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Windbreak Question, need your help

F

Faster horses

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
30,479
Location
NE WY at the foot of the Big Horn mountains
Mr. FH wants to put up a steel windbreak in one of our calving lots.
It will be in a wide 'V' shape with the point of the V facing the northwest.
Each wing will be 150' long.

We had an existing windbreak there made out of square flax bales
2 high and that didn't work very good. It followed the fence corner
and was 150' long.

Our problem is that the ground slopes up from the windbreak,
so the windbreak is actually in the lowest spot in the lot. Therein
lies the problem.

How long and how high do we need to make this windbreak to
to get the most protection out of it? Is there a formula for the correct
angle?

We have a 40' portable shed in that corner with doors that open up
in the middle providing 20 feet of windbreak as well. He was going to
put the shed inside the steel windbreak. He wondered if 10' high
is high enough? The flax bales didn't stop the wind except right in
the V. He is guessing there is at least a 15-20' rise from the lowest
spot in that lot, to the highest spot.

What do you all think? What suggestions do you have?
We can set the portable shed any way we need to to utilize the
windbreak the very best. Maybe a windbreak would have to be so
high there that it isn't feasible to build it.

Thanks in advance for your help. We are open to suggestion.
(I know, calve later for one thing. :P We don't start calving until
March 25, except for the early ones. And this is the lot we put
the 2-year old heifers in after they calve.)
 
Going to be tough being that you have that rise, generally I think twice as long is protected as it is high or 3:1 can't remember... I need to go feed and am pickign up the distillers from over there (He got loads in for "free" when the dryer broke so...) and I will look at what he has...

I will tell you what our neighbors did who have a situation like you.. They build the windbreak out of conrstalk bales (5X6) stacked two high in the middle of the darn pen and than surronded it with corral pannels so the heifers couldn't get at it... They also did it on the west edge of the lot. North edge... You would go into that lot and it was like being inside there was so little wind. If they do it again this year Probably will) I will take pictures for you, I know, probably too late now but it was pretty neat. I know we stack cornstalk bales along the west edge of our winter lot for the cows to use as wind breaks and it helps... As long as the wind isn't coming from the north but they have other natural breaks for that direction.
 
FH:

Search the University of Wyoming website. Call someone down there, it might have to be in Range, or something other than Animal Science, but someone there should be able to help you out. I just don't know who it would be. If nothing else, just call the Dept Head, or someone like that. Surely someone is around there who would remember the work.

About 12-15 years or so ago, there was a nice article in Drovers (back when it was a good magazine), that profiled this work.

Badlands
 
FH

I've made some around here out of dirt. Just cut the v out of the dirt and piled it along the edges, to make the sides. If yo do it on a slight hill, you'de be amazed how high your sides can go.

What I've found is that the tighter you make the v, the easier it is for the wind to go around it, and not over it. Does that make sense?

I thnk IL's idea of 3 to 1 is correct.

Can you move it some way, so that it isn't going uphill?

Won't any snow that piles up, run back down towards your windbreak, when it melts?

Can you post pictures of the area and give the directions?

For more burning questions like these, and the answers to theses question, tune in tomorrow, ladies and gentlemen. :wink: :lol: :lol:
 
Another way that works pretty well is to make a windbreak in a half circle, with the backside to the northwest. An advantage of the half circle is that cattle can stand around it wherever they are most out of the wind.

I will post a rinky-dink drawing, and hope it will help describe what I am trying to say.

Windbreakpicture.jpg
 
Here is some reading for you FH


This one has drawings.
http://www.cps.gov.on.ca/english/plans/E8000/8368/M-8368L.pdf

http://www.iowabeefcenter.org/pdfs/bch/10200.pdf

This one shows the v type. Starts on about page 12-13 (pdf-takes awhile to download if on dialup)
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~mwps_dis/mwps_web/pdf_files/Horse_Ch4.pdf
 
I have the article saved out of a magazine. I hope I can still find it.
Wait...my long term memory is okay, it's my short term one that gets
me in trouble. Thanks for reminding me of that article, Badlands.

IL Rancher, I'll be watching for your post after you get back from
where the folks built the windbreak with a similar situation we have.
Thanks.

Good advice, Jinglebob. We have our own 'mountain' in this lot too
and it helps immensely. Never thought to make it into a V shape though.
I read your idea about the narrow V and Mr. FH says the one he built out of bales was probably way too wide since it followed the fence line.
I thought they used the article I had for the measurements. But they
probably had a FORD (better idea) moment when they got out there
to build the windbreak.

And you are right, the snow melted and the water ran into the V.
(Boy, are you good this morning, or what? :wink: )

I'll take a picture of the location.

Thanks soapweed and fedup2. Hopefully this will help. I'll show them
all to the man in charge. :P

Keep the ideas coming everyone!
 
FH- If you have an extension Agent nearby, you might check with him...When I was judging 4-H speeches and projects I know some of the kids got a lot of their info on windbreak projects thru the extension service and MSU...
 
IL Rancher, the articles that I linked show that if the boards used in the windbreak have the proper space between them, a 10 ft high fence will protect up to a 100 foot out. The gaps are important so that a little air goes through, otherwise on a solid windbreak like a bale pile, the wind goes over and comes down to close to the windbreak.
Kinda interesting!
 
FH.. they don't have it set up yet and wonder if they will as they aren't doing nearly as many stalks this year as years past.. I would imagine they will though as they calf out hundreds of heifers every year and also show cattle they they can't allow to get frozen ears so they do almost all their calving in either "yards" like this or inside... Never ceases to amaze me but I guess when you sell a few 10k calves a year you will do what it takes..
 
Makes a bit of sense... Again, I don't really build to many windbreaks, the bales are just there because they have to be somewhere... I am lucky in that my pasttures are kind of rolly where I calf and we have decent tree lines.. An east wind still causes some trouble however..
 
FH,

We have built a lot of windbreak around here for protection from the wind. It can get pretty nasty if we get high winds when its -40. What I have found after lots of experimenting is that if you use 1x6x8 ft high windbreak boards ( slabs) and space them about 2 inches apart you will get an excellent wind stopper. We have tried it with stacking bales tight together two high and the wind seems to funnel over top of the bales. There has to be a gap in between the boards so a certain amount of the wind can come through otherwise it jsut comes over the top. I ll see if I still have a picture of the boards we put up last fall.


7bbb3088.jpg
 
Look at all that water!!!!!!!

We make our other windbreaks with spacing betweent the boards.
Mr. FH was going to make this out of those mega panels that are
metal. I think he has reconsidered based on the input from this
forum.

Back to the drawing board.

Thanks bunches everyone!! And keep posting ideas!

I printed off information from some of the links provided.
Pretty interesting stuff.

And now I find the problem might have been the bales...go figure!
We even bought flax bales so they would last longer, and they did.
They lasted at least 3 years, maybe 4.
 
fh, When we went to Mobridge at the farm auction they had portable wind breaks out of guard rail... Were six high I think and was welded on to angle iron...... Look like a really good thing....
 
windbreak.jpg


FH, I will give you my un-professional opinion on the V-windbreaks.

We have a lot of them scattered around, and we have built 5 of them this fall. The ones we have built recently are all in the SE corner of a pasture somewhere. I think solid V-windbreaks are the best choice for keeping snow out of a corner. Cattle seem to prefer to stand behind the slatted ones, as they break the wind, rather than just trying to stop the wind, but the solid ones do create a wind swirl that the slatted ones do not. However, you almost never see much snow behind the solid ones, and you do see some snow behind the slatted windbreaks. Here is the formula you are supposed to use on the V- windbreaks. When you are laying out the windbreak, you should draw an imaginary line between where each end of the windbreak ends (the width of the opening in other words), and that measurement should not be more than 15 times the heighth(sp) of the windbreak. In other words, if you built a windbreak that was 10 feet high, the width of the opening should not be more than 150 feet across.

I like to build them out of super steel solid panels that are 3 ft. high by 24 feet long. I would not use wood again, but we do not have time to go back and build them again, or maintain all of them regularly.

150 feet each direction sounds huge to me. I think you could put 500 or more cows behind that size windbreak.
 
I was thinking some more about the spot you mentioned. In a lot, I think the lowest spot for a windbreak might not be the best choice. We do have a spot where the windbreak is at the base of a high slope, in a SE fence corner of a pasture. This place is sodded though, but this spring when we had the terrible blizzard it got very muddy and soupy, but there was NO snow at all for at least 1/4 mile up and over the top of the hill behind (downwind) of the windbreak. So it did it's job, but it is not in a lot, or a place where they need a windbreak very often, for as late as we calve. The motto on windbreaks around here is to build them, and hope you don't need 'em. I might be inclined to build one in a better place if I were you, and move your lot fence. V-windbreaks are the best in my opinion. But keep them back from the fence corner a ways so the snow doesn't go plumb over top of the barbwire fence behind them, as they do part the snow and make big drifts along side them. :!:
 
Tap said:
I was thinking some more about the spot you mentioned. In a lot, I think the lowest spot for a windbreak might not be the best choice. We do have a spot where the windbreak is at the base of a high slope, in a SE fence corner of a pasture. This place is sodded though, but this spring when we had the terrible blizzard it got very muddy and soupy, but there was NO snow at all for at least 1/4 mile up and over the top of the hill behind (downwind) of the windbreak. So it did it's job, but it is not in a lot, or a place where they need a windbreak very often, for as late as we calve. The motto on windbreaks around here is to build them, and hope you don't need 'em. I might be inclined to build one in a better place if I were you, and move your lot fence. V-windbreaks are the best in my opinion. But keep them back from the fence corner a ways so the snow doesn't go plumb over top of the barbwire fence behind them, as they do part the snow and make big drifts along side them. :!:
Click to expand...

The first one I built out of dirt, on a low knob, is about 50 to 100 yards from our road. It's about 8 foot high at the point and drops down as it goes out to about 5 foot. when we had the big blizzard in 97, it sent two treally big drifts out onto and beyond the road. Just two more drifdts that we/they had to dig thru'.

I like to make them out of dirt, as once they are built they will last for years, with not maintenence.

What you dig out of the middle helps to raise the sides.

I did drive into one one day when the wind was blowing hard and it cut the wind, but nearly as much as I thought it would. But it sure sends a drift, for a long ways, so it must be working.

If I had some dirtmoving equipment, I'd build one on the downwind side of most of my hills.

All I am doing is mimicing nature with the draws and cutbanks.

Cheaper and easier than wood, steel or trees, in the long run. IMHO

If you've got some hills or low rises, in the right places, but then you'd be surprised how little of a rise you need, for them to work.

I'll take some pix and post them here.
 
MR - What direction are we facing in the above picture with the windbreak boards? If we are looking NW, the "V" is angled in the wrong direction. If we are looking SE, the boards are on the wrong side of the fence frame. The boards (slabs) are placed on the framing correctly so far as the spacing between them is concerned.

DOC HARRIS
 
There's 1,000's of miles of windbreak fence up north here and building it with 20 percent porosity is kind of the industry standard-some snow gets through it but not enough to worry about-if you madeone out of bales you could space them a bit to help stop snow from swirling up and over it.
 
FH these are some pictures of a home made dug out that Grandpa and Dad put up in the early 60's. They hired a cat to doze out a hill and then they put poles across the top for rafters and then stretched woven wire from end to end. They finished the roof by adding old hay or weeds on top of the woven wire. They never lost a cow in the blizzard of 66. We had a fire go across it in the early ninetys and the dirt is starting to erode a little but you will get the picture. Cattle still use it to get out of the wind but the horses love it in the summer time because it is dark and cool. The only thing you have to do is keep adding hay or weeds to keep it covered.

100_1310.jpg


100_1311.jpg



We have also been stacking bales about 100 yards from our wind breaks. It seems to give a buffer zone for the wind. We only use two wire fences around these hay stacks and then the little calves get tucked up next to the bales.

have a cold one

lazy ace
 

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