Requirements for building a farm goat barn
Goats spend almost the whole summer in pasture, but in winter the question of keeping animals arises. In severe frosts, goats need warmth, especially for females during lactation. Hypothermia threatens mastitis and other problems with the udder. As a result, the animal experiences pain and discomfort, milk yield falls. Without proper treatment, such problems can even be fatal. So that the goats have a place to spend the winter, you can build a goat shed with your own hands.
DIY goat shed
Requirements for the premises for keeping goats
The goat house does not have to be a specialized building. Breeders often remodel summer kitchens, outhouses and other living quarters for goat barns. The main thing is that the premises meet the requirements for keeping small dairy cattle:
- The room must be warm and dry. The temperature in winter should not fall below 8 ° С, and in summer - exceed 18 ° С.
- The litter on the floor must be clean and dry. This can be easily ensured by timely cleaning of the stalls.
- Take care of ventilation, but avoid drafts. This will avoid many diseases.
- Good lighting in the room is important. Its absence negatively affects the development of kids.
- The height of the walls must be at least 2 m.
- Goats love space because of their mobility and constant activity. Each adult animal should have at least 1.5 m², for a female with offspring - about 2 m², and for a young individual it is enough to take 1 square meter. meter.
- Animals also need a place to walk. For this purpose, an aviary is being built adjacent to the room where the goats live. The walking area must be fenced off with a net so that the animal does not escape.
- Lacquering females should be kept separate from sexually mature males. The goat's specific odor can be passed on to the milk, making it unusable.
How do you build a goat barn to comply with regulations? You can watch step-by-step videos on the Internet or ask for help from specialists. The goat shed itself, the size of which will depend on the number of animals living in it, must be thought out in advance.
Seat selection
If the choice was made in favor of building a barn with your own hands, then first you need to decide on its location. If the groundwater on the site is close to the surface of the earth, then you need to build a shed at the highest place, otherwise it will always be damp in the goat's house.
It is also important to remember that goats are clean animals, and they simply cannot be near a cesspool, street toilet or compost heap. And milk is also capable of absorbing strong odors. It is for this reason that males and females are kept separately.
Building a goat barn
It is better to start construction in early spring in order to have time to finish it by frost. First you need to decide on the materials and draw up a project for a goat shed.Drawings are prepared in advance. Windows and façade must face south. It is also recommended to organize a corral there for walking animals in autumn and winter.
An important point in the construction of a barn with your own hands is the construction of the foundation. It is best to make an elevated columnar foundation from blocks. This is done in this way:
- Outlined from the markup. You need to decide what size and shape the goat shed will be. If you divide the room into dressing rooms and directly the part where the goats will live, then drafts can be avoided in this way.
- The top layer of the earth is removed.
- Dig holes for the support blocks at a distance of no more than 2 m from each other.
- In the pits for the supports, a sand cushion is created and tamped well.
- Construction of support pillars of the foundation. Cement is poured over the sand, then blocks are laid. They are also held together with cement.
- The supports are plastered and insulated with bitumen.
For building a goat shed with your own hands, a variety of materials from bricks to logs are suitable. The most optimal option would be the construction of walls from a thick bar and internal walls from a board. A distance of 10-15 cm is left between them and it is filled with sand or expanded clay. Such a barn will not need additional heating in winter, and in summer it will keep the temperature comfortable for goats.
The windows are placed at a height of at least 1.8 m above the floor, so that especially playful goats do not try to jump out into them and do not get injured by broken glass. Doorways are made wide enough, and the threshold is no more than 15 cm.
The floor in a goat shed is ideally made of wood, but a concrete floor is also acceptable. In winter, the animals are cold to stand on the bare concrete floor, and it is covered with straw, sawdust or old hay. The stronger the frost in winter, the more bedding will be needed. To drain liquid manure, the floor is made at a slight slope and a chute is built to remove it from the barn. The wooden floor is made from beams and planks. Insulation is stuffed into the niches between the beams for good thermal insulation.
A shed for keeping domestic goats should have a flat roof covered with slate or shingles. The roofing material should fit snugly against each other and not have gaps. If you make a gable roof, precipitation will flow to the ground on its own, and in winter you will not have to clean off the snow. On the roof, if you wish, you can build an attic for storing hay and straw, as well as agricultural implements.
Interior decoration and arrangement of the barn
After completion of construction, you need to think about arranging a comfortable goat shed. The interior decoration of the premises plays an important role.
If the walls are two-layer with insulation between them, then it is enough to whitewash the barn with quicklime. If the walls were built of bricks or, even worse, planks, then they need insulation. This is done using foam or special building insulation.
Stall doors are installed so that they open outward. This is required by fire safety regulations.
A proper goat shed should have:
- spacious stalls with a width of 1.5-2 m² and a height of partitions of at least 1.5 m;
- convenient feeders;
- animal resting platforms raised above the floor.
When setting up a comfortable goat shed, it is important to consider where and at what height the deck or rest shelves will be located. Animals love to sleep on high ground. The advantage of such structures is that they are far from the cold floor and the goats will not sleep in their feces. They should be located no higher than half a meter above the ground. The size of the lounger should be sufficient for one individual, which is approximately 50 x 80 cm.
Lighting plays an important role in arranging a do-it-yourself goat shed. If there is enough natural light in the summer, then in the winter, when daylight hours become too short, it is necessary to illuminate the stalls with electricity. It is best to place the lamp high above the ceiling so that the goats cannot reach it.
Barn heating
If the barn was not sufficiently insulated or the climate presupposes very harsh winters, then you should take care of heating the room with the goats. Stove heating is absolutely not suitable for this, because a fire can occur. Gas heating is appropriate, but the cost of it will not be covered by income from subsidiary farming. The option with steam heating remains.
Maintaining a temperature of at least 8 ° C in the stable during the winter contributes to the normal overwintering of goats. Animals are less likely to get sick, and milk yield remains at the same level.
Arrangement of feeders
The front wall of the stall is also its door. Feeders and drinkers are usually attached to it. In this case, it is convenient for the owner to fill the feeders with food, and for the animals to reach for it. Feeders are made from boards or tin. Euro pallets are often used for the construction of feeders, but this material has low strength. A wooden partition with holes of such a size is installed in front of the feeder so that the animals can stick their heads in, but no more. Goats can climb into feeders with their feet and turn their contents onto the floor. Goats will not eat trampled food.
A properly organized nursery will help save food several times over. In search of more delicious food, goats are able to turn it all over.
In the feeder, you need to make room for a piece of salt. Goats need mineral nutrition at all stages of their life. The animals lick the salt, so it needs to be secured securely.
The role of the drinker can be played by an ordinary bucket, which is attached to the stall door. So it will be convenient to change the water without going inside. In summer pens, water is poured directly into bathtubs or troughs.
Organization of an open corral
On sunny, calm days in winter, goats walk with pleasure in the fresh air. It is necessary to equip them with a walking paddock adjacent to the barn. One of the barn doors should go into a fenced enclosure.
The height of the fence should be at least 1.5 m for young individuals and females, and it is better for goats to make the fence higher. This will prevent the animals from jumping over the fence and escape, and will also protect the goats from predators.
The pen should be covered with a canopy made of fabric, slate or other roofing material. It will protect animals from scorching rays and precipitation in the form of snow and rain.
Conclusion
Building a goat shed with your own hands is not so difficult if you adhere to all the rules and nuances. Before launching goats into a new home, it is recommended to treat stalls, feeders and drinkers with Creolin or any other disinfectant, because materials for construction may have previously been stored in an inappropriate place or near infectious animals. The disinfection procedure will keep your goats safe.
The advantage of self-building a barn is that the size and equipment of the barn will depend only on the wishes of the owner. If it is planned to increase the number of goats on the farm, then it is better to make a larger barn.