# Show Me Your Barn



## KingsCoGoatGuy (Dec 20, 2008)

I have alot of wood sitting in the neighbors barn that they gave me and I need some ideas how to do over our buck tent. It is about 30 feet long & 8 feet wide. Right now we have a large front area and one main pen for them. I would prefer to change it into 2 pens as I am getting a new buck... and well I seen what my Nubian did to our Boer buckling... :really (Some times I wonder if bucks are real animals and not just raging hormones) :crazy 
So anyones pictures would be great. I also need some ideas for a couple hay feeders for our kid pens this year. I have been using steel egg crates, but they waste alot of hay easily. 
(Milking rooms are welcomed  Sorry for being nosy. 5 more weeks and I will be busy with kids again :help2)


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## Faithful Crown Nubians (Dec 5, 2007)

I've been wondering this, were you a member of Homesteading Today or do I have you confused with someone else??

My barn will be completely switched around in the spring lol. I'll just post a lay out of the barn right now and the new one.  Instead of photos...its a complete mess right now. I dont want anyone to see it. LOL.

ETA: Here's the lay out of the barn/pastures. The tarp shelter that I am going to use in the big pasture will be simple 2 cattle panels, tposts 1 12x8 tarp. Just want the top covered so there's shade.


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## shawhee (Jun 28, 2008)

This is a question I have wanted to ask as well. I am trying to decide how to set things up here. I have to fix pasture fence and get a shelter up. I have a tack room in the barn that I am going to clean out and put my milking stand and machine in. It is about 10 x 10 but it is the only other place I have that is cemented besides my feed room, and I need that for hay/grain. I have 2 10x 10 stalls, and 2 10 x 20 stalls in my pole barn. Everything else is out by the pasture. Just cattle panel pens with shelters. I would love to see picture of simple barn set ups, and milk room set ups. I have been wondering how hard it would be to put in a small hot water heater to be able to clean stuff outside; or do a lot of you bring your milking equipment in the house to clean it? I have so many questions, but do not want to be a pest LOL

Shawna


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## Faithful Crown Nubians (Dec 5, 2007)

Shawna, I would love to have a milk room area with a sink and hot water heater and all that good stuff. I keep telling mom if we get that, then the milk mess wouldn't be in the kitchen. She always makes a comment about the milk and the pans for pasteurizing and all that stuff being in the kitchen. lol


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## stoneyheightsfarm (Jan 19, 2008)

Alex, I'm quite fond of my hay feeders, and have posted links to them in about 3 threads on here.  I won't be a pest and do it again, but if you search for "hay feeders" surely you will find the links. 

My barn set up is not what I'd like yet. My doe area is great, other than needing a french drain behind the barn, but what I had intended to be a milk room is now a buck and chicken barn until my 2nd barn gets built! I don't need the milkstand yet for anything other than meds and hoof trimmings, but for the last 2 weeks when I goat sat and had to milk a friend's goats, the milkstand was on my front deck and I used the railings to set the necessities upon! Do-able, but not ideal, particularly in this weather!


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## KingsCoGoatGuy (Dec 20, 2008)

Thanks I will have a look for those pictures. Are they made with cattle or pig pannels??? I would love to make the ones Vicki has, but the only pannels I can find are on the west coast and our co-op won't ship them in.


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## Sondra (Oct 25, 2007)

Though my area is not as big as I would like we but up a 18 by 20 metal building with just roof and 2 long sides closed then we built inside a 12 x 8 inclosure with wood floors that we put linolium on. This room is devided in half so 6x 8 is my milk room one goat at a time. and my pump is for the machine, also a small sink for washing udders and hands. . and 6 x 8 is my milk handling. in the milk handling is my surge bucket a deep sink/ small hot water heater/and sm refrig have shelf up on the opposit wall and counters all around underneath. Plenty of elec. outlets. This is where I pasturize all my milk. We also have another small building out front by the road with a deep freeze and large refrigerator with a counter. This is were customers go to pick up thier milk and soap. We have built out of wood feeders in the other area of the big building for loafing shed type where they go after being milked.


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## stoneyheightsfarm (Jan 19, 2008)

I didn't use any panels. I used 2x4s, rough sawn lumber, and tobacco stakes. You won't find tobacco stakes on the west coast, but 1x3s will work. I like this b/c the goats have to step up on the step and put their heads through the slats to eat. They don't pull the hay out, just keep their heads in and munch. It allows visibility unlike a keyhole feeder, so it has all the benefits of keyhole (less waste, feeding from outside the goat pen...) without being as potentially dangerous.

The original idea (to my knowledge) for this feeder came from Michell Shrum (Butterflymorn2001 on here, I think). She showed hers to another member here (Paula Butler) who liked it, had her husband draw up plans and build it, and said it wasted easily 50% less hay than what she currently had. (A system where goats would pull hay through) I built it based on plans that Mr. Butler drew up, modifying it a bit to fit my barn. The main modification I made was to make the space under the feeder inaccessable to goats. That space often gathers waste hay and grain (I put feed bowls in there, too, to feed grain). While it's a nice spot for kids to hang out of the way of big does' feet and such, it's also a spot for poop and food to gather in the same place. This could be avoided with a more solid bottom, but that would also make it a little tougher to clean out.

The modification to the plans that I wish I had made was to make the feeding well a bit deeper. It's okay as it is, so not worth changing, but would be nice to have 4 or so inches deeper...


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## stoneyheightsfarm (Jan 19, 2008)

Ooh, Sondra! I like the sound of that! Small, but efficient! Do you have any photos?


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## Sondra (Oct 25, 2007)

NO but when I clean it up as am storing crap in there now (not milking) I'll take some. It is very very simple just the milking area need to be expanded as can only get one milk stand in there. On paper it looked fine for two but it isn't.


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## KingsCoGoatGuy (Dec 20, 2008)

Vicki, what are the sizes of your pannel feeders? I mean like the square? it looks to be a 2" X 2" is it??? I might be able to get some pannels after all. It helps when you know the head peoples of the store.


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## Agape Oaks (Oct 30, 2007)

I have 2 18 X 22 foot car ports end to end. One has a concrete floor with drains & is closed on the sides & one end with windows & a door. It has a room built into it with waterproof walls, a triple compartment restaurant sink, an instant on hot water heater. I have a refigerator in there & a stainless steel table that came out of a sonic that was remodeling. The other side of it is where I milk. The other building is divided in half using panels from Northeast gate & half is a lounging area ( will be putting kidding pens there too) with half for hay storage. It works well for us. In most of my pens I have fiberglass shelters for my goats as well as covers over the feeding areas. All feeders are on the outside of the pen so we don't get mauled when feeding & there are no feet in the feed.

Oh I found my milk room pictures ........

This is the outside (this was before it was finished on the inside. I then had someone build a room on one side, all enclosed)
http://s246.photobucket.com/albums/gg100/txeyedoc/?action=view&current=milkroom.jpg

This is the milking area.....I have 3 stands & milk into a delaval bucket which is in a tub of ice water
http://s246.photobucket.com/albums/gg100/txeyedoc/?action=view&current=milkparlor.jpg
http://s246.photobucket.com/albums/gg100/txeyedoc/?action=view&current=2milkers.jpg
http://s246.photobucket.com/albums/gg100/txeyedoc/?action=view&current=singlestand.jpg

This is the milk room. I have a 3 compartment sink, a hand washing sink & the bucket washer is above the sink. I used to hang stuff to dry from peg board, but just bought stainless steell shelves & hooks from IKEA which have been put up where the pegboard is in the pics.
http://s246.photobucket.com/albums/gg100/txeyedoc/?action=view&current=milkroomsink.jpg

The other side of the milk room- refrigerator, stainless steel table & storage cabinet
http://s246.photobucket.com/albums/gg100/txeyedoc/?action=view&current=milkroomrefrig.jpg


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## shawhee (Jun 28, 2008)

Pam thank you for posting pictures! That helps to see someones set up.

Shawna


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## togg75 (Nov 30, 2008)

This is the milking hut I am currently working on.... The goats will have access to a small loafing yard before coming in to be milked.
Mostly the area around the tree will be the loafing area.









I will remove this fence to allow access to the loafing yard and add a gate of some type to seal off the loafing area once milking starts to allow cyclic return to the main barn. This is also my main barn. Some one in the history of this place had a dairy goat farm here before me. The barn and a couple of out buildings were in place. All of the fence had to or will need to be repaired (hog wire terrible with out electric). I am spending the money to put in cattle panels to save my fruit trees.









Walking in the front door to the barn. Hay storage is in the barn. Feeding systems small buckets hanging on the fence hay to the right. Notice in the next two pictures we can devide that area completely from the main barn area and into two seperate pens for kidding...etc. 









Entrance to main kidding pen.









Feeder System for kidding pen.....materials were left over fencing scraps from a tear down of the dog pen where the milking hut is now.









Second kidding pen if needed. My girls use this area to bed down at night. Mineral feeder on the left. I have seen them use it. 









Simple hay storage.









Looking back into the pen areas.









I need to find a solution to the bucket watering. It works fine right now, but occasionally they poop in the buckets and hay end up in them. I would like to get them off the floor and an auto waterer would be nice. For now the buckets will have to work. Any suggestion on improvments or potential problems would be helpful. :crazy


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## shawhee (Jun 28, 2008)

Thanks for sharing Mark


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## Leo (Mar 10, 2008)

Excellent pics.

Here's the layout of my current barn:








Before that I would milk under the trees, so when a storm hit I could set up a tarp. The girls had a barn/shed, but shared it with the chickens, dirt floors, one main room with a stall, so I just didn't want that dust getting in my milk. 
Megan


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## [email protected] (Sep 18, 2008)

Megan-that looks really nice.  What are the overall dimentions? Could you describe it a bit? I can tell your milking room, but can't read what any of the other areas are. What is that vertical line in the large area on the right? Anything you love about it and anything that you would change?

Boy, just full of questions, aren't I? :} I'm new to goats and have a smallish barn (20X40) that I'd like to get some kind of set-up figured out. Of course, at first it will all be 'temporary', til I get all the bugs worked out.


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## Guest (Jan 5, 2009)

Here are pictures of mine. Let me see if I can dig up the floorplan.

http://s34.photobucket.com/albums/d140/nitrors4/Goat Barn/?start=all&mediafilter=images


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## Guest (Jan 5, 2009)

I found a few for you to look at, but of course not the one I actually built. Must be on my home computer or hiding from me here at work.

http://s34.photobucket.com/albums/d140/nitrors4/?start=all


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## Leo (Mar 10, 2008)

> What are the overall dimentions?


The stalls are about 9' x9'ea., aisle is 11' x 25', dirt floor. The milking room is 9' x 12', kitchen 9'x 12', the big room on the right is 16' x 25' and that vertical line is where the roof slopes alot and there's a beam across it. The room with the stairs is 9 x 13' as is the adjoining room. Cement floors, plenty of outlets. The previous owner used it for his mini-horse and emu farm before he went bankrupt.



> Boy, just full of questions, aren't I? :} I'm new to goats and have a smallish barn (20X40) that I'd like to get some kind of set-up figured out. Of course, at first it will all be 'temporary', til I get all the bugs worked out.


 Questions are good, you can't learn without asking.  The barn is oldish, so I still need to fill in all the seam holes in the walls, put more insulation in, and it's really dark inside so I wish there was more windows, for the milking parlor it would be so much easier if I had two outside doors, so when I'm done milking I can put that doe outside and get the next in line for milking from inside the barn. Eventually I'll probably move the milking gear to the larger room, but right now the smaller room is just right. 
Megan


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## bonafide (Mar 24, 2008)

Here's my current barn layout. I have two "sheds" if you will. (They're enclosed "barns" with walk-through doors and they're in each pen.) I've got the plans for converting my tobacco barn into my new goat barn - but it's not done yet. The current barn is 30 x 30 with a 20 x 30 loft for hay. The "new" barn is 36 x 48. Adding another shed that's 8 x 12 as well.

Right now I've got 2 bucks, 1 wether and 7 does so when I have to I can use the area I use to put kids in when the weather is wretched as another stall.

(Hope you don't mind Leo - I used your format, I'm not real good at drawing straight lines on a computer, lol).


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## Legend Hills (May 29, 2008)

My husband loves me! :biggrin He built me a goat barn this past summer. I built the inside pens a little at a time when I was able. All I have right now is a picture of the girls pen. It has a draw door that you can pull up without entering their pen. It fits six females nicely. The buck, right now, is in a pen to the left of theirs. The kid and kidding pens are across from them and they are currently sharing the barn with a small chicken coop. It is a simple plan with room to grow. 
The picture below shows only about half of the actual pen size. On the righthand side JUST below the camera's view is where the pull door is for the goats. And yes, we have windows.  Where the little goat is sticking her head through towards the back is where the buck now resides. And showing off their stuff is Grace, the black and white Grade rescue, and Lin Yue one of our Alpines.










EDIT: The above picture was taken just a very short while after the pen was made. So there is no bedding down. There is now.


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