Goat Barn Design **Diagram Added Pg2

Melissa'sDreamFarm

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Okay, we are getting ready to build that new goat barn. My current goat house/shed will be the future buck house/shed, lol.

So I'm leaning toward corrugated metal. My horse barn is not shaded (metal) and does get hot in the summer, but it's hot outside. My horses usually hang out under the trees on those particularly hot days trying to catch a breeze.

The goats will have lots of shade with trees galore and pasture beyond the trees. So metal versus wood and I want a 9 x 15. That will give me a 9 x 6 milk room and them a 9 x 9 barn. So how big is a kidding stall? I will eventually keep kids in there while I milk the moms. So this needs consideration. I'm planning on a concrete pad under the milk stand with a drain, installing a sink and electric. The barn is close to the water line from the well, but not close to the electric :/. So that's a ditch I will regret digging. I "plan" on having no more than 5 or 6 does and 2 bucks. I currently have 2 ND does almost a year old and a 5 week old buck.

Thanks, Melissa
 

ksalvagno

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I'm gong to say go as big as you can afford. You build a barn and find you can always use more room. We built a 40x50 barn and thought that should keep us for a long time but since adding goats, I could use more room. Another thing to consider is an overhang off the barn to "extend" your barn. Then if needed, you could temporarily enclose the overhang.

My kidding stalls are 3x9. Mainly because I'm using corral panels and the short panels are 3 feet and the regular panels are 9 feet.
 

Melissa'sDreamFarm

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I have a couple of pig panels. They are 3 x 16, I was going to cut them down to 5' so I can double them in height. Would 5 x 6 be good enough?
 

Melissa'sDreamFarm

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May be I need 12 x 15. I could make my milk room 12 x 6 and stack hay in the back part, hmm. By the time I'm finished it'll be bigger than my house, lol.
 

ksalvagno

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I would think a 5x6 kidding stall would be fine. My kidding stalls are temporary so as soon as kidding season is over, I will take the panels down.
 

20kidsonhill

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our kidding stalls are also temporary, we use plywood panels with brackets at the ends to put them together with rebarb rods. This works great. We had or kidding pens 8 by 4 but we decided this was taking up to much room and just didn't need to be that big, so we are going to recut some of the boards so the stalls will measure 4 by 6. We like that the boards are solid, the does seem to enjoy being alone with the kids.

We don't put our does in the kidding pens until after they have kidded, We feel it is less stress on them since they have such strong herd instincts. Once and a while if we are going to be gone for a while and it is a younger doe we might put one in just incase she kids while we are gone.


we have a small coral area attached to the barn, with all fields extending from this. we are able to bring in all the does and close up the coral, allowing the does to come in and out of the barn, but not be all over the field during kidding time.

We have inside the barn the stalls set up with just three sides or attached in open triangles around the barn so the goats can find a comfortable corner at kidding time, still feel like they are part of the herd, but have a corner to kid in so the kids stay closer to the doe. this has worked great. especially when several of the does have already kidded and there are babies running around everywhere.
 

helmstead

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We didn't have enough barn in GA...so...my condition with my DH to move me to Indiana was, simply, build me my dream barn.

And he did.

And now, it's not big enough :lol:

Our barn's footprint is 46x36. Then we build sheds around it (not totally done yet, the south side hasn't been shedded) making the total size 56x56. Our goat pens encircle the barn. Each pen except our buck pen has access to get inside the barn through a small door, and each pen has a 10' shed overhang. These are closed on the north side, providing more shelter from wind/rain/snow.

Inside the barn are 12x12 stalls for the pens to gather in. Unfortunately not EVERY pen has a stall, but the most populated ones doe have barn access.

My kidding stalls are SMALL. In GA, they were 5x10, and I found the babies sometimes would be born away from the heat lamp during the winter, causing kidcicles. So here, I built the kidding stalls with 4.5' solid walls and they're only 5x5. I also made it so in frigid temperatures we can install 'lids' over top of the kidding stalls to hold the heat from the lamps in better. Then I have a 5x12 bottle baby stall, which is 1/3 covered, and the heat lamps are under the covered area.

Some pics of the barn while it was under construction last January:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30795533&l=2337b6d9bb&id=1528396349
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30823188&l=1ac88ce9e5&id=1528396349
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30823189&l=999664172b&id=1528396349
 

julieq

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Our vintage dairy barn is about 30 x 60, with an original enclosed milk room in one corner that's about 12 x 12. We also use cattle panels, lined with red top fence wire on the inside, so our stalls are pretty good sized. The panels are nice as we can change configurations as needed. If I were building, I think I could go with about the same size, but I'd certainly like a larger milk/feed room. I'm always running out of space and reorganizing in there. I think the key is to overbuild size wise if at all possible.
 

freemotion

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20kidsonhill said:
our kidding stalls are also temporary, we use plywood panels with brackets at the ends to put them together with rebarb rods. This works great. We had or kidding pens 8 by 4 but we decided this was taking up to much room and just didn't need to be that big, so we are going to recut some of the boards so the stalls will measure 4 by 6. We like that the boards are solid, the does seem to enjoy being alone with the kids.
Any chance of posting pics of this, with detail photos on how it is put together? Maybe in its own thread for easy locating later?
 

20kidsonhill

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I can try, I haven't posted pics on here yet, and was wanting to figure it out, since my first 11 does are due feb 3. I may need to go take some pictures, if I can't find any in my photo arcive. :)
 

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