Grain bin into goat house?

[SourPatchBacon]

Our property came with a metal grain bin that is in good shape (the farmer we purchased the property from used it until last year). We will never have a need to use it for its intended purpose, and it's really not worth it to us to try and get rid of it. I have no clue how many bushels it holds, but it's tall enough to be 2 stories. We have 3 NGD's coming next month and have a place set up for them in our small barn, but I'd really like to utilize the grain bin if possible to use the barn for pigs or cows.

It's on a concrete slab, and has a drying floor in it currently which raises the floor up enough to need a few stairs to get into the door. I've seen conversion pictures online, but I haven't found any with it not at ground level (more or less), or with a drying floor. The conversions mostly look like they were moved from elsewhere, and I'm wanting to try to use as it stands. I'm wondering how that would effect ventilation requirements (there is an open spot where the dryer used to be on the backside, so there is some airflow through there that would go up through the floor. I know we would have to cut in windows or something else for ventilation (and light). When I went in there today (about 80) it really wasn't too warm at all and cooled off even more once the door was open for a few minutes. We also get some wicked winds and cold being in north central IL, so we get the full weather range.

Has anyone done or seen anything like this done before? Would the concrete slab below the drying floor be a problem with urine seeping through bedding and then having no where else to drain (I haven't gone under the drying floor, so no clue if there's a drain in the concrete slab or not, but assuming not)?

Any other thoughts? Thanks!

 

[Alaskan]

Hummmm

I would feel more comfortable turning it into an interesting garden shed/storage.

Just a bit worrisome the double floor/possible pee trap or rodent condo...

It would probably make fantastic storage, or even a root cellar type thing if it can still circulate air. Perfect place to dry onions or potatoes before storage.

 

[SourPatchBacon]

Hummmm

I would feel more comfortable turning it into an interesting garden shed/storage.

Just a bit worrisome the double floor/possible pee trap or rodent condo...

It would probably make fantastic storage, or even a root cellar type thing if it can still circulate air. Perfect place to dry onions or potatoes before storage.

Thanks for your insight! Thankfully the house we moved into is a really old homestead property, and we are already well set up for drying produce and root cellar space, and we have a large pole barn for all things storage.

I looked again at the drying floor, and it looks like we could remove it pretty easily. Would you still have reservations with just the grain bin as being the siding and the concrete slab being the flooring? We were planning to do a deep litter method like we do with the chickens.

 

[Alaskan]

Concrete slab floor is fine, metal walls you need to watch out for boiling in the summer and freezing in the winter ....

I haven't ever had a full metal building... metal roof yes...but not building.

Pretty cool that you have so many buildings to play with...

Will the pole barn not be easier to use for livestock? Or is the barn already full?

 

[farmerjan]

You might consider selling it.... and then putting up something more suited to your animals... There are companies that would come and take it down and it would be sold to another farmer.... just a suggestion. There are companies in PA that even take down concrete stave silos... and the blue harvestore silos are popular to take down and erect on other farms.... depends on age and condition... but with the price of metal, if this is in good condition, it just might be worth looking into seeing if it is more practical to sell and let someone use it for what it was intended on another property...

 

[misfitmorgan]

In agreement with @farmerjan and that was the first thing I thought, metal silo are seriously not cheap to buy new and about anyone who farms is always interested in picking a good used one up. If you are talking a 20-30ft tall grain silo in the smaller diameters those are around 20k new. I do know the used Harvestore Silos cost about 12k to buy but used metal silos kind of are all over the place in price. Some people are selling for 2k and other people are selling for 10k, depends on size and condition.

Most of the grain bins people convert are the short small ones on the cement pads, those are generally not worth much as they dont hold much and dont hold up well to the elements. Even those ones in the "condition good for converting" are only being sold for 2k or less, I have seen some for $700 but there is no way feed could be stored in them and they are generally more rust then metal at that point.

I would not use the metal grain bin with concrete slab for goats no, the metal will rust out quickly and by the nature of the design of the grain bin there is no place for the urine to go. Basically you would be making a barn with a pool of urine and feces below the animal floor if you left the dryer level in, if you took it out even with deep bedding the fact the urine can not drain off is no good. Either way in a matter of days the ammonia is going to be so strong nothing can stand/live in there. Even in an open barn with a cement floor if we go more then 2 weeks without cleaning out our stalls/pen it makes your eyes water and you get light headed. Our animals are not confined to stalls/pens in warm months so thats just occasional bathroom use and the urine can mostly drain away off the cement slab. We have to clean our stalls/pens then use a heavy coat of barn lime to cut down the ammonia and it is again a week or less and all bedding needs to be removed and the process repeated.

Cement is nice because you can clean and pressure wash it but it has definite down sides. Anyone and everyone I know using the deep bedding method is doing it on dirt.....for a reason or doing it with just poultry.

If you just build a goat building or a pig huts or whatever for housing for your animals you are going to be a lot more happy with it and get a lot more use out of it. The grain bin being weather tight would make a good secure place to store pallets of feed, place to store yard equipment/tools or machinery, you could put some more floors in it and turn it in a play house or a she shed or man cave or anything else you have an interest in if you dont want to try to sell it. Basically if there is anything non-living you could move from your pole barn or other building that then frees up space to make more animal housing in a building that should work better.

 

[SourPatchBacon]

In agreement with @farmerjan and that was the first thing I thought, metal silo are seriously not cheap to buy new and about anyone who farms is always interested in picking a good used one up. If you are talking a 20-30ft tall grain silo in the smaller diameters those are around 20k new. I do know the used Harvestore Silos cost about 12k to buy but used metal silos kind of are all over the place in price. Some people are selling for 2k and other people are selling for 10k, depends on size and condition.

Most of the grain bins people convert are the short small ones on the cement pads, those are generally not worth much as they dont hold much and dont hold up well to the elements. Even those ones in the "condition good for converting" are only being sold for 2k or less, I have seen some for $700 but there is no way feed could be stored in them and they are generally more rust then metal at that point.

I would not use the metal grain bin with concrete slab for goats no, the metal will rust out quickly and by the nature of the design of the grain bin there is no place for the urine to go. Basically you would be making a barn with a pool of urine and feces below the animal floor if you left the dryer level in, if you took it out even with deep bedding the fact the urine can not drain off is no good. Either way in a matter of days the ammonia is going to be so strong nothing can stand/live in there. Even in an open barn with a cement floor if we go more then 2 weeks without cleaning out our stalls/pen it makes your eyes water and you get light headed. Our animals are not confined to stalls/pens in warm months so thats just occasional bathroom use and the urine can mostly drain away off the cement slab. We have to clean our stalls/pens then use a heavy coat of barn lime to cut down the ammonia and it is again a week or less and all bedding needs to be removed and the process repeated.

Cement is nice because you can clean and pressure wash it but it has definite down sides. Anyone and everyone I know using the deep bedding method is doing it on dirt.....for a reason or doing it with just poultry.

If you just build a goat building or a pig huts or whatever for housing for your animals you are going to be a lot more happy with it and get a lot more use out of it. The grain bin being weather tight would make a good secure place to store pallets of feed, place to store yard equipment/tools or machinery, you could put some more floors in it and turn it in a play house or a she shed or man cave or anything else you have an interest in if you dont want to try to sell it. Basically if there is anything non-living you could move from your pole barn or other building that then frees up space to make more animal housing in a building that should work better.

Thanks for all the info! I haven't measured it and it's storming right now, but my guess is 30ft from slab to bottom of roof, and probably about 20-30ft diameter. I just don't understand how to go about selling it... just list it on craigslist or whatever, and say buyer has to take down and haul away? We definitely aren't up for that job, but getting rid of it is sounding more and more appealing...open up some space and be able to build to suit.

 

[misfitmorgan]

Thanks for all the info! I haven't measured it and it's storming right now, but my guess is 30ft from slab to bottom of roof, and probably about 20-30ft diameter. I just don't understand how to go about selling it... just list it on craigslist or whatever, and say buyer has to take down and haul away? We definitely aren't up for that job, but getting rid of it is sounding more and more appealing...open up some space and be able to build to suit.

Yes that exactly it. Grain bin for sale $XXXX buyer to dismantle and haul away. You can post on craigslist and local FB sell groups or livestock groups that allow selling on FB. Make sure you include a few pictures and the measurements as best as you can. If it is that big of a grain bin and in good grain using condition it is worth a good amount. If the dryer is working it is worth more too. Make sure to state it has a dryer floor, or fans or whatever.

 

[farmerjan]

Put up some notices at the local feed store and mention it to them. Also, if you have a local auction barn, they nearly always have a bulletin board. But I would talk to the farmer that you bought it from.... ask if he knows of another grain farmer that would be interested. Are you near a local grain mill.... they have all sorts of contacts.... A feed salesman from a feed company gets out will all sorts of farmers all the time...

 

[textilexst]

I did something similar with my grain bin. We purchased a property with one, but I had no intentions to use it for its intended purpose or any other at first and almost demolished it. It was my wife's idea to use it for our horses. I had no idea at first how to make it and wasn't sure that was even possible. After some research online and discussion with a few builders, I decided to give it a try. It took me several months to finish, but I like how it worked out. Also, we installed a disposal bin (https://www.186needabin.com) for all the garbage, making it easier to maintain.