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ecmn | i would guess the quicker growth and return on investment would depend on your winters. i am in an area that to have several weeks of -20 degrees with wind isnt uncommon, during that time the animals stay hunkered down a lot more. they are eating less and using more energy to stay warm. for us yes an investment into a hoop building would be a good one.
there is one in the area that was used for dairy, very nice building, in the winter time it was still almost 50 degrees in there, bright and just very comfy. they had a big ridge vent so humidity and respitory illness was very low.
concrete for manure pack is great for cleaning, sand for manure pack is great for making the pack but a little hard to clean. we used sand under manure pack and some on concrete, now we have some small clay mounds as well. the clay mound works good as the tractor can carry itself on it, and the mount gets water away. kind of a good hybrid between sand and cocrete. the bad thing about concrete is the initial cost. but alot of the concrete we are driving on is 30 years old so it has good life.
if i could build a beef unit today it would be a hoop building or tin canopy. with concrete were the animals stand to eat and drink and where the tractor drives to feed. the rest would be sand for the manure pack. on the backside i would have roll up vinal wall so during the summer breeze can get through there. also for clean out of the hard pack you could lock that group into head locks, and then come in from the backside, clean the pen, rebed and relaese the animals. have swinging gates for when its time to clean the standing alley where they eat, simply swing all the gates to lock the animals to the pack area, clean and then return the divider gates.
ohh to win the lottery some day!!! | |
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Anybody doing this?
