Barn Questions

northeastcallin · #1 05/01/14, 12:50 PM

Hello all,

We are currently in the process of purchasing our dream home - 28 acres with a 5.5 acre pond in northeastern CT- and are wondering about barns.

I built our 12x16 (roof if 20x25) sugarhouse where we live now, which is essentially a glorified barn (I work for a sawmill so the lumber was free).

Being the sugarers that we are, we obviously are going to be building another sugarhouse at the new homestead (which will be made to hold larger equipment and more of our supplies). Ideally we were thinking of making a large barn with the northern portion (separated by a wall) acting as the sugarhouse, and the southern portion acting as the livestock barn / hay storage.

We currently have 5 dairy goats and a mess of chickens and ducks. No longer running pigs. We house the goats in a few mobile plywood hut that move with the goats as we rotate pastures.

My question is, is a barn necessary if we are going to be having a family cow for milking? Im familiar with the milking stand for goats, and a milk parlor would be nice, but I'm fine with doing it out under the rain shelter I have now (but not sure how this would fair with a cow). We will be close to Uconn, so finding breeding stock won't be hard (we also know a few people who make their living doing AI down in Portsmouth, RI, so no concern with that aspect).

I can tell you off the bat that I'm not a huge fan of mucking stalls, and neither is Lucy, although when the kids get a bit older I'm sure they'll be "happy" to do it for us.

So, do we need a barn, or is a run-in going to be something that is more feasible. I would likely only be putting the animals in the barn during the winter, but am unfamiliar with what the animals (cattle) can withstand. Obviously a milking parlor would be nice with some walls for the cold winter days, but do the animals need to be stored inside? We will have about 5 acres of pasture for the animals to be rotated on, and I have the option to have the enclosed barn to be in the center of the various pasture lots.

Is it worth it for us to have a completely enclosed building? We will likely never have horses, but I would probably put all of the livestock in the barn if we did have one eventually.

Thanks!

northeastcallin · #2 05/01/14, 12:52 PM

Also, if you have personal experience, please let me know the sizes of what you recommend

G. Seddon · #3 05/01/14, 01:22 PM

I like having some sort of shelter for the small herd that we have. If I had only one milk cow, I'd certainly have a shelter out of the wind. Do you want to milk that cow outside in the middle of winter, during an ice storm, a blizzard, freezing rain?

The size would depend on how many animals you intend to have in it during bad winter storms, etc. I would suggest having corral panels which are very versatile and can be reconfigured for stall size, etc.

I realize that most people probably don't provide shelters for their cattle, but I know that ours use it if it's available (polar vortex, and all that!) and I was glad to have it for them. Our climate is different from yours, but here's an article that talks about wind chills and their effects on cattle that might be helpful:

http://www.sites.ext.vt.edu/newslett...2/aps-403.html

Awnry Abe · #4 05/01/14, 09:40 PM

I prefer a bit of shelter when I milk, because of rain. It isn't necessary for the cow. We milked goats on a stanchion in open air for months before I put up a simple hoop house made of cattle panels. It felt like a mansion. Same story with the cows. I've milked them tied to a tree. But in a barn is sooooo nice.

tab · #5 05/02/14, 03:16 PM

I am of the opinion you should not have animals if you cannot provide a barn. A week of below zero temps will melt the weight off a pregnant animal. I also have seen storms in 24 hours that would be brutal just in the precip, wind and temp changes. That is my opinion snd it is what I live by. I live in dairy country and even years ago when small dairys were common with pastures, in the bitter cold the cows were inside. So, it is not just my opinion.....
As far as mucking, part of life, makes great compost! Good excercise and it can be time to bond with the critters. Further, I am not milking outside, not doing it. The bugs can be bad enough inside, with spray!

I have my cows in box stalls, originally designed for horses. As we progress with this, the set up may change but they seem to do well. Outside as much as possible for our set up.

simi-steading · #6 05/02/14, 03:31 PM

I was wondering, do you really want livestock that close to your sugarhouse?

sammyd · #7 05/02/14, 04:04 PM

A run in for a milk cow is about all you need to keep her happy. A nice place to milk will keep you happy.
We overwintered our herd without shelter here in central WI and there were no issues.
Good hay and a bit of corn if the temps stayed below 0 for a couple of days. Our parlor was barely heated enough to keep the water from freezing. The snow on their backs usually didn't melt off while they were being milked. We plowed snow in the overwinter lot into big piles for windbreaks and we did have a hoop house to run them into if we got some really wet cold weather.
Cows are extremely hardy. I once read a study that lactating dairy cattle can take up to below 0 temps before they start using body resources to keep warm and require extra energy to keep from losing weight. Beefers and non lactating dairy animals will require supplemental feed at warmer temps.

Rollochrome · #8 05/08/14, 11:50 AM

My bred red angus walked around this winter, which was the coldest we had in decades, with ice cicles (sp?) hanging off her nose and mouth for days.

I just kept giving her about 5 lbs of 2% cubes every evening so she would stay warm from within while digesting those cubes. No problems and she calved a healthy calf right before Easter.

I showed her several times where the loafing shed was that had wood chips on the floor and a nice roof, but nearly every night she preferred to bed down in heavy brush under the trees.

Up north in your part of the country however, I would not risk it. Especially with cattle prices being what they are. I'd build myself at least a little metal building sufficient to pen her up. Remember, more than a hundred thousand cows froze to death this year in the Dakotas...