Shelter Building Options

You can make a shelter out of so many different materials. The most beautiful barns are the old wood or stone built designs. It is difficult to find those barns anymore. More often modern barns are built with metal siding.

Below are some of the common modern date livestock shelters

Wood framed or steel framed; metal or wood sided.

I recommend adding the reflective roof insulation pad if you are doing metal roofing. It cuts the sound down and heat tremendously. This barn is warm in the summer but not hot.

Above: Barn has good grading but needs more backfill to keep edges of metal from being dangerous

Above: There is a large Hay storage in back, three 10×10 stalls and 40×30 area for cows to access freely Above: Grass fills in nicely around edges for erosion control and waterproofing the building.

Above: Building pad was built very high due to grade of slope. Grass grew in on hill and no erosion at all. Gavin (Swedish Isbar rooster) and his girls hang out with the Dexters all day.

Above: Finding a good location for shed. Opening of the shed will face East, so North, South and West wind will be blocked. The building is on a slight hill so good surrounding drainage, but still need to make sure drainage around building itself is good. Large building area was put in with contractor grade select fill dirt.

Above: Finished building with backfill of dirt complete, so no metal edges.

Above: Backside of building with grading along back as well

Above: Unfinished inside needs kick boards to prevent the cows from damaging the siding

Above: 3 years later and the building is in great shape with good grass growth, providing good erosion control and NO MUD Above: Winter dormant grass still provides great erosion control and proper drainage to keep inside of shelter dry and free of mud.

Above: Years later and the kickboards are still in great shape. Never leaks, easy to clean, the Dexters love it and so do we!

Above: Finished building on large graded building pad.

Above: Inside the loafing shed to make it safe for the Dexters. Kickboards, coral panels on posts and no sharp metal edges, horizontal boards for hanging bags of hay

Above: Another view of the inside and dirt floor. Easy scooping out manure. Like a cat litter box.

Above: We tied corral panels to the loafing sheds vertical beams, to ensure no cows are injured while in the shelter. Cows are notorious for running other cattle out and could run them into the beams. Also view shows easy access from both sides for cleaning.

Above: Years later and grass all grown in and shed in same condition. Has held up perfectly for the yearling Dexters and finishing steers.

Never waste the wonderful manure and soiled hay you pull from your shelters. We have a fresh and old compost pile near each building. We use a pull behind cart to clean out each area. We use a tractor when we do full clean outs. If you have a place to take the waste, that is convienent, you are more likely to keep your shelters clean. We have no fly issues from the composting piles. We use the composted dirt for our large garden and to fill in our low lying areas. We never put the dirt back in the loafing sheds. We only use fresh construction grade sandy soil for the barn areas.

Above: Compost piles from this shelter near by. Compost piles REDUCE flies as the temperature created during composting kills fly larvae, that is originally found in the manure and hay. Flies avoid laying their eggs in composting piles due to the temperature. For more information visit this area Composting- Reuse the Waste!

In this part of Texas we call it “Select Fill.” It has a light brown color with, quite a bit of clay and sand mixed together. When wet you can make sand castles type consistency. When compressed with land moving equipment like a Skidsteer, it hardens up with little erosion. When added to the inside of a barn for stalls it remains powdery and slightly dusty. Makes for cleaning stalls a breeze. We do backfill the outside of the shelters with our farm-made compost/top soil, so the grass will grow in well. Grass doesn't like the select fill dirt.

Above Pics: Select fill type dirt