# What to put on barn floor



## linbee (Jul 7, 2010)

I am building a small goat barn with a small concrete slab for the milking area. The area where goats will be is just grass/weeds. What should I put down for the floor? I read a post on here (can't find it now) about putting lime down. I don't know anything about this - what is normally the floor of a barn?


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## Caprine Beings (Sep 19, 2008)

Linda wood floors and concrete hold and breed insects and disease. You want a well drained soil, like sand, for your barn floor.
I have not ever used lime, so could not help you with that. Twice a year I flush our barn dirt floors with baking soda and vinager, then add more soil from different places on our property. I mainly use pine wood chips and cedar chunks but in the winter straw is a must have insulator from our frozen cold ground. At one time I was considering graveling the main barn floor but ditched that idea as I cannot afford gravel all the time and is a pain in the pa-two-tee to clean. I only use it in sink holes and for drainage ditches.
Tam


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Before you even start watch for the grade of the land, you don't want your water runoff, running into your barn. If you can afford to do the cement slab for the milkroom first, think about putting a footing all the way around your barn, this gives you a barrier, to keep ground water out of the barn stalls and keeps your sand and shavings in the stalls! I would fill this area you build with sand, and then top with shavings. For my goats, in my opinion  it is the healthiest for the goats. Once the stall has been in use awhile and gets packed down it may need more sand added to keep it at halfway full. During the summers it's so dry in my barn I can simply use a metal leaf rake to keep most of the wet areas cleaned up or the berries raked. Using kiln dried shavings also helps keep udders clean so having shavings at least in your milking does pen is wonderful. Vicki


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## linbee (Jul 7, 2010)

Luckily, the area where the barn is going up is the highest elevation on our property. I will have some sand brought in for flooring - can I use hay for shavings? Also, do you know anything about putting DE around on the flooring and in the food? I bought some for ants around my house and then began reading all of the other stuff you can do with it. 

Tam, do you do the whole barn with baking soda/vinegar or just where the goats have been? I love gravel - just the sound it makes walking on it - but you are right, it is a pain.


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## Caprine Beings (Sep 19, 2008)

I do the entire barn (there are still wooden loafing areas), intermediate buck house ground and the ground in the big boys house. This year I have only had to do the big boys once, we got them a "new" old shed so put it on different ground from the old one. At least if they nib on that stuff they won't have too bad of adverse reactions...usually just the kids sniff and turn up their noses. 

Use the search on here and type in DE or the whole thing. There are posts on it.
Tam


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## Ziggy (Nov 13, 2009)

I but down about 6 inches of gravel for drainage - covered that with landscaping fabric and then about 6 inches of sand. I've only had my new barn for about a year and am very happy with it. I may have to add (top up) with another truck load of sand in the fall as some of it does come out each time I clean it out but the landscape fabric keeps the sand separate form the gravel so I will just top up with clean sand.


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## Faithful Crown Nubians (Dec 5, 2007)

In my barn, the floor is dirt. Then on top of that I use barn lime, pretty heavily. On top of that I use shavings or straw, depending on the time of year.


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## Squires (Jul 23, 2010)

:hi Agricultural lime is harmless to you and your livestock, sweetens the "sour spots" and reduces barn odor and turns waste into better fertilizer/compost.

It is so harmless that your animals can eat it. Some people DO provide it free-choice for livestock to nibble on if they wish (full of calcium, and somewhat antacid like baking soda). :yes

After scooping or raking spots in the corral and pens, I would just sprinkle a little agricultural lime on the "sour spots" and all barn odors disappeared. I got very high marks for barn-keeping in 4H. :hi

In cold places where people use deep-pack bedding, you start with a good sprinkling of agricultural lime on your concrete or wood floor, and several inches of bedding. You remove any big wet spots over time and sprinkle with a bit more lime and fresh shavings as needed. Now and then you might sprinkle the whole bedded floor with lime. While animals live there. In a year or two you shovel or tractor-scoop it out and it is perfect compost. It is safe and effective.

It is very good on a soil or sand floor. I grew up with solid floors and deep-pack bedding which kept animals warm and air sweet inside barns in winter in a cold climate. I've always heard that soil floors and even sand have to be dug up every few years and completely replaced -- a really unpleasant task in my opinion. :/

Poultry people also sprinkle lime on their yards. Again, it neutralizes odor on stinky-wet spots, and can kill some worms and parasite eggs and bacteria. It is one thing that can break the cycle of Blackhead disease passed between chickens and turkeys by a type of worm and bacteria in the yard. :cool

Keep a bag of agricultural lime around. Put some free-choice in a feeder for your livestock to nibble it. Use it when you need it. It can't hurt. But, NEVER use the other lime -- the quick-lime can burn on contact (that's the type used for mixing concrete -- never to be used near living things, EVER!). :naughty

Keep agricultural lime around, and you will be sure to have a safe solution to stinky barn moments. Always. :yes


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## cariboujaguar (Feb 9, 2009)

OK you should do infomercials! I want to go buy some Agricultural lime now!


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## Hollybrook (Jul 17, 2009)

Talk about timing just got in from liming!! lol we use Dirt floor w/barn lime topper so easy to keep clean works great no odors no flys no problems great stuff. In winter I use deep hay topped w/wood shavings.


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## lorit (May 10, 2010)

So, this agricultural lime - available at feed stores? Or garden centers?

How thickly should one put it on dirt floors? Sand under or on top? Then shavings?


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## LMonty (Oct 25, 2007)

a Roomba?


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## linbee (Jul 7, 2010)

Chris, do you get a paycheck from the Agriculture Lime people? If not, you should! That was wonderful info - thank you very much. I can hardly wait to get some.


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## Ziggy (Nov 13, 2009)

Ill have to ask my local feed store about ag lime next time I go there.


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## Squires (Jul 23, 2010)

linbee said:


> Chris, do you get a paycheck from the Agriculture Lime people? If not, you should! That was wonderful info - thank you very much. I can hardly wait to get some.


 :rofl
I truly do like agricultural or barn lime ever since a high school biology teacher explained some of its workings to me (don't ask me the details -- too long ago). Barn liming explains why all the barns I visited and worked at as a child in New England had little or no odor -- or only sweet smells -- although it could be that I loved the animals so much that nothing they did could ever convince me that they were dirty or bad. I suspect that the barns really were well-managed and the animals really healthy, too.

Right now I'm just achy and stuck in the house for a while with muscle spams, and picking at old memories. And it gives me an excuse to play with all these wriggly new emoticons (I'm easily entertained).

I need to hire someone to scoop out my barn, and then will be liming again this fall. September/October the goats will go back in the barn, and some of the poultry, too. Seriously, we have mild winters here near the Big Lakes, but when the snow hits, it can get really deep and intimidating and a nicely bedded barn is a comfort.

You can buy it at feed stores, garden stores, landscaping supplies, Lowes or Home Depot, etc. It is also good for gardens. :yes

Thanks, guys, for jogging my memory about sweet-smelling barns, past and future! :hi

Chris (an old fart, stuck in the house this week)


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## linbee (Jul 7, 2010)

Chris, ever since your post I have been reading about the wonders of ag lime. I am definitely going to have it in my little barn. I'm sure my goats will be extremely grateful for your knowledge. 

Sorry to hear that you are stuck in the house - I empathize and sympathize.


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