Building New Showbarn

[angus214]

We are in Mississippi and planning on building a new Showbarn my plan is a 40x60 with 40 ft enclosed and 20 ft open roof only! I planned 3 12x15 stalls, 10 ft ally, 12x 15 wash rack , 12x15 clipping area, 12x15 feed and supply area in the enclosed area in the covered open area I plan a 15x 20 pen , 10x 20 pen and 15x 20 pen. I plan to use gates to divide stalls and pens so they can be opened to make larger when needed! Any help or ideas would be great!

 

[OH Breeder]

I worked with an AWESOME contractor to help build our new barn. The one thing i would say is washrack. Can never be too big. You double it as a clipping area. I can send you pictures of the calving barn if you like. Congrats on the new barn. Post pics when done.

 

[Doc]

We are fixing to get started on ours. The stalls are going to be 12 x 12 , except 1 will be 12 x 18. The thing is the smaller ones can be opened to be double size or they can all be opened to run a bobcat down thru to clean out. We are going to use Riverode stalls. The wash rack is 14 x 28.

 

[angus214]

Thank y'all so much! I am gonna change my plans and do a 15x24 wash rack/ clipping area that is a great idea! All of our stalls and pens will have gates so we can clean out with bobcat also! I am looking into lighting, power, and fans now! I want to make sure we can run plenty of fans and blowers! Our barn now was a horse barn and works but we can't run fans and blowers at the same time and lighting is not good at all! We went to Tennessee River to their spring sale and they had just built a new show barn and we got some ideas from it! We also love the cedar fiber but no one in MS uses it! But I plan to order a truckload! We use a lot of pine shavings right now but we do plan to start using cedar fiber.

 

[Shallene]

We have added on to ours a few times improving each time to make our life easier. We are in Texas so the summers are brutal. Due to the heat which I assume you have in Mississippi, I would leave your stalls with three sides open (only one wall) with high sealings so the air will circulate better and open it up to the wind to circulate the air. This has worked great to keep our calves cool In the summer to keep them eating. Have a long piece of square tubing welded the length of the barn to multiple areas to hang fans. Of course you want a fully enclosed feed room / shop.  Make sure there is good drainage for rain coming off the roof. You want all the rain water to drain away from the barn easily. Line the floor of the barn with finely crushed aggregate and then cover it with cedar shavings.  This will help drain and soak up any urine especially those calves that urinate over and over in the same place. The more covered roof the better. Easy acces to water and electricity everywhere. Put hose drain valves on your watering troughs so you can hook a hose to them and easily drain. Make sure your wash rach has good drainage. These are just a few things I think you could do to make your life easier.

 

[cowman 52]

Have seen this several times in the warmer places, I built ours with a roof with two slopes,  it leaves a 14 inch space at the peak, the north side taller than the south.  You get a draw on any air in the summer, the fans are not mandatory.  A fogger system on the south edge and is plenty if the wind blows like it does here.  Winter can be a bit tough if it gets to 10 or so, but usually doesn't last long. 
Just a suggestion.

 

[afhm]

If you can design it to reduce or get rid of as much of the alley as possible, unless you need it to get throught the barn to pastures or something, alley seem to make for a lot of wasted space.  With a 4-6' alley your pens could be that much bigger.

 

[afhm]

Also insulating the roof will be one of the best things you could do.

 

[DSC]

Dont mean to steal the thread but do any of you use the mesh/privacy tarps on the open end of your barn to help with shade? Ours is open on one end and that happens to be where the tie rail is and the sun beams down on the cattle at certain times of the day (mostly in the afternoon when it super hot). In the summer its not a big deal as the cattle are in the cooler all day which is on the other side of the building. Just wondering is anyone uses these as I was looking into ordering some custom cut to the size of the opening.
Thanks

 

[Mainevent]

I use a brand and I cut it to fit and it makes it dark on the other side of the cloth would be very much worth the buy.

 

[jwfarms]

Also insulating the roof will be one of the best things you could do.

Yep, so much easier to keep it cool and warm with insulation.  We did the foil insulation that sticks to the roof and over the finished area we blew in 6".