Our Corral and Barn Setup

[randiliana]

I was going to post all these photos on here, but then had a better idea. This way if someone wants to know I just have to post the link , rather than all these photos again. Anywhere if you want a tour through our corral system and our barn (such as it is) just click on the link.

It works quite well for us, we have put approx 170 pair through the system. Last year the barn saw almost no use. Just a few cows we had to assist. This year is still to come For those of you who are going to say it, the barn is just freshly cleaned out, and I am airing it out for a few days until we need it. We need to get some square straw bales in there, then we will spread them out when needed. In a perfect world, they would all do it by themselves outside, but I'm sure at the very least we will run into some cold weather, and with 30 heifers and 60 cows chances are someone will have to have help for one reason or another.

http://ranchersperspective.blogspot.com/

 

[leanin' H]

THANKS FOR THE LINK! I liked the barn and calving suites! Ya probably have happy cows when the weather is ugly. :wink: Hope your calving season goes smooth and carefree.

 

[Circle M]

Great link , looks like you are setup great, i was just curious on what other people pay for small squares of straw, last year i paid 3 bucks a bale, now this year they are charging any where from 4 to 6 a bale :!:

 

[Denny]

Looks pretty handy and warm.Gotta like those wood walls alot better than steel.

 

[randiliana]

Leanin' H, I don't know about the cows, but I know I am happier :wink: .

Circle M, I honestly couldn't tell you what they are worth. The bales we have are about 3 years old. They are rye staw that we baled up. I am thinking that you could pick up square straw here (if you can find it) for $1.5 - $2.5/bale.

Denny, it is pretty handy. I do like the wood, although I am pretty nervous about letting anything real hot stay in there :wink:

The barn was originally an old granary. It has a double wall construction, so it is pretty good. We need to tin the roof though, it rains/snows in there a bit :shock:

 

[per]

Looks to be a pretty functional set up. Hope none of it is necessary.

 

[Blkbuckaroo]

Thanks for sharing your setup Randiliana,i remember admiring it last year in your post.Looks like some of your corral boards might be milled by a mobile saw mill.Nice setup.

 

[Denny]

Leanin' H, I don't know about the cows, but I know I am happier :wink: .

Circle M, I honestly couldn't tell you what they are worth. The bales we have are about 3 years old. They are rye staw that we baled up. I am thinking that you could pick up square straw here (if you can find it) for $1.5 - $2.5/bale.

Denny, it is pretty handy. I do like the wood, although I am pretty nervous about letting anything real hot stay in there :wink:

The barn was originally an old granary. It has a double wall construction, so it is pretty good. We need to tin the roof though, it rains/snows in there a bit :shock:

I had my big bulls get into our (TIN BARN) and the fight was on needless to say they bowed the walls out in a short hurry.My corrals are getting better each year as I add more to them but they are a work in progress.

Your cattle look to be in very good condition.What are they bred to.

 

[Nicky]

Nice setup, looks alot handier than ours. Nice blog too

 

[randiliana]

Per, I am hoping we don't need it too. But I have my doubts.

Blkbuckaroo, We buy all our lumber through the local Co-op. I'm not too sure where it comes from.

 

[randiliana]

I had my big bulls get into our (TIN BARN) and the fight was on needless to say they bowed the walls out in a short hurry.My corrals are getting better each year as I add more to them but they are a work in progress.

Your cattle look to be in very good condition.What are they bred to.

Bulls are such a pleasure to have around, aren't they :lol: . Ours never get a chance at the barn thank God. These corrals are also a work in progress. We add more as we need. I like what we have right now, they move through it fairly well.

Thank you, I am fairly happy with their condition, especially after the cold winter that we have had. The bulls we used were 3 Black and 1 Red Angus, 1 Hereford, and 2 Angus/Simmental bulls. Should have a lot of black calves this year.

 

[randiliana]

Nice setup, looks alot handier than ours. Nice blog too

Thanks, Nicky. We had a lot of chances to work around different setups, before we built this one, so we had a good idea of what would work, and what didn't. We send cattle out to 4 different pastures so a GOOD sorting setup was necessary.

As for the blog, thanks, as you can tell, I'm pretty slack on it though :wink: