Temporary Windbreak/Shelter for 4 heifers?

[CowboyBlue]

I need some ideas for a temporary shelter for 4 heifers. Cheap is good, but functional is better. Need to get them out of the West Texas blue northers/ north wind for about 5 months or so. Any ideas are appreciated.

 

[Farm Fence Solutions]

When I lived in SD, we made some for an emergency weather kind of deal.... Pipe panels and billboard tarps. Doubt they would have made it 5 months, but nothing died in that squall. Have done some out of old van trailer sides bolted to posts, and they were much sturdier.

I think there may have been round bales involved in the pipe panel/tarp jobs for a backstop.

 

[5S Cattle]

Pallets, round bales, brush piles for cheap. Really a lean to that's sheeted could be done for less than 1k

 

[Chocolate Cow2]

A few guys around here make a windbreak with round bales in a 'U' shape and run an electric fence around it to protect the bales. My son runs a computerized plasma table. His sheet metal comes on big, heavy pallets. He's saved those pallets and I'm using them to make a wind break for my bulls. If you know someone in the heating and cooling business, they may have access to these same pallets.

 

[ddd75]

post in the ground and some old barn tin or wood.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Trying soybean residue bales this year w/o an electric wire. Cattle don't bother them much.

 

[circlebllc]

I used a slide in rack for a 16 foot trailer, then covered with a $$ canvas tarp. They ate the tarp....

 

[TCRanch]

You may want to also put out straw bedding. Makes it much warmer in the winter, cooler in the summer. They'll munch on it but as soon as we roll out a bale they bed down. Sometimes we just leave the bale & let them tear it up, make their own bedding.

 

[CowboyBlue]

Consulted my cousin, a horse guy. He builds windbreaks with backyard fence panels, the 8'x6' picket kind, tied or bolted to pipe posts.

So I bought three panels and four galvanized poles. I asked if they could be driven with a T-post driver, and the guy at Lowe's said, "Well, I guess you can, but I wouldn't want to." I told him, well, I wanted to, and so I did. I put the four poles in a square and drove them two feet deep, and then wired three fence panels in a U-shape around them. I will probably go back and screw in the brackets that came with the poles as soon as I can get around to it, to make it even sturdier. And, I have one more fence panel to put on top and cover with tin, to make a roof.

Less than $300 spent, and it's working just fine. The heifers stand in there, cheek to cheek and satisfied.

 

[Aaron]

Trying soybean residue bales this year w/o an electric wire. Cattle don't bother them much.

Stacking residue bales is about as cheap as it gets.