Farm Tour II - The Barn
Posted on Monday, April 7, 2008 at 10:24 PM - Post Comment
One of the reasons we loved this house when we first saw it was that it had so many of the things we wanted to build already in place. As stated in my previous entry, the old emu pen was perfect for a garden. No need to erect our own fencing and it already had water running to it.
The barn was another great bonus. However, like the garden, it still needed a lot of work for us to use it the way we wanted to. This is how it looks today. A year ago it was a much different story.
Knowing that there used to be upwards of 100 emus on the property, we're assuming the barn was used as some sort of hatchery or brooding house. It had a supply room and the rest of the inside was lined with four metal runs. Each run had a small door leading outside into some more runs, which you can see here. They had obviously fallen into disrepair. We had to remove all the metal runs both inside and out, and take down the wall with the small doors in it.
Here you can see the wall taken down and runs cleared. After that we had to reerect the livestock fencing that used to surround the whole pen.
Here is a shot of the inside after the wall was removed and the inside runs were taken out. There was still a lot of work to do after this.
We had to put up a stanchion and calf pen. Since the floors are concrete, I had to install anchor bolts into the floor, and then run 4X4 posts from floor to ceiling. I secured them to the ceiling with L-brackets and self-tapping screws. After the stanchion and pen were erected, I built the hay feeder you see on the right. The V-shape helps reduce waste because if a cow puts her head in to eat, she'll usually keep it in, so any hay that drops from her mouths falls right back into the feeder. We use this to feed them their alfalfa only.
In case you've never heard of a stanchion before, it is a device that locks the cows head in during milking. They stick their head through the "V" and then the stanchion is closed to pinch their head in. The cow usually doesn't try to get out during milking, but just in case she does, she can't. The bin in front is where she eats her grain.
Here's another shot of the calf pen. We have to put the calf up at night so our cow can build up enough milk for us to get a decent amount each morning.
Here's a shot of the grain room. Our grain is scooped out of those two metal bins. All our dairy and cow supplies are kept in the cupboard you see on the right.
This is the door to the grain room leading outside. We stack the grain sacks in the corner on a pallet until we need it. We buy 1000 lbs at a time from the local feed mill. It lasts us about 6 months.
This overhang on the back of the barn is where we store our round bales. We put up that wall last week to keep the rain out during storms. The bales go in this end.....
....and the cows eat it through this gate on the other. The gate was a broken throw away we had lying around. I cut holes in it the cows can stick their heads through. The idea is that as they finish each bale, we roll more forward, sort of like a soda machine. So far it has worked well.
We put a lot of work into it, but it was less (in time and money) than building our own barn. It's made of metal, so it should last a long time.
Untitled Comment
Posted by CitySteader on Tuesday, April 8, 2008 at 4:39 PM - Link
Looks great! Lots of work, but it'll all pay off.
Great pics
Posted by TammyLynn on Thursday, April 10, 2008 at 8:43 PM - Link
Love the pictures of your place:)
Blessings,
Tammy Lynn
Untitled Comment
Posted by kdbspace on Friday, April 11, 2008 at 9:29 PM - Link
I enjoyed the tour of your place!
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About Me
I am a novice homesteader, husband to a beautiful godly woman, dad to four little blessings, and servant to a holy God. We have set up our homestead on 7.5 acres in West Texas. Our goal is to glorify God in all we do, live a more simple and richer lifestyle, grow our own food, and grow closer together as family.*************** Current Animal Count
- 72 chickens
- 11 turkeys
- 2 Jersey cows
- 1 Jersey steer
- 2 pigs
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