Beef Finishing Sheds Design

[Martyn]

If you had a blank canvas and you wanted to put up a shed or possibly two for holding 200-240 beef head what designs would people think off.

We are thinking locking yokes, 18ft scrap passage, concrete panels dividing scrape passage off straw yards.

Interest in how you access the straw yards to empty out, also size of sheds for this number of stock.

any photos would be great

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Slatted shed for a start

 

[ollie989898]

Scrape passage (or slats under the scrape passage perhaps???) and gates so you can shut them back for cleaning. Straw would last a lot longer that way.

Design it to be simple to handle stock, simple to put straw in and simple to dung out. To this end concrete panels so you can push a dung grab/bucket up against would be useful.

Small tip out troughs for water.

 

[Martyn]

Slatted shed for a start

Would love slats along front feed face, rest of shed needs to be straw for organic standards. Also a form of P&K brought on farm.

 

[Pan mixer]

I have a 14 foot scrape passage in a 40 foot wide shed (+ a 5 foot cantilever).

I wish that I had only had a 12 foot passage leaving more bedding space.

Concrete panels obscure a good view of the stock

but are good to cut down on draughts, I have the panels in front of the feed bunk but that makes it draught free in the rest of the shed but a pita to clean out the bunk.

40 foot is wide enough for a Spreadabale and the ratio of space to feed barrier is about right there too.

Tip up troughs.

Some smaller pens.

Access through at least 2 doors in the back wall to handling area and then you can shed them back into different pens.

 

[ollie989898]

Looks ideal. Even a ham fisted telehandler driver like myself could clean that out without mashing much stuff up. Troughs are well out of the way, too. I presume you can open the backs at the back and drive in from one side.

Good point about maximum building depth because of the reach of a straw spreader.

 

[Sharpy]

I have a 14 foot scrape passage in a 40 foot wide shed (+ a 5 foot cantilever).

I wish that I had only had a 12 foot passage leaving more bedding space.

Concrete panels obscure a good view of the stock View attachment 1152468but are good to cut down on draughts, I have the panels in front of the feed bunk but that makes it draught free in the rest of the shed but a pita to clean out the bunk.

40 foot is wide enough for a Spreadabale and the ratio of space to feed barrier is about right there too.

Tip up troughs.

Some smaller pens.

Access through at least 2 doors in the back wall to handling area and then you can shed them back into different pens.

Very hard to disagree with any of this, plus locking yokes.

 

[Samcowman]

Pens big enough for 40 with a couple of smaller pens for 20s to hold after sorting or smaller groups.
Scrape passage separate from bedding area meaning cattle can be shut forward for bedding up or back for scraping passage easily. Scrape passage can be used as alleyway for holding cattle and running them for tb testing/weighing. Passage 15 foot bedding area 30 foot. Door at end of bedding area for cleaning out/access for bedding. Water troughs in divider between bedding and scrape passage probably better than between 2 pens.
Locking yokes £££££ straight feed barriers simpler and cheaper. For finishers probably won’t use the locking much.

 

[Wesley]

Just to be different…cubicles is a game changer here for our beef. Have up to 120 of various ages in our old dairy set up after we moved to a new building & robots for the cows. Use 3-4 bales of platts sawdust every other day & they come out of the winter spotless.

 

[Martyn]

Just to be different…cubicles is a game changer here for our beef. Have up to 120 of various ages in our old dairy set up after we moved to a new building & robots for the cows. Use 3-4 bales of platts sawdust every other day & they come out of the winter spotless.

This is a green feild site we have just purchased, slurry management going forward is a big issue as the farm has a couple of rivers on, would prefer for fym for management point of view.

 

[S J H]

If you had a blank canvas and you wanted to put up a shed or possibly two for holding 200-240 beef head what designs would people think off.

We are thinking locking yokes, 18ft scrap passage, concrete panels dividing scrape passage off straw yards.

Interest in how you access the straw yards to empty out, also size of sheds for this number of stock.

any photos would be great

I don‘t know if I’d have locking yokes in a finishing shed, I can’t see them being much good unless for cows.

I’d just say to be careful with a full concrete panel dividing the passage from bedding, you might need more straw bedding to mix in to the passage muck, if you need it to stack.

 

[Martyn]

I don‘t know if I’d have locking yokes in a finishing shed, I can’t see them being much good unless for cows.

I’d just say to be careful with a full concrete panel dividing the passage from bedding, you might need more straw bedding to mix in to the passage muck, if you need it to stack.

Currently have yokes in our small finishing shed (40-50 animals) I’m on my own, so use them for worming/tb testing/replacement tags ect, also when picking out to go fat I lock everything up, and just individually release what needs loading onto the lorry, then load right out of the shed. I know very expensive but I need to build unit to be minimal labour, as it’s a side enterprise to expanding dairy.

 

[Optimus]

We feed down both sides of the shed.12ft scrape passage.just standard diagonal barriers.we use the scrape pass for sorting, have gates to lock into sections.shed is 120ft x 60ft.run it as one or split it down the middle.go high enough so you can load dung trailers inside,saves time an mess outside.

 

[S J H]

Currently have yokes in our small finishing shed (40-50 animals) I’m on my own, so use them for worming/tb testing/replacement tags ect, also when picking out to go fat I lock everything up, and just individually release what needs loading onto the lorry, then load right out of the shed. I know very expensive but I need to build unit to be minimal labour, as it’s a side enterprise to expanding dairy.

I see what you mean, we’ve got them in ours for sucklers and wouldn’t be without them.

 

[Suffolksucklers]

We have 85ft wide sheds with scrape passages and feed passages down both sides and a dividing wall straight down the middle. Saves on mess with the straw blower as you are always blowing into the shed and all the little bits of chaff etc just end up in the next yard rather than the driveways.

Scrape passages are ideal for sorting cattle just put feed along and shut them in. Also gives somewhere to put them when mucking out the bedding area. Find keeping a clean scrape area keeps their feet better too. Smaller water tanks better for keeping clean and less likely to freeze as water keeps moving

 

[Wesley]

Depends what size groups you’d like to run. But if I had a blank canvas I’d go double the width & split down the middle so each half mirrors the other & feed around the outside. Plenty of ventilation & no rain can get near the bedding.

 

[Zippy768]

Ripped out cubicles in an 70ft x 265 ft shed.
Centre covered feed passage, 3 x 60ft and 1x 80ft pens down each side. Scrape passage each side of feed passage with gates to shut cattle either side for bedding or scraping out

 

[Werzle]

Think if money was no object and on a green field site for beef finishing i would start with 200x120x30 shed with central passage for mixer wagon/straw chopper and canopy both sides so i could have the sides fairly open above 3m poured walls. Two bay gated 40ft lying areas with passage infront that can be shut so the whole length can be scraped and sorted. Big undercover handling crush/loading/unloading set up at one end and keep adding 20ft bays the other end. I wouldnt entertain locking yokes,cubicles or slats

 

[Wesley]

We gutted a shed that had a centre feed passage & changed so could feed around the outside. Certainly don’t miss it. Very exposed site so covered in the feed area rather than just an overhang. Works very well with added bonus if the starlings etc caused us too much grief we can bird proof it without messing up ventilation.

 

[Werzle]

Quite like some of the sheds where the centre passage is raised so the cattle either side are chest height to the feed