Steer Planet - Show Steers and Club Calves Forum

The one I liked was the BOHI facility here in Kansas.  They wasted a lot of money by not making it dual purpose but with some simple overhead doors would fix that.  They also built a seperate "show" barn that easily could have been incorporated into the sale facility. 

I have no idea on the dimensions.

The front 1/3 has a couple of offices and was where they fed the sale crowd and socialization occurred.  This could double as a small shop, garage but it didn't have overhead doors to the outside just some small walk-in doors.

They did have an overhead door going to the auction area.  In here they has a nice balcony area for seating and telephone bid taking area.  Of course bleachers and ring below.  About 1/4 of the barn was this area.
That leaves about 1/2 (5/12ths if your keeping track) for the back area for sale cattle prep...this could have doubled for the show area.   

Going the length of the auction center and sale prep part of the barn on both sides are pens in the "lean-to"sides that were totally inside.

Here is where you could have runs going off in each direction from those lean-to pens.  They didn't but they could have.  The ErLanDel facility in Missouri had a nice set-up ....in-door pens that lead to covered pens in the lean-to that lead to outdoor runs...damn nice for wintering animals with plenty of options.


Hope this helps

Couldn't find any pics on their site. My plan is to go approx 40x60 and put a wall in the middle dividing it in half. Half the building would be used for feed storage, and also storage for the skid steer and the Ranger. Come sale day it can be cleaned up and used for a meal or settlement. Put mens and women's rest rooms in the middle, then the other 30x40 portion can be used for the sale ring and maybe a small bar. Use the moveable bleachers that can be folded up and set against the wall and you have another half building that can be used for vehicle or machinery storage for 11 months out of the year. Not sure if 40x60 is going to be big enough though....

Went to a sale a few years ago at the Cow Palace, that Trausch Farms has in Iowa. It was perfect in my eyes. You should check it out.

I think this really depends on how much money that you want and can afford to spend.  The nicest on farm sale facilities that I have been at would probably cost upwards of a million dollars or more to build today which obviously is not feasible for most people.  I have also been to very success sales where very little was spent on the facilities.

I think that maybe the most important thing that is often overlooked is the actual penning of the cattle.  Up here it seems that most people are preferring to see the cattle penned outside in larger pens where a person can move them around in a more natural setting.  The two most common complaints that I am hearing about this are there being two many animals in a pen and that the entire pen is covered in deep bedding so that a person can not get a good look at feet.  One complaint that I really have not heard is that it is too cold or miserable out to look at the cattle even in some quite cold and blustery weather when there was a well light barn with enough small pens for all the cattle between them and the sale ring.

The other thing that I think is most appreciated by a lot of people attending a sale is adequate washroom facilities and hopefully some attempt to keep them stock and clean.

I personally do not think that a 30 X 40 area is big enough to  fit in a sale ring and bleachers  If I was going to undertake this project myself I would give serious consideration to the idea of a video sale without running the cattle through an actual ring but having them right by where the sale was.  This allows you to have a smaller building and not worry about how to get the cattle in and out.  It also speeds up the sale and allows a better flow as there are not holds getting animals in or out of the ring and you do not have quiet cattle blowing up in the ring.  I was sceptical about these sales initially but they seem to go over quite well.

Klintdog if you happen to come up to Davidson's sale in March and came a day early there is a Simmental sale about 70 miles east of Estevan that has about as nice of a relatively simple set up that is easily converted for other uses as I have seen (the actual sale is the same day as Davidson's).  The day after Davidson's is a sale about 10 miles out of Estevan that has a very basic no frills facility but they still have a very good sale.

Went to a large facility that had large flat screen TV's on the wall. They ran video of the cattle. Prior to the sale you could run other things. Sell some advertising time at your sale help pay for it. Just a thought.

I remembered seeing this a while back.....

http://www.tristateneighbor.com/articles/2008/04/11/tri_state_news/livestock_news/live07.txt