# Cheap/easy way to build stalls?



## swgoats (May 21, 2010)

Looks like my goats are going to be moving into a big empty pole barn this winter. I'd like to put up about 8 stalls like they have at fairgrounds until I decide how I want to arrange things permanently. Does anyone know an easy and relatively inexpensive way to do this? Anybody know rough dimensions?


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## tendermeadowsnigerians (Sep 8, 2010)

Pallets make great stall walls for temporary stalls. You can get them free or cheap from a lot of places.


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## NorthOf49 (Feb 8, 2011)

Well, I don't know how cheap it would be: would probably depend on what supplies are the cheapest for you. 

Here anything metal is very expensive but we have piles of used lumber so we have a dozen or so wooden panels that are maybe 4' tall made out of 2"x4" nailed together. We can tie those together and it's sturdy enough to hold the goats. 

If your pole barn has a dirt floor you could pound a few fence posts into the ground and use those to build wooden stalls off of.

That said, if lumber is expensive in Texas... Do you have any stands of saplings or brush with big enough trunks you can cut them down and build pole panels or pole stalls... you'd only need nails, a saw, and time for that...

Dimensions would be whatever you want it to be. I've wintered goats individually in 4' x6' pens with daily turnouts for exercise... but I think those are a bit on the small side. The new ones we're working on are going to be 8' x10' but I think we'll move more toward group pens with just a few individual pens for kidding time.


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## Ashley (Oct 25, 2007)

Cattle panels.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Are you staying down here, cattle panels with the north wind blocked (metal, woods, tarps) works great like Ashley said. If your moving up north still, forgetaboutit  Sell down to just your core of your herd and use the money to put up real walls. Vicki


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## fmg (Jul 4, 2011)

I used cattle panels attached to the pillars I have for my hay loft for my kidding pens, and then wired on some welded wire on the bottom. If your floor is wood, you could do the same, with pounding in a few metal posts.


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## swgoats (May 21, 2010)

Still plan to move north, unfortunately for this purpose, the floor of the big barn is concrete. But it is four solid walls with electricty and water. There are other buildings, lean tos, etc that might eventually become permanent housing, but putting stalls in the big barn seems best with winter coming. I was thinking if we made wooden frames we could maybe put the cattle panels on them or fencing? The pallet idea is interesting too. I'm sure dh could get those from work. I'm thinking 6-8 stalls big enough to house 4 goats each. I'm trying to mostly take my youngest stock so they won't take up much space on the trip. Thanks for the ideas!


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## Horsehair Braider (Mar 11, 2011)

There used to be a product to hook cattle panels together. It looked like a giant corkscrew made of a piece of heavy metal wire. You started it on one end, feeding it through the holes in the two or three panels to be hooked together, and then you just kept turning it at the top... it would feed through every hole and hook the panels together really well. 

I can't remember what those were called. I still have a few laying around somewhere but it was just a piece of wire formed into a big screw, or pig tail, shape, and I don't thin there is a name or anything on them.


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## ksalvagno (Jul 8, 2011)

This wouldn't be cheap but I use corral panels. I have some blue panels/gates from TSC and I have some green panels that are smaller that I got from Steven's Llamatique. Put some fencing over top of the panels and I can make any size stalls I want. The green panels have 9x9 and 6x9 sizes with a 3 foot gate. The blue panels come in 10, 12 & 16 foot size with gates at 4 or 6 foot.


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## fmg (Jul 4, 2011)

That concrete floor will probably be very cold in the winter, so make sure to build up the bedding really well! The other buildings might actually be warmer, if they are dirt floored. Are you planning to keep them penned inside all winter? They will probably get pretty bored and stir-crazy if you do that, plus they won't get much exercise.


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## punchiepal (Aug 4, 2010)

Premier supply has the corkscrew things to put cattle panels together.


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## swgoats (May 21, 2010)

I want to have the stalls ready when we get there so we have a place to unload. And then as fast as we can we can build outdoor pens for turn out. I'm taking my range shelters too. We should have a bit of time before the ground freezes. I'd like to make something some what portable so I can move them around after I get a better sense of what is warmest. The lean-to's are dirt floor but open to one side. They could potentially be enclosed so snow doesn't blow in. But the barn has a sky light and electric lights so I figured the scariness factor would be lower. Maybe stall mats would help with the cold. I know they aren't cheap, but they last forever... I'm figuring on lot's of bedding...


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## swgoats (May 21, 2010)

Thanks Jennifer, Premier is cool - look at these hay feeder panels!
http://www.premier1supplies.com/detail.php?prod_id=99&criteria=big+bale+feeder&source=blog


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## dragonlair (Mar 24, 2009)

I use wooden pallets either screwed or wired together. I made kidding and kid pens from them in my old barn. Right now I made 2 smaller pallet pens in the temporary tarp shelter they are in pending the construction of my new barn. They work great, and are strong, cheap and easy to put up and take down, or even re-arrange!

I've also used scrap 2 X 4's and wire fencing to make my own panels that I set up in a variety of places and ways. I've used chain link panels to make temporary pens too.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Don't go spending alot on them...they are used for chain link fence, so go to your local home improvment store, they are likely much cheaper than speciality stores.....and cattle panels stay hooked together forever with cheapo hog rings. Vicki


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## fmg (Jul 4, 2011)

Oh, I didn't even think about the need for building pens first, duh. :duh Where I live now already had pens installed, so it wasn't much work for me!


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## Trysta (Apr 5, 2011)

Put a layer of clean sand under your straw. It'll keep the goats warmer than when you put the straw straight on the concrete. Rubber mats would work, but those are expensive. 

For pens you can rig some panels/pallets together, but if you have goats like mine who stand against fences, it's going to be a big head ache unless you spend a wee bit of money and drill a few holes in that concrete and then place some metal posts in those holes with some quick-crete around the post in the hole. That way you have a few solid points between all the wiggly riggings (been there!)

My whole herd is in a large pole barn and came through the MI winter just fine. Keep the doors closed so the animals are out of the wind and always have dry bedding.


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## DawnBreakers (Sep 20, 2011)

As much as I hate to say it (just because it looks "bad" ) for cheap temporary pens, pallets is the way to go! 
Because I was getting rid of all of my goats but my LaMancha's early this year I had temporary pens for almost everything it seemed. But it is super cheap (or free, in our case) quick to set up and dismantle and they work great.


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## tendermeadowsnigerians (Sep 8, 2010)

You can always get some stall mats, we use them in our one barn that has cement floors. It helps insulate against the cold and they are really easy to clean, we sweep them. I bought mine used from a horse farm down the road paid $10 each and just cleaned them with some bleach


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## Ziggy (Nov 13, 2009)

I would second Vicki's comment about cattle panels joined with hog rings. When I first started out and did not have a trailer I made a cage for my pickup truck that way. It's still holding.


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## swgoats (May 21, 2010)

What do you think about cardboard boxes under thick bedding? We will have so many of those. Might be a good use?


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## dragonlair (Mar 24, 2009)

I use wire ties to hook things together. So far nothing has chewed on them except the dogs.

Before the fire, my barn had a cement floor (it was actually a garage). I used wood shavings under the hay which worked fine for bedding. The floor was not cold. I limed the cement under the shavings first.

Do those of you who use sand have problems with the goats ingesting the sand? It's a big problem with horses, but my contractor was mentioning sand over the gravel for my new barn, since I decided I did not want cement. (Sorry to hijack the thread, but it is sort of related)


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## Ziggy (Nov 13, 2009)

I did sand over gravel and have had no problems.


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## punchiepal (Aug 4, 2010)

Tractor Supply (TSC) has the same panels as Premier. They have 4x4 holes and are called "utility panels," run about $50 each.


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## buckrun (Mar 7, 2008)

50$ !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :faint 

That is highway robbery-don't buy 'cattle panels' - there is a smaller gauge wire- not called cattle panels that is about 20 bucks a 16 foot length with 6x6 holes and nothing flimsy about it -just more reasonable for goats. 50$ should buy you the 2x4 no climb horse panel with huge gauge of metal which you do not need for goats particularly minis. You can take a bolt cutter and cut them in half for 8 foot stalls. Makes a pretty cheap start up.
Look around when you get there. Try to buy local and not at a chain- they make you pay advertising :/
Lee


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## dragonlair (Mar 24, 2009)

The cheaper panels TSC carries around here are called "livestock panels". They are the ones that I use and love them. 

TSC sells them for 10.00 less than any other store in this state, I'd rather buy from them than a local store out to make a killing.


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## Ziggy (Nov 13, 2009)

19.99 and 18.99 when "on sale" here.


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## LLB101 (Sep 29, 2009)

I've looked and looked for a lighter weight panel like Lee describes, and 6x6 would be good, but I haven't found anything like that here. 

Someone was telling me about a whole container load from China is like $10/panel including shipping, but I wondered if that was for a lighter weight imitation of what we get here. So I wonder if that's what some of your suppliers got.

The heavy weight "'cattle" panels here are $35-38, they have 6x8 grid and only the one bottom row is shorter, maybe 3 or 4" high on that first row. I just had to buy some more last week so that's a current price. 

The shorter "hog" panel, same weight/diameter metal. The "stock" or "combo" panels have the lower 4 or 5 rows very small and graduate up in size to the full 6x8". They were $42-46 if I remember right, I only needed the cattle panels last week. I haven't priced the 2x4 "horse" panels lately but last time I did (Feb?), they were roughly double the "cattle" panel price.


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## Trysta (Apr 5, 2011)

Never had goats eat the sand. I'd say if an animal does that, there's a nutritional problem (minerals shortage?). I love the sand as bedding or under bedding, because it's very comfortable and sand as a medium does not grow bacteria. Card board boxes do. They get wet, messy, moldy, so I think you should not use those. They will actually keep the liguids under your pens and I'd be worried about sick goats and mastitis. Personally I'm not a big fan of sawdust either, but I know many people use it with good result.


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## LLB101 (Sep 29, 2009)

doesn't the poop just get broken up and make the sand yucky with nothing absorbent like wood or straw?


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## dragonlair (Mar 24, 2009)

Now that I think of it, the horses pick up the sand when they grub around the groud picking up dropped hay and such. My goats wouldn't eat anything that fell on the ground even if they were starving! I guess I wouldn't have to worry much about them accidentally ingesting it and impacting when it doesn't pass out the other end!


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## Trysta (Apr 5, 2011)

LLB101 said:


> doesn't the poop just get broken up and make the sand yucky with nothing absorbent like wood or straw?


That's just it: sand doesn't absorb, so liquids sink through, while wood (shavings) absorb, therefore become a wet mass themselves and then bacteria can grow. The sand keeps the cold concrete away when you still have only a thin layer of straw, but of course if you keep on adding straw during the winter, the strawpack itself becomes the insulation.


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