Help me design my barn

[mandieg4]

We are in the process of building a barn. It is a 30'x30'pole barn and will have a loft. The poles are up and the middle beam for the roof is up. My DH told me today I'd better get busy drawing up where I want everything. So, I need some suggestions. What do you like about your barn? What do you not like? What do you wish you had?

Edited to add: The barn will be mainly for milking and storage. I have two milk cows currently, but will probably have three eventually. One of the things I really want is a room to do all our butchering in with a concrete floor, a drain in the middle, and stainless steel tables.

 

[BarredBuff]

We are getting ready to build ours this spring. My main question is: what will the barn have in it?

Well you put the cows, sorry I missed it!

I would give each cow, a 10 by 10 stall. So have 3 of those. Then I'd have a 10 by 20 butchering area. Then a 10 by 10 milk room...

 

[mandieg4]

This is what I have so far. Suggestions? Critiques?

Edited to update picture

Edited again to point out that my math stinks. Pretend those little stalls are 3'x5'

 

[BarredBuff]

I like your plan!

 

[Duker17]

Will your cows be in there all the time, or just while milking, or? Are you going to have any garage-type doors? Do you have a storage area for feed, tools etc? Have you considered having an overhang on one or both sides?

 

[mandieg4]

The cows will only be inside for milking, although I suppose it is possible we might have calves in there full-time at some point. I'm thinking of putting a garage door into the butchering room so that we can back the truck into the barn when DH gets a deer to unload it. The doors at top of the picture and the left side, will be just walk through doors as they go straight into the corral. We may do an overhang to the right of the picture to store a tractor under. Feed will be stored in the milk room, maybe? I'm thinking of making the blank space into a workshop type area. That area will also probably be where the stairs to the loft will be. I think I want the loft floor to be solid over the right side and the milk room and open over the stalls so that hay can be thrown down directly into the stalls.

 

[mandieg4]

I think my biggest problem is space. I'm having a hard type trying to figure out if I have too much space, not enough, awkward door positioning, etc.

 

[Duker17]

Sounds like a great plan then! I would maybe be a bit concerned about 8x10 stalls, that's pretty small. However, if they are not going to be spending much time in there it doesn't matter as much. Dairy calves are always kept in smaller pens than that, so no worries there!

We're going to be building a 30x40 barn in the spring with overhangs on both sides. Right now we have absolutely ZERO outside storage, no garage, no shed, nothing....barn plans are something I think about daily! We have a 20x20 shelter for the horses and goats, it's amazing how much room it looks like on paper, but it will seem like nothing once you start putting up walls!

 

[MorelCabin]

I don't have a barn, bt if I did, I would design it with doors that either swing open to herd them into the right pen or slide for the same reason. think about how you want to get your animals in and out the most efficient and stress free way for both you and the animal and use the stall doors as guides for them. That way you don't have to actually 'lead' them, you can just follow and they have no choice but to go to the designated area, because the rest of the barn is closed off to them.

 

[mandieg4]

Good idea Morel!