I have not been able to post pictures so I will try to explain. It is easy really!
I started by contacting Purdue University for information on livestock facilities. A neighbor had built a facility a year before me and I picked his brain as well. ( My son married his daughter last November and they bought her parents farm so he runs shorthorn cattle there.)
I went to the top of a south-facing hill and laid out two separate floors. The east one comes out of a lean to on my machinery shed then a 20-foot space then the other floor. The space between the floors is gravel as it is not in heavy traffic.
My clean out alley runs the length of both floors so it is 220' long and 10 feet wide. The floors are 50' by 100' each with a 20' by 100' loafing shed at the top of the west floor ( I keep brood cows there) and a 20' by 100' lean to at the top of the east floor. I have my working chute in the East End of the machinery shed so I can work cattle in almost any weather in comfort.
The floors slope 50" in the 50' run south down the hill with an 8" drop into the alley with an 8" curb on the other side. The alley slopes 7" from east to west ( almost flat in 220' ).
If the alley over flows the material has to cross about 1000' of grass before going in the woods. I built the floors in 1974 and have never had that happen yet.
The floors are 4" of 4000# concrete with wire reinforcing - - no nylon in 1974. I put an 8" wide by 2'deep footer at all edges to reinforce where equipment comes and goes and to keep ground hogs from getting under. About 10 years ago the concrete started looking like the new "exposed aggregate" but still is holding together well.
When I built the facility I was runing about 50 brood cows and fed out about 700 calves a year - - - If I could find someone to run the gravel pit to my satisfaction I would probably expand the cattle operation again as I enjoy it much better.
If you have any more questions you can email me at
[email protected]