Tarp and Cattle Panel Shelter-pics for Eric
 

Here are close-up pics of the calf/goat shelter. We made it bigger to fit several calves/goats.
We used one large tarp(can't remember the size at this time, but as you can see in the pictures, it was actually too large)$16.00, three regular cattle panels at $16.00 each, about two dozen nails, a few slabs of wood and a couple long blocks of wood. Also a bit of wire to attach the panels together and the tarp to the panels. And a few fence staples to attach the panels to the blocks of wood.
We also used a smaller tarp for winter use, and blocked off one end so that the wind and snow didn't whistle right through it. We took the end tarp off last week when HOT summer weather hit.

You can see the ground was uneven thus a bow in the top. Doesn't affect its use at all.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61.../Otherside.jpg

I drove in two fence posts, set the long square pieces of wood on the inside of the posts, and bowed the fence panels against the wood. Then using fencing staples, I attached the panels to the wood on the inside.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...ofshelter2.jpg

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...eofshelter.jpg

Then after attaching the panels together with wire(clips would have been nice but I had the wire and clips are just another expense), we proceeded to cover the panels with the tarp.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...arpshelter.jpg

We used wire to attach it in most spots, but the sides were too long as was one end. And since we were having gale-force winds on this hilltop, we used slabs of wood and nails to nail the sides of the tarp to the square blocks of wood that the panels were attached to. And we turned the extra long end of the tarp inside the hoop and attached it with wire as you can see here.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...eofshelter.jpg

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...arpshelter.jpg

It would have been easier with a tarp that fit, but we used what we had and it has held up very well. And for the price, you can't beat it. :) Oh, and we used electrical tape to wrap any sharp ends on the panels that might have ripped the tarp.
Wish I had thought of getting pics as we were putting it together, but we were trying to hurry as a winter storm moved in. :rolleyes:

Jay wants to know if they climb on it?

Not really. A few do the springboard thing sometimes but its not too bad. The sides are pretty much straight up if its done right so they can't get on top of it. Its taller than it looks. Adult does and young kids never jump ooff it. Sometimes the "tweenies" do......but like I said if its made right there really isn't anything to get a footing on.

What are the dimensions of the finished shelter? Susan

Oh, and that is a "cheap" tarp. What I wanted was one of the quality long-lasting canvas tarps. But the company I usually buy had gone out of business and I couldn't find a canvas tarp big enough. So I figure I'll have to replace that tarp within a years time or so. Probably before hard winter sets in.

Thanks Emily. I am able to see how to get that shelter built much easier now. I like the T-Post use to keep the base firm as well as how easy it looks like it can be built.

How many goats/calfs will fit in it? I am also kinda wondering about the size, but I think I can always make mine a bit smaller using maybe two panels.

Thanks again for feeding my addiction. I would say my wife thanks you too, but she keeps telling me she wants to go on vacations and travel the world :rolleyes: ....bah...I want goats n chickens outside my winders and fresh milk on the table. :hobbyhors

Not sure......Its three panels long and they are 5' tall....so it would be a little less than 15' long since a couple of the panels overlap a bit.
I'll have to check on the heighth and width.

Yes, you can make it any size.
There are 6 calves in this one right now, but 10 would fit easily as long as they weren't any bigger. Once our calves are 6 months old or so, they only get trees as shelters and this will once again be used for goats. I'd say 10 goats would be comfortable in the summer, but for winter it would be a bit crowded. Thats full size goats of course. A lot more kids would fit in easily. I prefer to give them as much room as possible and not crowd.

Oh - the photos are for Mavors! Howdy neighbor!

I guess I should show him what we just got. We still need to bolt them together and move them back to the goat yard.

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m...lgs/cake-3.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m...lgs/cake-2.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m...lgs/Cake-1.jpg

These are going into the day pasture for shade and rain shelter.

They were an amazing find. They are two comercial awnings, 16 feet long and about 4 ft high the way we have them set up. We got them from our freindly neighborhood scrap yard dealer for the price of being good neighbors, baking cupcakes, and being in the right place at the right time (because we were driving past on the way home from a $37 emergency vet visit for a goat sports injury).

One of them says "Custom Cake Decorating" in big letters - just the touch of elegance that our place really needed.


The night pasture has these for shelter:
http://www.loyal-roth.com/Calf_Hutch2.html
http://www.loyal-roth.com/Calf_Hutch3.html

The smaller one is our first one and was fine for 4 youngish goats. Now we also have the large one and 8 adult goats and a 2 year old heifer sleep together in it. Incold weather they tuck in close and only fill it about 1/2 way. We put plastic strip doors on the front, and when it's really cold the goats make the cow take the side by the door while they enjoy the toasty warm back half.

As the cow grows we plan to reposition Poly Jumbo Hutch and Poly Humoungo Hutch so the face each other, and we will put a breezeway in between - possibly using the orange awnings, or maybe pvc frame & tarp. That way they will use both houses as needed.

Lynda

I'm using a hoophouse right now for our goats. We at first started out with a cheap blue tarp but had to get a more tougher tarp. Due to the winds we have here. Plus when live in the mountains an the winds reach close to 70 or 80mph you better have a rough tough tarp. Later we either going to have a new build built or sell all of our goats. We have already sold most the herd we only have 7 left went from 24 down to 7. Hoophouse are handy but if live where you have really high winds you better buy you a rough tough tarp instead of cheap crap.

Here's a couple of photos of the Poly Hutch apartment complex:

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m.../Hutches-1.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m...gs/Hutch-2.jpg

The big Poly house has the plastic doors flipped up right now. We do that when the weather is mild for good drying air flow.

And Eric, or any other neighbors - If you need play stumps for your goats we've got them free for the taking. Also works as firewood if you can use it and have a splitter. We have about 30 trunk sections from two 100 ft sycamores. They range from about 2 - 3 feet in diameter and are in about 18 inch lengths. Too tough to split with a budget sized splitter, but if you've got one that's not bottom of the line you should be OK. Unsplit, these would be top notch goat playtoys if you have a trailer and strong muscles to load them. All for the unbelievable price of $0!! Seriously, if any of you folks are in the area and could use them, we'd be happy to give you as many as you want. Look at how lovely they are:

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m129/lgslgs/wood.jpg

Lynda

Doesn't seem too bad at all. Thanks Emily

Lgslgs - Howdy neighbor!! :dance: Thank you for the pictures. I've been wondering a bit about how you have your goat area setup. Is the "big Poly house" on a platform? Kinda looks like it is but the smaller one isn't. Was thinking the dirt floor would be better for drainage and such. I bet your goats will like that new awning. Do you think the goats will climb on top of it? Oh and thanks for the wood offer, but I've got plenty with 10 acres of woods I have more wood than I'll use ever. I remember you saying that you used electric for your perimeter fencing, but it doesn't look like the fencing in the picture has electric. I may just not be able to see it or maybe it's not that big of a problem for you.

Great to see your pictures and see how you are doing as well! :)

Hi Eric -

The night pasture is in the photo, and that's just welded wire. They'd got that little bit you can see and then it goes up the hill a bit. That section is maybe an acre. All of the land outside that pen is their day area. You can see maybe 2 acres of the 15 - and the 15 has the electric perimeter fence. So Poly house land is just the very center of the donut.

The big house comes with a frame of 4x4's around the base for rigidity (included with the house). It's also designed that you can move it with a forklift or pull it with a truck. The floor is just dirt, though, with wood chips or shredded leaves for bedding. It drains well but builds up a bit of height over time. Pat takes the height off it and takes it to the compost heap as needed. He also has some little one foot sections of wooden fence posts he uses as rollers to move the house if needed.

The small house is easy to tip onto it's side for cleaning. These things are sturdy, too. You'd never guess we dropped a big (about 60 ft) pine tree on that little house once. :) And they have a 10 year warranty.

We'll find out soon if the goats climb on the awning but they don't try to climb on the poly houses. They just have so much space available and more important stuff to do instead. Why climb on something if there's no food to reach above it? More fun to go slide down a coal seam or bring down a sapling or 50.

Lynda

Sugestion for hoop houses
 

Reading the various threads, some of you mention delimas with high winds whipping your tarps.
What has helped me is using hay twine, tied low near the bottom, and thrown over the structure, snugged down tight, and tied down low on the other side of the structure.
If you do this every 3 or 4 feet along the tarp, it prevents those big billows from the wind that pull out the grommets.

Do any of you who use these type shelters live in big snow country?
I do, and used the cattle pannels/tarps hoops for covers for my dog kennels.
It was a disaster. The heavy snow bent down the hoop into the kennel, froze into glacial, and the kennel was unusable for the duration.

If any of you do have the snow issues, I'd love to hear how you solved them. I'd like to try again, but cannot risk an unusable kennel for a winter.

well wouldn't a few well placed panels on the outside keep the tarps from blowing around? seems like if you've got a good thing going with the panels why not stick with it and put them on the outside as well, for strength from snow, and high winds? ...just a thought.

I've used those types of shelters for a few years. They work pretty well. I too have used the cheaper tarps. They are fine, and last a year or two. They''d probably last a lot longer if it weren't for the barn cats, and the high winds we get. I used bunge cords over the top from one side to the other in a few places to keep the tarps from billowing and that worked fine. We did find after the first year that high wind will actually make the cattle pannels bend and collapse to one side until we tied them tightly to the t-posts at the top of the post to hold the sides up in heavy winds. A small hole cut through the tarp to allow the tie to go through was all that was necessary and made no difference in the quality of sheltering. I've used them in all weather and they were just fine. I like them a lot and they are really cheap to make, and not all that expensive to maintain (replacement tarps every couple of years).

christij:

In answer to your question about the goats climbing on the shelter: "yes." When my son came home the other evening, he commented that he saw a couple of the goats laying on top of the shelter. The next morning, the front two panels were on the ground, along with the tarp (ours is five panels deep).

So, with a little tweaking, it will be improved upon today.

Mine is open at one end for now, but am considering trying to make it more winter-proof with pallets. When we first put it up, it was supposed to be only temporary while we built something more protective over the summer, but I can see that my more permanent set-up may not happen on schedule (you know, $$$$ and time).

Also, I have used similar set-ups, with clear plastic, to grow tomatoes under.

Janis

I use hoop houses for my chickens and my goats, although Barb has me constructing a real chicken coop (3 months now) that is just never gonna get finished.

Do the goats climb the hoop houses? Well not my older Mini Lamanchas but the little kids sure do.http://www.signforums.com/kimonftp/goatontop.jpg

The shelter I made is 7' wide, 6' tall and just a few inches short of 15' long. The sides are very straight so kids and goats cannot climb up them. Now if there is anything close they can get a jumpstart from?? Then yes, they will end up on top. :)

Kimon, that is just too cute.

You all are just so crafty, I just love looking at all you ideas.....

My hoop houses are 8 ft wide and about 6' tall and they kids walk right up the sides, my older girls couldn't care less but the babies think the top of the hoop house is a trampoline.

What can I say...you just have bratty goats.... :p Oh wait, I think the definition of goat *is* "bratty"..... :rolleyes: :)

Wow, this is a REAL good idea. I never thought of this... We're fencing off the back acreage and we were thinking of running a pair of calves for butchering back there, along with the goat herd. We were going to make it so that the calves couldn't get up to the barn, because i'd rather not clean up after cows or have them churning up the barn area. We were going to invest in a 3-sider, but these would be good for as long as the calves were alive, but ALSO they'd be easy to collapse and move from spot to spot, so no one spot of the property gets easily 'mushy', if you know what I mean. I'm gonna have to show daddy these. :)

oops I thought I was on another thread

I wish I could do something like that here, but it just wouldn't hold up to our frequent 40-70mph winds.

Ladycat, I am about 30 miles north of Abilene, and the shelters like this I have built hold up to the wind. The key is driving the T-post deep, and tying everying down tight, and then tighten everything a bit more.

My latest is my hay "barn"

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1021/...7036e0d41e.jpg

This this one is going to be moved once the hay is gone, I only used four T posts. For neater look (and to try something new) I put the tposts on the inside.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1357/...68068623da.jpg

I've also taken to grinding all the sharp bits before even trying to use the panels. It really extends the life of the cheap tarps I use.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1238/...3e0120e877.jpg

The end tarp is a round tarp that was used during the transport of the towers they are using for the windmills in this area. It got torn, and it was given to me.

As for goat climbing, now that i have made the wall vertical, I do not have that problem. If I did I might be tempted to run some wire on insulators around three sides of the shelter and connect it to my electric fence.

Split some hose and put it over the ends. Garden hose should work.

That's a great idea! However, I often use my panels for gates and other things and have gotten into the happen of smoothing them up for the sake of my hands anyway.

I have one built for my young bucks and I used the silver tarps they are heavier they have lasted 4 years now and still going.

I got treated 2x4s , two each 10' and 12' and made a frame work on the ground to attatch the 3 cattle pannels 4' x 16' and bowed them making it over 6' high and too steep for the goats to climb.The tarp then is 12' x 16'. with my winds it lasts a year for the el cheapo tarp. the ends are old plywood panels from boxes at work.Drop down panels for air in the summer and an open door for me and the goats.
I just hook up to a chain hooked to the 10' end and move with garden tractor to a clean spot now and then.
Chas

awwwwwwwwwwww, You are all making me so sad! I can`t get stock pannels! We had to buy a $900.00 livestock tent for our 2 sheep! and we sold them this year! And only got $400 for them! now only my buck and mom`s wether is in their! Wow! I could have lots of does!

I use tarp shelters to!! I love them. They are easy to put up...as long as the wind isn't blowing while putting the tarp on. LOL. And they aren't very pricey either. We have one for the pygmy goats that's about 8x8. We are adding another cattle panel before winter so it'll be an 8x12. I have the arch just tall enough that I can stand in there so it'll make cleaning it out easier. :) Their hay feeder is at the back of the shelter also so that keeps the hay from getting wet.

I also have a tarp shelter for my calf. Its an 8x8 run in shelter. The arch is also high enough for me to stand in there and be able to clean with out too much hassle.

We also use the silver colored tarps. They are heavier then the blue and when comparing the two we decided to go with the silver.

If you are worried about a heavy snow load bending in your tunnel you can always put a brace in. Before you bend the panels over, put in a short t post in the center that will be shorter than the top. it just needs to be in the ground well, cause they will rub on it. Then find a piece of old pvc pipe that will go over the t post and cut it to fit from ground to top of shelter. Then in center of pvc cut or grind two small grooves for the wire of the panels to set into. If your pvc post is just a little taller, like .5 inch or so it works better as the fence will sit down on it in the grooves. Then when the load of snow gets too much the center posts helps to hold the weight until you can scrape it off or it slides down sides.

old thread alert :) :)

Glad it popped up. I've been contemplating a buck shelter.. LOL

We use a modified version of these for chicken breeding pens. My experience has been yes goats climb on them & if you look inside you can see some made chickens. Also the shelters will blow a few 100 yards here in OK. We try to steak them down, but sometimes it works better than others.
DH also built one to park his bike under. Last yr stocked up on tarps at the end of winter. Walmart has them in the hardware area with winterization stuff.
I know it is an old thread, but if you can't imagine the number of people that see my pens & go WOW!

We have been using a hoop house for several years. Used one of the good tarps still have not had to replace it. Starting to need it now though probably will before winter.

I'm glad this thread popped up too. I like those cattle panel shelters. I have been left with a buck problem (someone won't come pick up their buck). So I needed to make a cheap shelter. I used pallets and one of those quick shade covers for my shelter. It has been working great.