# Farm yard barn



## jared-f (Sep 16, 2016)

We are building a new barn and need a little help on the design.

The goal is to keep the number of shelters on our property to a minimim, and therefore we want to be able to house the majority of our animals in one place.

goats and chicken mostly, perhaps sheep and pig in the future.

The barn will touch 4 pastures (2 on each side), plus 2 smaller paddocks (off the back).

I think we will be looking at 4 large pens/coops, 2 smaller pens for kidding or pigs, a milking area and a place for garden tools. Thinking gambrel roof with hay storage above.

What I would like to see is how to setup a pen for each pasture that a family of goats/chickens can call home. maybe 6 goats and 20 chickens.


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## SalteyLove (Jun 18, 2011)

There are so many great goat barn design threads on here! If you punch in "barn design" in to the search box up top you should get many many pages of input!

In addition, if you happen to be on Facebook, there are two great groups to join and then look through the photo albums: Goat Facility and Goat Barn Photos and Ideas

Don't forget about hay storage!

I like to have all my water and hay racks and feeders along the fence line inside the barn so I can do some chores without entering the pens. 

I'm not sure about the size of the pastures or paddocks you are proposing, but be sure to know & understand the difference between a pasture and a sacrifice area. Pasture are large acreages that sustain plant growth & grazing throughout the growing season. Sacrifice areas are generally smaller pens attached to the shelter/barn/loafing area that are worn down and are just for animals to loaf in but don't necessarily support plant growth or grazing. (nor do you want them grazing in this area because of the parasite load from all the poop). You may want gates to separate a sacrifice area on each side of the barn from the pastures themselves, in case you need to rest the pastures or catch all the goats. 

For 6 full size goats you would likely need about 2 acres of pastures divided into rotational paddocks to sustain them for the whole grazing season - depends on your area and the quality of the pastures.


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