# What to build for a new beef cattle barn?



## Richardin52

I need to build some type of shelter for beef cattle. I'm looking for something that will give them a dry place out of the wind and snow when they need it but they can be outside most of the time when it's not sleeting, snowing or blowing a gale.
It needs to be large enough for 30-40 head.

Does anyone have an open housing type barn they love? I have built a hoop style barn for hay & equipment barn and a barn where we have a commercial kitchen in the basement and a shop on the first floor ( see photo's) in the last couple years. Any idea's will be welcome.

View attachment 1612
View attachment 1613


----------



## hayray

Probably a lean-two structure would work. Most people don't build shelters for a whole herd just enough shelter for calving in bad weather.


----------



## Mike120

Down here we just throw up pole barns. You'd have to go well below the frost line and probably put a 5/12 pitch on the roof to shed snow but I saw quite a few pole barns when I lived in the NE. They were all a whole lot more elaborate than what we build down here though....y'all build nice barns!


----------



## mlappin

We used to milk around 250 Holsteins. A decent barn was the one grandfather build, it worked okay for 90 cows, but worked A LOT better after we took the ridge cap off to improve the ventilation. The best barn was the new one dad built, would hold two hundred cows, open ridge, open eaves and depending on wind direction we'd leave doors open as well. Absolute worst barn was for the small heifers, was under the hay mow in a rented barn, always had calves coughing and was always having to piss away an hour trying to get the ones that needed a shot to poke their heads thru a head gate to give em a dose of penicillin.

After we got rid of the milk cows we ripped all of the free stalls out of the main barn and used it for storage. The dry cow part of the barn we used for beef and even with less beef cows in it, we'd still have problems some winters. The absolute best thing I have done to improve our heard health for the beef cows was to run the electric fence about 300 yards south into the woods. Even if the wind is coming straight out of the north, they can get far enough into the woods to completely break the wind. I've had bulls that decided they were frisky enough to go thru the electric fence so I ended up with calves in January. It was cold enough I was worried about frost bite on myself and the diesel fuel gelling in the loader tractor. The calves did fine.

Getting out of the snow isn't a big deal if they have a proper layer of back fat going into winter. I have a friend that milks around 150 Jerseys doing the rotational grazing thing so they are dried off from November to February and they never see the insides of a barn until they are just about ready to calve late winter/early spring.

Break the wind and they don't need to be inside and from my experience actually do better outside if they can stay out of the wind. Another big plus is if you can keep enough bedding/mulch bales out so they don't have to lay on the frozen ground. I use bean stubble if I can buy it cheap enough or corn stover if I had time to bale some that fall. Mulch hay also works, I just place the bedding bales on the ground with net removed and I let em eat what they want and lay on the rest.

Just need to remember bovines did fine for thousands of years without fancy man made buildings to winter in.


----------



## swmnhay

I built a monoslope barn last yr.Open to the south.6 ft high cement walls on 3 sides.12 ft high opening on north side above the cement wall.Need a curtain there yet!23 ft opening on south side gives alot of ventilation.


----------



## cestes1abac

Here is an idea that my school did for our new working facility. It does not have sides but it would be easy to put sides on it. Hope this gives you another idea. This size is 83'x100' with it 26' high in the middle and at the lowest point its 12'.


----------



## Texasmark

I saw pictures of white face cattle on the open range in 20 below temps and they said that if you feed them good they can keep warm just ruminenting the feed.
Tell that to my spoiled brats here that roll their eyes inside their wind break shelter, concrete floor in 45 degree (dry) weather. Ha!


----------

