that were all concrete/cinder block, except for the roof and they were cold in the winter. What about the animals respiration and all the moisture that cattle create through breathing/ exhaling/chewing their cuds etc.? Damp conditions will kill quicker than the cold.

Air flow will be critical in a concrete barn so that the animals do not get sick. Ventilation is very important to also keep any respiratory problems in hand.

Not trying to be critical, just some thoughts. Concrete does make it easier to clean the floors and to sanitize, but doesn't lend itsself to easy drying out if the whole thing is concrete, without real good air flow.
 
Make sure there is airflow to all parts. Like Farmerjan said that wet moist air can kill.
 
sstterry":26f1ysn5 said:
JBowen":26f1ysn5 said:
Jordan Run very near Greenland Gap

And sim I sell my cattle for a nice profit, I own a gun shop and work as a gunsmith, and never had an attorney. No jobs in my area and good help is easy to find and want to put as many people especially veterans to work as I can. I am selling my home and vacation property (I was forced to go to by family) to build this place. My daughter is in college and I can do stuff for me now. I never said I get a payment for being disabled. I said I am disabled. I make stuff so I can do it with my handicap, I am sorry if that offends you. I hope you never have a disability and if you do I hope no one just assumes you just "had a good attorney". Our disability came while serving in the military. My wife and I were both in the US Military and met the first time in Iraq. I am glad you are appreciative of your freedom.

I thank both you and your wife for your service. While your question is a little different from a farming perspective, you do not deserve the ridicule that you have received from at least one member. Some people have never had to face and/or live with adversity. You should be applauded.

I agree on both ends. Thank you and your wife for your service to our country. I think some people forget this is the Beginners Board
 
Farmer Jan you are 100% correct about the ventilation I am trying to figure out the best way to keep it dry. I thought if I kept all concrete with good drainage it might help with keeping moisture down, but do you think exhaust fans like in a chicken house would help and use air from furnace room (very dry air) for the intake? Is it better to exhaust the air up high to keep the air from moving around the livestock, or have the exhaust low and intake high? The Barn is 100' by 90' by 20' tall with a hay loft running along the outside wall extending 12' from the wall and 12' from the floor. What do you suggest for Ventilation? If you do not mind me asking.

I like your idea on making the cattle less hardy so what if I could warm the floor in sections where it is needed and leave it alone when it is not needed might take care of that, maybe? If I use cattle mattress should that be enough for the cattle? If the coating does not hold up could they groove the floor after it was installed?

I want to know where my food comes from. I also want to protect my animals. I have lost Beefalo, Goats, and chickens to hunters mostly in early morning and late in the evening. I have also lost animals to many predators such as Black Bear, Large cats, coyotes, and dogs. My father works for a concrete company so I get employee prices on concrete. I have also found that although it is more expensive when first installed it lasts a long time and is pest proof. It is also cheaper to heat and cool and way cheaper to insure.

Thank you all for your respect for service members. We appreciate it. I always feel it was my choice and make my way with what I can do instead of worrying about what I can't. I am also sorry for being defensive on here that was uncalled for everyone is entitled to their opinion I just did not want people thinking my family were mooches.
 
damp air is lighter than dry air, so I'd put the exhaust up high at the gable.
We have lots of predators as well, never lost any to them... well, we did lose a young calf to a 2 legged one about 27 years ago
 

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