Project of a barn for livestock made from blocks. Construction of a bull barn from foundation to roof. Preparing to build a barn

What materials are best to build a barn from, how to provide the animals with normal living conditions, what rooms and places are equipped, what standards should be followed: all these points must be taken into account if you are planning to build a barn for your wet nurse with your own hands.

Features of building a barn with your own hands

The cow reacts very sensitively to dampness, cold, and stuffiness. And this leads to a drop in milk yield and weight loss. Therefore, a barn for a cow must provide normal living conditions for the animals.

Making a barn with your own hands is a completely feasible task, provided you follow certain recommendations. It is necessary to think through and provide for the following issues when building a shed:

decide on the location of the barn;
what material to build from;
operating conditions;
arrangement of ventilation;
lighting;
project.

Choosing the location of the shed

The construction of a barn with your own hands should begin at a certain distance from a residential building, neighbors and water sources. Minimum distance from the house 15 meters.

According to sanitary standards, a well or borehole is located within 20 meters from the barn, this will guarantee clean drinking water.

When choosing a place to build a barn, the best option is the proximity of a vegetable garden or orchard. This proximity will make it easier to dispose of manure in the future.

What materials to build a shed from

The following building materials are used:

wood;
brick;
aerated concrete;
foam concrete;
cinder blocks;
concrete.

It is preferable to use wood for a barn when constructing walls. Both planed boards and logs are suitable. Floors in a barn play a big role. Floor materials are:

adobe coating;
concrete;
wooden boards.

The clay coating retains heat well. Concrete is the most durable and hygienic. The tree quickly deteriorates and absorbs odors.

The presence of an attic in the barn provides additional warmth. In addition, it is convenient to store hay in the attic. In a normal project, it is possible to provide for the supply of hay from the attic to the feeders. It is very comfortable. Hay creates an air layer and ensures heat retention in the barn.

The version of a shed without an attic is easier to build with your own hands. The boards are laid tightly, the joints are coated with clay mortar. A layer of insulation is applied on top. Dried sawdust, slag or dry soil are used as an insulating layer.

A layer more than 10 cm thick is poured. The roof is covered in such a way that water does not flow under the eaves. Ruberoid or slate is used as a roof covering.

Determining the dimensions of the premises

The optimal size of a barn is considered to be an area of 18 square meters per animal. This area is quite enough for one cow with a calf, storage of feed, and equipment.

If there are several cows on the farm, then the area is calculated according to the norms - 6 or more square meters per individual, and taking into account the offspring - up to 9 meters.

The dimensions should include the feeders in front of the stall, as well as the passage. Make a waste drain on a slight slope. The cesspool is equipped with your own hands outside the barn.

Providing conditions of detention

Fresh air is needed in the barn. For this purpose, ventilation is equipped with your own hands. A pipe-hood with a special damper will prevent precipitation and cold air from penetrating into the room. If there is no pipe, then it is possible to build a box of 15 by 15 cm boards for ventilation. Ventilation is provided above the level of the roof ridge. Cows feel great at a temperature of 8-10 degrees Celsius. Permissible deviations range from 4 to 20 degrees Celsius. The animal does not spend its energy on heating, but uses it to “produce” milk and meat.

Organization of the construction process

First of all, familiarize yourself with the project. Finding one won't be difficult. There is a lot of literature, the Internet, etc.
Building a barn with your own hands begins with laying the foundation. For a small building, a strip foundation is quite suitable. The sequence of work is as follows:

a hole up to 70 cm deep is dug (non-flowing soils);
we install the formwork with our own hands;
concrete is poured;
a layer of waterproofing (bitumen or roofing felt) is laid.

Walls are built on a protected foundation. Brick walls are good because they provide normal ventilation, but require additional insulation. In addition to its availability, adobe will provide excellent performance in maintaining heat and dryness in a room.

Floors are laid at a level above the ground of at least 10 cm. It is necessary to ensure natural drainage (a difference of 2 cm per linear meter) of waste into the sump. Create a tray with your own hands on the lower side of the slope up to 15 cm deep and up to 30 cm wide to drain the slurry. Concrete floors are covered with removable wooden panels.

The manure flows through a slanted chute into the slurry container. Urine accumulates in a container with a volume of up to 1 cubic meter. This amount will last up to 30 days. Periodically scoop out the slurry with a bucket.

The roof is made with a slight slope. The material is planed boards. Slate is laid on the thermal insulation layer.

Internal equipment of the barn

For a cow, fresh air is a guarantee of health. At the same time, drafts should not “walk” around the barn. Ventilation is carried out using ventilation and opening windows.
Illumination of the barn is provided by windows.

The height of the windows from the floor should be such that the cow cannot reach them with her horns. The window area is considered optimal when it is ten times less than the floor area.

With your own hands in the barn you need to build and equip the following places:

feeders;
drinking bowls;
feeder for liquid food;
salt compartment;
window;
gutter;
removal of manure from the premises;
calf compartment;
entrance.

Any owner can build a building to house a cow. Working with your own hands in such a shed is convenient and comfortable.

It is difficult to imagine a full-fledged farming enterprise without raising cattle. Many farmers begin their activities by building a cowshed, preferring cows to other animals. The future of the entire farm depends on how well equipped the place for keeping farm animals is.

You can build a barn for bulls with your own hands, without involving expensive outside specialists. Important predetermine the number of seats, for which the barn will be designed and determine what materials the construction will be made of. Labor-intensive and costly work lies ahead, where everything will depend on the materials that will be used in construction. And also the decisive factor when calculating the price will be the climate of the area where the barn will be built.

How to build a barn with your own hands

An ox shed is usually built from logs or stone. If brick is chosen for construction, then it should be taken into account that despite the strength of the structure, cows can suffer from colds. Log barn It is better ventilated and does not cool as much during frosts. However, a stone foundation with cement can give a wooden structure good strength. Moreover, the farmer will still make some walls from stone.

A stone barn cools down quickly at night and warms up very slowly during the day, which is why condensation constantly forms on its walls. That’s why they try to use brick, because thanks to it, the ventilation of the room will be better, which means the amount of condensation on the walls will decrease.

It is possible to use other materials during construction. In some regions, adobe, aerated concrete or lime slabs are used. Most often, everything depends not only on the wishes of the farmer, but also on the climate in which he is located.

To determine the required dimensions future barn, it is proposed to proceed from such calculations. For one adult cow, taking into account the feeder and passage, at least six square meters are required, and for a calving cow, at least ten square meters are required.

One of the important details of construction is the floor. The main criteria for sex in a barn– heat and waste, because a mixture of water, droppings and urine cannot be left on the floor, as it will stagnate and rot. The floor must be made above ground level, taking into account impermeability to any liquid. The stock slope is made at least three centimeters; if the slope is greater, it will negatively affect the animals’ limbs, and in a calving cow it can lead to miscarriage.

Well proven adobe floors. They are made using boards hammered into clay. If wood is used without clay, there will be a problem of manure and urine accumulating under the floor and then frequent replacement of the flooring will follow.

How to build a barn for cows: preparation for construction

When planning work, the main thing is to avoid mistakes that will be difficult to correct later. During preparation for construction, tasks such as choosing a construction site, project, and determining the general concept of construction are solved. After all, what exactly the farmer plans to do will determine the overall picture of the construction. Perhaps the emphasis will be on dairy farming, or, conversely, meat farming. Is the owner of the farm going to breed young animals or will he buy them externally? Different options may require additional buildings.

When choosing a site for a barn, it is important to take into account such indicators as: groundwater level, wind direction and access roads to the building.

Do not forget about coordinating the project with the required authorities. Sometimes, in order to go through all stages of approval, the help of a lawyer is required, and it is also possible the project will undergo any changes.

Project

You can build a small barn for about ten bulls yourself, but if you need a large room for about a hundred heads, then you cannot do without specialists. Having at least basic knowledge in construction, you can start building a small barn.

How to build a barn for oxen? The first step is to decide on a budget. If you have about a million rubles available, then you can build a relatively small barn for 10-15 heads. A large project will require an investment of at least twenty million rubles. In such a barn they will already be used all modern technologies and design innovations.

Cowsheds are divided according to the method of keeping animals in them into free-stall and tethered. In a tie barn, the animal will be kept in a stall. Its dimensions are approximately as follows:

Calves that have grown up are taken away from their mother and kept in a common barn without a leash. For normal maintenance, 4 square meters are required. m. for each calf.

The height of the shed must be at least 2.5 meters. It is undesirable to make it higher, since the room will heat up for a long time.

If the farm is small, it is best to keep the entire herd together, without separating the dairy cows. It is enough to make several branches. On large farms, dairy cows are separated.

If the premises were built for a dairy herd, then provisions must be made the following premises:

In a large barn designed for more than a hundred dairy cows, there are usually two rows of stalls and always 2 aisles with feed, which are located near the walls. There is a row of dung in the center.

In a barn with 300-400 cows there will already be four-row stalls.

It is believed that the larger the cattle population, the more efficiently the farm operates. When building a barn, it is much more economical to build four-row bull stalls. In addition to building materials, with a four-row construction scheme it is much more convenient to introduce automation. Milking, manure removal and feed distribution can be transferred to machines.

Take care of the maternity area where the cow will calve; the calves will be kept there for up to two weeks, and then they can be transferred either to separate stalls or to a common room.

Here's what you won't need in the barn: heating system. A well-built building, without cracks and drafts, will be quite enough, because the main heat comes from the cows themselves.

Foundation

The most practical foundation, according to experienced farmers, this is a pile structure with an insulated grillage made of reinforced concrete. Be sure to take into account the terrain before selecting a grillage design. You can also make a monolithic, free-standing or pile foundation.

Barn frame

It is made of steel and mounted using bolts and electric welding. To prevent the metal from corroding, use a primer with a special enamel.

All calculations will be designed depending on the location of the future barn. Important to consider terrain features where the structure is being built, the amount of precipitation in the cold season and wind. The frame must be as strong as possible, which is ensured by vertical and horizontal connections.

Walls

Three-layer sandwich panels with mineral wool as insulation are the best option for a barn. Thanks to these materials, the livestock room will be constantly maintained at a warm temperature in winter and moderate in summer. The outer side of the panels is lined with steel and painted.

Window

The cow shed receives the greatest amount of light thanks to the windows, so close attention is paid to the construction of windows. Various designs possible and materials. Usually PVC windows with the addition of polycarbonate are installed. By design, they can be either hinged or lifting. Sliding windows are installed for the barn where the calves are kept, and several options are possible for the milking room:

casement windows with double glazing;
casement windows filled with polycarbonate;
sliding windows with clear polycarbonate.

Sometimes roller blinds are added.

Lighting

There should be not only natural, but also artificial lighting using lamps. All electrical equipment in the barn must comply with fire safety measures.

Doors

Doors it is advisable to make it swinging and always with insulation. The gate is made with a lift.

Do-it-yourself drinking bowls for cows

Drinking bowls can be made of metal; at the end there should be a tap from which clean water will be supplied. They are also made from boards.

Ventilation

Poor ventilation in the summer heat can significantly reduce milk production in cows. After 25-30 degrees, animals begin to eat poorly, and this entails general losses for the farm.

Feed barns

Usually such a shed is made of wood. You should correctly calculate the capacity of the barn, because one adult animal will need about three tons of hay for food and one ton for bedding.

If a farmer is going to breed cattle, then you can purchase special mating pens for bull calves . It is very comfortable if the bull is big and the cow is medium-sized.

By following all the design rules, you can build an excellent barn for your animals, and they will thank their owner with an abundance of milk and fertility.

Attention, TODAY only!

Good afternoon I would like to ask you what is the best material to use to build a mixed barn for all the livestock; we want timber. Approximately how much material is needed to build five acres.

Ekaterina, Dmitrov.

Hello, Ekaterina from Dmitrov!

One hundred square meters is 100 square meters, that is, five hundred square meters is 500 square meters. If we imagine that this is a rectangular area, then one side of the rectangle should be equal to 20 meters, and the second - 25 meters.

And if you build such a building, it will take a lot of material. The amount of which will be in the tens, or even hundreds of cubic meters.

Therefore, most likely, you mean that 5 acres is the area of the farm or livestock yard on the territory of which the barn will stand. And its actual dimensions will be much smaller.

Typically, sheds for keeping livestock in village farmsteads rarely exceed 40 - 50 square meters in total area. And their area is calculated in accordance with who is going to be kept in them.

So you decide on this first before you build. And you can fence a plot of 5 acres simply with poles or other lumber.

If a stall for a cow cannot be less than 5 square meters (I’m giving all the figures as approximate ones, agro-industrialists and livestock breeders can give more accurate ones), then 2.5 square meters is enough for a sheep or goat. For 4 - 5 geese the same area. For a dozen chickens - one and a half square meters. And so on (turkeys conventionally correspond to geese, ducks to chickens, horses to cows, pigs to sheep).

The height of such sheds is made a little more than 2 meters, which is dictated by the maximum growth of animals, the optimal size for maintaining heat in the cold season, as well as some other features (for example, a perch for chickens is quite sufficient with this parameter).

But the attic, a rustic hayloft, can reach 2.5 and 3 meters in size. That is, the distance from the ceiling to the ridge of the roof is such that a decent haystack should fit. The old wisdom of our ancestors suggests that hay is not only food for ruminants (horses, cows, sheep and goats), but also excellent thermal insulation. Which is maximum at the beginning of winter, and in the spring, after almost all the cattle have been fed hay, then such thermal insulation is not necessary. True, there can be much more stacks of hay and they can be located next to the barn, it all depends on the number of eaters.

The design features of the sheds require the presence of one door or, if you like, one gate, up to 2 meters high and about 1 - 1.3 meters wide. So that you can escort a large pet and enter the room yourself at the same time. The number of windows is regulated by the number of stalls, pens, nooks and perches. That is, for each cattle there is one window. Their sizes are usually small (all for the same heat preservation). Most often these are 0.5/0.5 meter embrasures. This is quite enough to remove manure and droppings using a shovel. There is no need to carry it with stretchers and buckets, just throw it through the window opening.

The windows themselves are rarely made on hinges; more often they are simply frames with double glazing, which can be removed if necessary.

I’m not talking about the liquid drain system, although it also has its own characteristics.

I remember my father’s story about the yard of a German Bauer, or more simply a peasant, where they were billeted in 1945.

The owner himself was not in the house for obvious reasons. And the farmstead itself was an area of about 5 acres, just like yours. All buildings, both residential and commercial, were located along the perimeter of the site. That is, a residential building, then a workshop, various utility rooms, a barn for animals, a garage, and a utility block.

On the outside of the buildings there are doors - one to the residential building, the second to the courtyard. In addition, there are three gates - to the courtyard, to the garage, to the barn.

And the entire area of the courtyard was in the form of a reinforced concrete screed. The site was designed in such a way that along its entire perimeter it was raised, and in the center it was lowered by 20 centimeters. And here there was a funnel with a drain that extended far beyond the site.

All the water - rain, from melting snow, from washing cars, and from possible leaks from the barn - was drained to the side through the grate.

In my opinion, an ideal hydraulic solution. Which would be nice for our modern farmers to adopt.

But this is all said by the way, incidentally, it may be of no use to you.

And now closer to the topic of the question. It is optimal, in my opinion, to have the walls of the barn made of timber with a cross-section of 150/150 millimeters. That is, the thickness of the walls will be 0.15 meters, which is more or less enough for winter housing of livestock and poultry. It won't freeze, that's for sure. In my childhood and youth, in the working-class village where I lived, there were similar sheds and everything was fine. True, after lambing, Mashek and Zorek’s kids were taken to warm rooms for two to three weeks, just like hatched chickens. Everyone was intact.

An elementary calculation shows that, say, for a barn measuring 6/6 meters and a height of two meters, with a beam cross-section of 0.15/0.15 meters, you need 56 pieces of 6-meter beams.

The calculation is made as follows. One beam with a cross section of 0.15/0.15 meters and a length of 6 meters has a volume of 0.15 * 0.15 * 6 = 0.135 cubic meters. With a barn height of about 2 meters, /2:0.15=13.(3) crowns/ are required. That is, 13 and a little more crowns. Round up, we get 14 crowns.

Each crown contains 4 beams (one on each side of the barn).

Total: 14*4= 56 bars. We multiply the volume of one beam by their number. We get 56*0.135=7.56 cubic meters.

For an even count, we take 8 cubic meters of timber with a cross section of 15 centimeters/15 centimeters. Leftovers beyond what will be used for the walls (offcuts from cutting out door and window openings) can always be used on the farm.

The calculation was made for a 6-meter standard length of timber sold in our trade. All other lengths are available on special orders, which is not always acceptable.

Calculations for other beam sections and lengths are made using a similar algorithm.

But this is only the material of the walls. Don’t forget that you will need floor boards, floor joists, rafter boards (all of these are usually with a cross-section of 0.05/0.15 meters), sheathing boards (usually with a cross-section of 0.15/0.025 meters). Their number is also calculated accordingly. But since you didn’t ask about it, I don’t think so.

All. Good luck!

How to build a barn for livestock - starting with the foundation

If we want to build a barn for livestock with our own hands for many years to come, then we cannot do without a foundation. It must be made at least 70 cm deep - of course, a lot depends on the building material from which the walls will be made. The thicker and heavier the walls, the stronger the foundation should be. A plinth, which is insulated from the wall masonry with several layers of roofing felt, roofing felt or bitumen mortar, will not interfere with the top of the foundation. It wouldn’t hurt to make a blind area outside so that the walls always remain dry and there is no hint of dampness in the barn.

Your goal is to make the room dry, bright, warm and ventilated. By making the floor slope towards the door or drain hole, ensuring constant cleaning, we cope with the first point. Windows are responsible for the second - one for each animal, that is, if you have a cow and a calf, two windows in the barn will be enough. The walls, floor and roof are responsible for warmth, and ventilation (natural will be enough) is for ventilation.

When building a room, you need to take into account that in order for the cows to live comfortably, you will need to give each cow at least 6 m2 of space - from here calculate the total area.

Having asked the question of how to build a barn for bulls and other livestock, we will not find any differences with the recommendations described above.

Construction of a cattle shed - floor, ceiling and roof

The roof and ceiling can be made pitched if you do not need an attic space. In addition, a pitched roof can serve as an additional place for drying hay and straw. You can make a durable ceiling from beams, covering them with boards or fiberboard sheets. For better results, it won’t hurt to fill the openings between the beams with insulation before covering. After its installation, it is important to whitewash all surfaces with lime mortar - the ceiling, walls, window and doorways.

Building a livestock barn requires special attention to the floor. Since we are dealing with large animals, the floor should be as strong as possible. Typically, plank flooring is used for these purposes, which on average lasts about 4-5 years. However, the disadvantage of this method is that the tree absorbs livestock waste products, rots and spreads unpleasant odors even after a good cleaning. Its main advantage is that it is warmer than other options.

Since farming has recently become increasingly popular, the question of how to build a barn has become very relevant. Indeed, the products obtained from cattle breeding are inherently basic in the diet of any person, so milk and meat will always find a market. And any practical owner would prefer to have these products from their own, “tested” animals. It is not surprising that many farmers prefer to have a small herd of cows or at least their own cows. However, since cows are very sensitive to housing conditions, the success of a livestock farm directly depends on the creation of optimal conditions and a properly constructed barn.

Since farming has recently become increasingly popular, the question of how to build a barn has become very relevant.

How to build a barn for livestock? It is quite possible for any owner to build a room in which a cow with a calf or a small herd of cattle, for example 5 heads, will live, that is, do-it-yourself cattle sheds are quite doable. To do this, you must first develop a barn design. First of all, you need to decide on the location of the room. According to sanitary standards, the barn must be located at least 15 m from a well with drinking water. This will keep the water clean. The area of the premises for one cow, including space for equipment, feeders, drinkers and hay, must be at least 18 m². If a barn is being built for 10 heads of cattle, then the calculation is based on 6 m² per cow, plus the area of utility rooms. When building a barn for 20 heads or more, the construction plan must include a room for storing milk, a maternity room, an isolation ward, a utility block and other utility rooms. It is better to entrust the design of a large barn to a specialist, as he will be able to take into account all the necessary details and correctly reflect them on the floor plan.

Sometimes a cow shed is attached to the back wall of a house. This allows you to save on building materials. But most often barns are built at a distance from the house. When choosing a place for a barn, you must provide a pen for animals.

How to build a barn with your own hands? The construction of a barn begins with preparing the site for construction and selecting building materials. At different times and in different places, people used stone, wooden logs, adobe brick, burnt brick, cinder blocks, foam blocks, sand blocks and various reinforced concrete structures to build barns. The most environmentally friendly are wooden barns and barns made of adobe bricks. Such buildings retain heat well and have optimal gas exchange. However, the choice of material is determined by the availability in a given region and natural conditions. It is important for any owner to build a room of high quality and inexpensively. In any case, to work, you will need tools such as a shovel, a stake, a level, and a rope. And the materials used are screws, nails, cement, clay, sand.

Cattle room (video)

Foundation of the building

On the site allocated for the barn, the top fertile layer of soil is removed. The foundation of the building must be located on a solid foundation. Its depth and width depend on the material of the barn walls. A frame barn does not require a foundation at all. But such a barn is only suitable for warm regions. If the walls of the barn are made of stone or cinder block, or the building is built on loose soils, then the foundation is buried into the ground at least 70 cm. For lighter walls, the foundation can be made less deep. A strip foundation is installed for small buildings. To do this, mark the site and dig trenches. Then the formwork is installed and the stone-cement mixture is poured. The concrete foundation is quite strong and durable. You can also make the base from baked brick or rubble stone. The top of the foundation is covered with roofing felt or other moisture-proof material. This will ensure waterproofing of walls and partitions.

What to make walls and roof from

Stone walls, of course, are the strongest and most durable, but made this way they will not meet some requirements - it can be damp and cold in the barn. If heating and ventilation of such a room is not provided, the animals in it will get sick, which will inevitably affect their productivity. Brick and cinder block are more expensive materials. They retain heat well, but still require additional thermal insulation. The best materials for a private barn are considered to be adobe brick and shell rock. These are inexpensive materials with low thermal conductivity, ideal for the construction of a barn. Sufficiently warm walls that do not require additional insulation are obtained with a thickness of 1.5 bricks. They are usually made 2.5 m high. A higher room will be colder, and if the walls are lower, it will be stuffy inside. The barn should have windows for natural light. They are made above the level of the animal's head. Whatever material the walls of the barn are made of, they must be plastered and whitewashed. This is done for additional disinfection of the room.

The most suitable and cheapest material for a barn roof is slate roofing. The roof is made from planed boards and adjusted during the process to ensure a complete fit. A thermal insulation layer is laid on top of the boards and pressed down with slate. The roof should have a slight slope to remove precipitation.

How are things in the West?

In the West, cowsheds are often made two-story or with a large attic. The upper room is intended for storing hay. The advantages of such a construction include saving space and natural additional insulation of the barn ceiling. In addition, hay is better preserved in a ventilated attic. Among the disadvantages is an increased fire hazard. Dry hay can ignite even from sunlight, and in this case it will be more difficult to extinguish the fire.

Cowshed made of wooden structures (video)

What are floors and manure storage made of?

Proper barn flooring is very important. Any flooring material has both its advantages and disadvantages. A prerequisite is that the floor in the barn must be warm. Naturally, a wooden floor will be the warmest. It can be made from wooden boards 5 cm thick. But over time, such floors lose their quality and begin to absorb animal feces, which increases the concentration of ammonia in the room. In addition, wood floors are not durable. They will have to be changed approximately every 5-6 years. Brick floors are more durable. They will last 13-15 years, but they require insulation with a straw bedding. Concrete floors are even more durable, but this is a cold and damp material, on which in winter the bedding should be at least 30 cm. Clay floors with boards nailed on top are good. This design is cheap and practical.

The floors in the barn are built at a height of about 10 cm above the ground and always on a slope. This will allow urine to drain and make cleaning easier. The slope is approximately 5°. Greater floor slopes can lead to disease in the cows' limbs. At the end of the slope, make a drainage ditch about 15 cm deep and about 30 cm wide. The ditch should be of such a size that a shovel can fit into it.

The slurry is drained from the gutter into a special tank. The volume of the tank is calculated based on the livestock. For 1 cow you need to allocate 0.3 m³ (or 300 l) of liquid collection tank per month. A slurry tank is usually located in the backyard. Make it no more than 3 m deep. This tank must have waterproof walls. Therefore, most often it is made of concrete. The inside of the walls is coated with bitumen. This container must be closed with a tight lid. The farmyard must be equipped with a manure storage facility. When planning a manure storage facility, the volume of the pit is calculated taking into account the fact that one cow produces about 1 ton of manure per month. The depth of the pit usually does not exceed 0.5 m. The walls are lined with stone or made of concrete. The bottom is made with a slope towards the liquid collector. A canopy must be provided over the manure storage facility. During the winter, the manure in such a pit rots and becomes an excellent fertilizer that is in demand among farmers.

Proper flooring in a barn is very important.

Internal structure of the room

A small cow shed usually has no internal partitions, and all the animals in it are kept in one room. Barns for a large number of cattle have internal partitions separating the stalls. Thus, each animal is, as it were, in a separate room. The size of a cow stall depends on the breed, sex and age of the animal. So, for one adult cow, a stall with an average size of 1.2x1.8 m is provided. The width of a stall for a cow with a calf is increased to 1.5 m. Therefore, it is advisable to make the internal partitions mobile. For dairy cows, the width and length of the stall may be slightly smaller, for beef cows - slightly larger. A separate room must be provided for bulls. Sometimes a farmer builds a barn to house and fatten only bulls for meat.

How to build a barn for oxen? When constructing premises of this type, stalls are provided for calves and adult bulls. A stall for bulls is made measuring 1.25x2.4 m, and for calves it should be 1x1.5 m in size. The stall must have a split to secure the animal.

Ideally, each animal should have its own feeder and water bowl. This would protect animals from contracting many types of infections. One such feeder should hold up to 8 kg of feed. They make individual feeders from boards. The wood is carefully cleaned and sanded, and a small recess is made in the front part for the head and neck of the animal. Drinkers can also be made from boards or stainless steel. To build feeders and drinking bowls for cows with your own hands, you need to know their dimensions. The height of the feeder should be 65 cm, the width - about 80 cm, and the length - at least 1-1.3 m. The feeders are placed in front of the stall, and the wall of the feeder adjacent to the stall is made 30-35 cm shorter than the opposite one. In practice, large barns use tray feeders and drinkers made of brick or concrete.

Livestock premises must be equipped with electric lighting and ventilation. Additional lighting in winter will increase milk yield by up to 10%, and ventilation will protect animals from poisoning by ammonia vapors.

The premises for animals must be clean and dry. In cold weather, straw bedding is placed in the stalls to protect against colds. The bedding is changed every day. If the drainage of slurry and manure is well adjusted and most of the litter remains dry, then it is enough to replace some of the straw by adding fresh straw. A thick layer of bedding will keep the barn warm and the animals healthy during the winter months. It is advisable to equip a farm for cattle with a shed for walking animals in the hot summer with remote feeders and drinking bowls.