Cattle wind shelter / outside wintering

[Scotty 123]

so.. I winter approx 80 cows in a stone quarry, the cattle have historically slept in a wood adjacent and has worked well for 20 years.
I'm now planning to fell the trees (next year) and thought I should put up some kind of shelter for the poor cows. It is an exposed site.

Another problem is that there isn't much soil and hits stone fairly quickly.

I've thought of buying some concrete Lego blocks which would be expensive but easy. I'm also told that wind breaks should be slightly 'porous' I've have a few holes to reduce the down flow.

I could, at a push get a few wooden posts into the ground but it's not uncommon for winds to reach 80mph during stormy weather. (I've had calf creeps blow away)

Didn't want the expense of a shed.. And I've found this on the Internet;

https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/FRP-material-Wind-Break-Wall-Wind_60481271282.html

Wondered if anyone could offer some advice, has a similar type product or has tried something similar.

Thanks..

 

[S J H]

Could you buy some concrete road blocks, then resin bolt a timber post on them, then build a hit and miss fence?

 

[KennyO]

Could you not leave a portion of the wood for felling at a later date? I doubt if the timber value will be enough to justify the extra expense for the beasts, but could be wrong.

 

[Scotty 123]

Could do.. I think the cows chomping around in the wood are killing it and I'd have to look into the rules regarding timescale for replanting. Any young saplings will have to have livestock excluded. I think I'm going to have to stop using the wood for shelter anyway to be honest.

I've been looking for concrete road blocks.. Think these concrete style Lego blocks are more popular.. But on the expensive side

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Interlock...861098?hash=item4b056214aa:g:UcsAAOSw9N1VhAit

I wondered if there was a type of fence post holder which drills down into rock...like a metal skewer?

 

[Dry Rot]

Heap the lop and top from your timber operations into a hedge between standing trees. That's what I do for my Highland ponies. Just use the tractor loader. If you left a few trunks for up rights, no need to put in posts. Or if you can get old bales cheap enough.

 

[Scotty 123]

Nothing like this on the uk market?

https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/FRP-material-Wind-Break-Wall-Wind_60481271282.html

 

[bigw]

Could you get some clay imported into the site to create a bund/windbreak. What size is the quarry?

 

[sodbuster]

Build a stack of silage bales beside the quarry and feed them behind the bales. Simple!

 

[Scotty 123]

Bales would work, but only a temporary solution and the advice seems to be to make a wall 20% permiable to reduce down draft.

http://www.angusbeefbulletin.com/extra/2014/01jan14/0114hn_windbreaks.html#.V6JrWJB4WrU

http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/livestock/beef/news/vbn1109a2.htm

It's a decent size stone quarry, 100ft X 100ft, but it soon gets dirty and I tend to feed them on the brow of the hill to reduce poaching / mud. It's part of a 10 acre field with a 10 acre wood. Approx

 

[Dry Rot]

Those links are just commonsense. I always advise friends who have moved into a new property, "Plant trees". They cost very little and you only need to keep their noses clear of weeds the first few years. The larch trees around my house are now 15 inches in diameter and cost £30 total 25 years ago as small plants. I've cut out poles for field shelters. Then, if the trees are in the wrong place, a few minutes with a chain saw sorts it and you have some fire wood. I planted a ten metre strip (with grants) along my northern boundary a few years ago and I'm noticing stock favour the shelter these provide already.

As the trees mature, there will be gaps and these create a wind tunnel effect, so felling a few every year and replanting makes sense. Do you have to clear fell your wood? As said, I'd pile the lop and top as I went and then you'd have a good filtered wind break and clear ground for replanting, all at little extra cost.

 

[Giles1]

Could do.. I think the cows chomping around in the wood are killing it and I'd have to look into the rules regarding timescale for replanting. Any young saplings will have to have livestock excluded. I think I'm going to have to stop using the wood for shelter anyway to be honest.

I've been looking for concrete road blocks.. Think these concrete style Lego blocks are more popular.. But on the expensive side

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Interlock...861098?hash=item4b056214aa:g:UcsAAOSw9N1VhAit

I wondered if there was a type of fence post holder which drills down into rock...like a metal skewer?

Same situation as you.Reducing cow numbers as trees now clearfelled and have to be replanted.If you put up a permanent structure,the cows will always be in the same place so could poaching/muck build up be a problem? Portable breaks based on your concrete road block idea?

 

[Scotty 123]

Yup, all very well saying plant trees but they take 10yrs to grow, l posted the thread in Buildings and infrastructure section hoping for something to build which will last 10 years while the trees grow.
When the wood is harvested it will be clear felled and replanted (and probably fenced off) but I'll keep looking for options. Thanks all

 

[KennyO]

Do you have any stone left in the quary? You could fill some gabion baskets with stone and stack them into a wind break.

Some pics on here http://www.gabionbaskets.co.uk/

 

[LandcruiserLad]

Anybody know of any of these 'concrete barriers with safety fence' for sale?

Movable with forklift (pallet forks) and I'm thinking I could change the fence to an anti-wind fence.

Delivery to south Scotland

I'd be interested in a price anyway
Cheers

 

[onesiedale]

Go

View attachment 378722
Anybody know of any of these 'concrete barriers with safety fence' for sale?

Movable with forklift (pallet forks) and I'm thinking I could change the fence to an anti-wind fence.

Delivery to south Scotland

I'd be interested in a price anyway
Cheers

Go with that picture to your local concrete plant and ask them for a price to make them. Design would probably vary a little to suit mpilds they may have,but outcome would be the same

 

[Repeat]

-you could build a homemade set of cow kennels for very little money
one 10ft strip of concrete for the passage £15
timber £ 50 ?
second hand tin sheets £ 30 ?
-or we wintered our heifers on an orkney floor made outside out of concrete railway sleepers 2 wide 90 ft long next to the yard
we knocked telegraph poles in around the back and sides with third hand tin sheets on for shelter
ring feeders on existing concrete , electric fence to keep them in
it took about 3 round bales of straw /week to bed 70 bulling heifers , works its way off the slope and just need to scrape round the feeders
worked great ,health good , dry weather the bedding got drier, always had somewhere dry to lie.

 

[renewablejohn]

We have two field shelters made from polytunnel hoops with tin sheets horizontally held on with exhaust clamp bolts. tunnels are 90 degrees to prevailing wind so wind flows over the shelters. Would advise against permeable after we put wind break netting on a tunnel and a gale just lifted it up and folded it into a tangled mess. Very dangerous and nothing we could do about it until the storm had finished.

 

[Tonym]

Seen feedlots in Canada stack big bales to form a corral with fence to stop cattle pulling at bales. Straw was gradually used over winter, muck cleared and start again next year.
Only difference is in Canada the dry frosty weather in winter keeps things dry and limits the use of the straw.

 

[RedMerle]

We have two field shelters made from polytunnel hoops with tin sheets horizontally held on with exhaust clamp bolts. tunnels are 90 degrees to prevailing wind so wind flows over the shelters. Would advise against permeable after we put wind break netting on a tunnel and a gale just lifted it up and folded it into a tangled mess. Very dangerous and nothing we could do about it until the storm had finished.

any chance of a picture? I have calves which are I just a field shelter. Vet is happy with it but I could do with something bigger as they grow