# What's in your dream goat barn?



## Stacie1205 (Mar 26, 2011)

We are almost done buillding our home so hubby has given me the ok to start planning my goat barn. They currently live in hog farrowing huts quite happily but I want to make a shelter I can actually get into without crawling, LOL. This will be a pole barn that will have a milking parlor, a couple of kidding stalls, and a place to keep them all in at night with their hay/feed. One part of it will be a stall for my stallion also so one corner is his. Also, those of you housing horses with goats, any issues? They have been together when I let the goats out for a while to browse now and no issue but I don't let them around him at feeding time. So what else to make it a complete goat barn?


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## apachedowns (Mar 14, 2010)

Well good for you...isn't it exciting to have a new goat barn and the peace of mind that comes with it !!! I am 8 years into mine and even though much thought was put into it, there are things along the way I wish I did in the beginning such as...running more electric & water lines (just completed this 2 yrs ago thank god)..also seperate areas for kidding and sick animals with an area that goes out seperate from the main pen areas (very useful) hay storage in a loft area so in bad weather I have hay in the barn for the next couple days (but don't like to store too much for fire worries) ...and the best idea I had the past year was to make a 12x12 stall area with a concrete & rubber matted floor so I can hang a heat lamp for goats that needed it wether it be cold kidding times or sick goats...This way there was less worry for fire and I did this stall near the front door area near a water pump source just in case (also installed a fire detector in that stall) 

Milking area and medication storage area (can be in the same room of course) is a great idea...then you don't have to leave the barn in cold weather. And I love Pole Barns..they are my favorite as they are cheap but sturdy and quick to put up. I have had mine for several years now and have no problems...I love it ! Good Luck and enjoy your new project :wahoo:


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## Burns Branch Boers (Apr 11, 2011)

A place where you can secure feed. Sneaky animals finding ways into the barn always concern me. We use one of our stalls as a "feed room" and I always make sure the door is securley latched.

We have electricty and running water in the barn, I have to admit it makes me feel like a country princess. So if this is a possibility I highly reccomend it. 

Last is an area-away from the general population to keep goats in isolation when they are sick or when you buy them. I really don't have a good set up at our place for this and when I do have to isolate one I don't feel that the housing is adequate for the goat. I am constantly trying to re-invent the wheel with this issue! You would think that a reg. stall would work fine except that the goats could not see out of them and this just stresses them out--no bueno!


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## Stacie1205 (Mar 26, 2011)

Thanks for the input! This will be my second pole barn. I have a 30 x 50 that houses my horses, tractor, and a feed room. I currently have a dog pen in there for kidding. Out of room for a goat shelter. I have water and electric really close to where I am putting the new barn plus it is already a flat area with no trees so no moving of tree or leveling like last time. I tried to get hubby to let me put it in the woods but he said he was NOT moving any more trees. We probably took out 20 full grown tree for the house!


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

I agree, if you can't have a room built like fort knox for grain then don't keep it in their barn! I hear and read about so many scary incidents! We keep our feed in our shed, too afraid to keep it in the barn <even if we had room for it out there!>. 
Also an area and cabinet to store things - supplies, first aid, etc. 
ELECTRIC, BUT, if it were me, I'd have an on/off switch that can turn everything off out there <no live feed to the barn at all> to help prevent a chance for fire. Our barn is so small and so close to our house, during kidding if we need light we just run extension cord out there to an outdoor power bar, and I can plus 3-4 things into it.

Besides that, just making sure areas are wide enough to move and work comfortably. If a doorway can't fit a wheel barrow through it, it's not wide enough, with the exception of stall doors. 
I'd want windows or things I can open in the summer for lots of air flow, but be able to buckle down in winter, yet have an alternative way for good air flow.


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## Crowbar032 (Dec 6, 2011)

I'm in the process of building a 40x52 pole barn. It will be multi-usage, tractor storage, hay storage, workshop, stalls for goats, run-in for goats/donkeys. Before I started I had DRB rock (dense road base) hauled in. After the building is up, I plan on leveling out the floor with lime. Most of the builders also use 29 gauge steel which gets a little flimsy on long runs, I want to get 26 gauge on mine. I know that pole barns have a tendancy to "rain" if you don't put some sort of vapor barrier under the roof metal. Typically it's sheets of styrofoam, but I'm pondering the spray insulation. Anyone have any experience with it in a pole barn?


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

You can never have enough electrical outlets, lights and gates. The electrical stuff naturally placed where goats can't get to them.

I use corral panels. Had to put fencing over top of them so my Nigerians couldn't get out but I love being able to easily rearrange anything. Also, I have 3 pens for the girls that gates are open for all to use but can close anything off with all the gates that I have so I can easily give anyone one, two, or all three pens to be in. I also have extra panels to create my kidding pens so I can take them down when not in use.

Actually, you could get something like this and not even have to put fencing over it: http://www.lightlivestockequipment.com/ ... &gates.php


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## nubians2 (Feb 20, 2011)

If I had to do it again. I would have water. I have electricity which is wonderful but water would be nice too. My milking parlor opens up right into their stall and I still may add fencing there so that they can't charge me at the door of the milking parlor which sometimes happens. They have one large stall and I use 6 X 6 X 4 dog kennels for kidding stalls. I can take them out when kidding season is over. I am missing a area for sick or new animals. Ideally it would have concrete floor, chain link fencing and a cover. When I bring an animal home is when I think they are most likely to jump out of their new area. I have used one of my chicken coops in the past which has chicken wire on top and it is comforting to know that keeps them in. My barn is an addition on our shop which works wonderful. My milk parlor is beautiful.


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## Stacie1205 (Mar 26, 2011)

Oh, I would love to see milking parlor picks! I was wondering about the floor. Concrete for the milk parlor for sure but what aobut the kidding pens and the other goat areas? My husband thinks that having kids on concrete even with straw might be kinda cold but it sure would be easier to sanitize.


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## Burns Branch Boers (Apr 11, 2011)

I would also love to see pictures of the milking parlors! I have never really seen any!

RE: your question on the concrete floor, I think if you had it in all the stalls it would not be the most easy to clean. We have a concrete isle and the floors of the stalls are dirt. I can cover them in straw or shavings for our horses to make them comfortable. I like the dirt I think it is easier concerning the animals waste and things don't have to be damp all the time (from hosing floors down) 

We did put up a dog kennel in the center of our barn recently, on the concrete floor. I covered the floor with a heavy duty tarp, put the dog kennel on top and stuffed the kennel w/straw. Makes a wonderful "nest" for my daughters shaved FFA wether and we put my smallest doeling in there w/him at night. They are "two bugs, snug in a rug" So you could always cover the concrete w/a tarp and do something like that to make it more warm.


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## Stacie1205 (Mar 26, 2011)

I am liking the idea of plan ol dirt in the barn and just concrete in the milking area. Much cheaper too. The spot I have picked out is kinda up on a hill and drains pretty good unlike my current barn that has a slight grade down and actually water tends to flow in under the walls from the outside. Wasn't really thinking when I built that one. I thought the land looked fairly level and when they got done building it, one end had 5 feet of open space under it because the barn was level, ground wasn't. Had to put in a lot of fill dirt and it is still a little off even after 8+years, lol.


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## nubians2 (Feb 20, 2011)

Okay you asked so this is my milking room right after we finished it. I have a window and the door from the shop has a window so the room is nice and light. I used epoxy paint on the floor and the lower wall. The wall paint on top is the same paint as the stanchion. I got the paint as a mistint and the wood from the stanchion was scrap, some treated some not so I painted it.


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## BillyMac (Nov 3, 2011)

The dream barn would be designed so as to come up to the standards set forth by the PMO, pasteurized milk ordinance, for a grade A dairy. It would be made for the comfort of the workers as well as the animals. It would include an apartment to live in. Hot water and 200amp service of course. 

My dream barn might have a mixed design. The foundation could be part pole barn and part poured footing. A pole barn is quick and cheap to put up but after that there are no other advantages. A poured footing is always a better solution where the added expense can be justified. I would want a poured footing and a heated slab in a milking parlor and in a cheesemaking room. The slab would slope to a drain. An uninsulated pole barn is good enough for animal housing.

Any place grain is stored benefits from the added rodent protection that a poured footing provides. In a milking parlor, insulated dust-proof walls and ceiling are highly desirable. A poured footing better facilitates the construction of tight walls and ceiling. 

One disadvantage of a pole barn is that treated wood must be used. Treated wood has it's place and is OK with me but there are problems. The stuff it is made with is somewhat harmful to the environment to start with. It is best if it is not left exposed for diary goats to maybe lick on. NO, it won't kill them but it cannot be good either. Organic standards prohibit exposure to treated wood for whatever it's worth.

The best source I have seen for a dairy barn is the book "Farmstead Creamery Advisor". It gives several floor plans for barns with cheese making in mind.


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