# Hind Site is 20/20: What You Would Do Different...Barns/Paddocks



## Texas.girl (Dec 20, 2011)

If I had known then what I know now, I would have&#8230;.

(Share what changes you would have made to your barn or paddock)

For instance: If I known then what I know now, I would havemade a double entrance to my goat paddock so I could close one gate before openingthe gate leading to a bunch of goats trying to escape, and/or bigger onesbutting the smaller ones out of the way so they can get scratched by me, allwhile I am trying to enter.


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## DaisyMayFarm (Jan 19, 2013)

*If I had know then what I know know, I would have:*
Made their shelter bigger and put a door on it. Double gated, which I will be fixing soon. Used actual T posts instead of the U posts.


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## neubunny (Nov 7, 2012)

where to start?! (and with unlimited budget - lol)

1) invest in all cattle panel fencing! plus hotwire at the top! (5 strand plus solar electric was a total waste of $ for goats -- though it kept in the sheep and alpacas)
2) Anchor all 'temporary' shelters -- (no, wooden posts that are not sunk into the ground are NOT heavy enough to resist the wind when plywood becomes a sail)
3) Insist that the barn needed a real (preferably Dutch) door, not a windbreak.
4) Actually build things BEFORE they become urgent.
5) Build in nice, sheltered hay feeders with drop trays to keep hay off the ground.
6) Build a MUCH bigger barn (though I always seem to expand to fill whatever space I get, so that might not work anyway).
7) Heavy tarp roof on the extra shelter is now working, but wish I had started with that instead of the plastic sheeting (which always worked on the smaller greenhouse, but ripped on the larger shelter -- resulting in me needing to repair during freezing rain.
8) Invest in more tent garages -- We got a big one to store hay -- it's warmer than the barn and stayed up through wind and weather that took out the temporary shelters. Now that it is 3/4 empty, we are setting up the kidding pens inside it.
9) Add a dedicated electric circuit to the barn
10) Have actual running water in the barn (hoses from the house work fine for the summer, but carrying jugs from the house all winter gets old fast)


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## NyGoatMom (Jan 26, 2013)

Oh yeah....double gate for sure!

But if you rewind even further...I would have bought a bunch of acreage and thrown a mobile on it, and built a big barn


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## Texas.girl (Dec 20, 2011)

neubunny said:


> 8) Invest in more tent garages -- We got a big one to store hay -- it's warmer than the barn and stayed up through wind and weather that took out the temporary shelters. Now that it is 3/4 empty, we are setting up the kidding pens inside it.


Tell me more about tent garages. I have no real place to store hay right now. Wind is a problem here and so are rocks. How much do they cost? How do they hold up in wind? Do you have to stake them or not?


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## xymenah (Jul 1, 2011)

I would have made my stalls 6 1/2 ft by 6 ft instead of 10ft by 6ft so I could have had seven stalls and an isle way instead of four stalls and an isle way in my "barn". it would have given me more room for more goats but they still would have been comfortable. I also would have placed hooks to clip my gates to instead of wrapping cable around them to keep them shut. other then that I'm pretty happy how my barn is. I wish in my pen I would have not put up sprinklers since the winds blows the water away and the water pump for the well couldn't support them anyway. Instead I would have put my attention to dividing my pen into four so I could separate goats.


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## neubunny (Nov 7, 2012)

The tent garage is staked down with the 'auger' type stakes (like the ones you use for tying out dogs only a bit longer) Probably not easy to put into rock, but not too hard for our heavy clay. 

Google 'tent garage' and you can see lots of different styles. Ours is about 12 x 20 with a very solid steel frame, the dark cover, peaked roof, and both ends zip open completely. I think my farm partner (the family who boards lots of animals with us) found it on sale last fall for around $350 (which is a real deal for one this large). But I've seen the smaller ones (8x10) for around $150 at Tractor Supply. 

-- Seriously, I now want a small one for storing all my boxes of decorations (which would get those out of the barn) and one for a 'workshop' for my husband (which would get all his tools out of the barn, carport and basement).

I may look for a couple that are just the canopy top and build the walls out of plywood or pallets around it for 'temporary field shelters' in the pasture. Unfortunately, I think the goats would tear the tarp sides otherwise. The big one we have now will have kidding pens in the spring/summer (cattle panels set up in the middle with walkways on the outside - so the goats aren't really against the walls) and fill with hay in the fall/winter.

Incidentally, my barn is only 16 by 32 feet. Just putting a new roof on it (the previous owners had used it as a greenhouse - it had cracked plastic panels for a roof) cost me over $2000.


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## ThreeHavens (Oct 20, 2011)

If I had known better I would have:

-Started off with a bigger barn
-Invested in better fencing


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## sunshinegoat (Feb 7, 2012)

*If I had known then what I know now, I would have:

*Become a millionaire be fore I started! lol*
*


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## crocee (Jul 25, 2008)

Make your plans for the size you think you need the triple the actual building.


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## Texas.girl (Dec 20, 2011)

I would place any and all faucets outside of the goat enclosure. In fact the faucet in my current enclosure is going to be relocated. Someone keeps loosening the faucet so it is a muddy mess due to leaking water and screwing with the timer for the sprinklers. Last time I checked I fixed it so it would automatically turn the sprinkler on around 6pm for 20 minutes, but today it was on "Off".


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