At present, conducting personal farming is very important for our country, especially when it comes to the smallest settlements - villages and villages. All buildings for livestock, as a rule, are built independently, without the involvement of specialists. If we are talking about a small personal farm, it is very important to prepare and stock up on theoretical knowledge before starting construction. In the framework of this article, we will consider how to build a barn with your own hands, what you will need and what subtleties you need to consider when building such an object.
What is a barn?
A cowshed is a room for keeping cows, in which there are feeders, drinking bowls for animals, as well as compartments for collecting manure. It is in such structures that cows spend all of their main time, so the farm should be a convenient place not only for people who will be engaged in its maintenance, but also for animals that will live there year-round.
Modern cowsheds are equipped with an automated system that allows for the maintenance of the premises with minimal manual labor. Mechanized devices introduce food and drink, clean stalls using a manure conveyor, monitor the temperature and humidity in the room. In simple rural options, the cleaning and maintenance of the mini-farm is done manually.
There are different types of cowsheds. The rooms for a large number of animals are divided into chambers - stalls. In each branch there is one cow. There she eats, drinks and rests. Cow stalls are equipped in such a way that it is convenient to make the next portion of food and water. Some livestock farmers use conventional hand-built boxes for these purposes. However, many farmers are beginning to switch to special drinkers for cattle, which are equipped with heating. They also provide protection against freezing water.
In winter, at the lowest possible temperatures, the animal can freeze, therefore, mineral wool for insulation or other material is placed on the walls. An important aspect is ventilation. The room must be ventilated, otherwise air with a pungent odor will begin to concentrate in the barn, which is not only unpleasant for humans, but harmful to the animals themselves, which use oxygen for breathing, just like humans.
Planning a cow house
If you are wondering how to build a barn with your own hands, most likely you have in mind a room for one or two cows. Such a shed is easy to build even for one person who has basic knowledge in construction.
When choosing a place for the premises for animals, the following nuances should be taken into account:
- the minimum distance from the barn to residential buildings is 15 m;
- the minimum distance from the building to the source of drinking water is 20 m;
- it is desirable that a pasture suitable for livestock walking is nearby.
An approximate calculation of the size of the barn depends on the number of goals in the herd. About 6 m 2 is required per cow. If you are planning to build a barn for several dozen heads, then you need to provide facilities for storing milk, a maternity ward, an isolation ward and other specialized departments.
The cowshed should be spacious, warm enough and comfortable for animals. Building materials are only of good quality. It is not allowed to use those that have been saturated with toxic substances that tend to evaporate from the surface.
Remember that an unpleasant smell will always come from the barn, keep this in mind when choosing a place for its construction. Do not save on materials, the room should be strong and reliable.
Standard projects
The classic designs of cowsheds, designed for several dozen animals, are quite simple at first glance. However, behind the same design hides a complex system that must function correctly.
Standard designs of cowsheds have a frame basis. The design can be wooden, this is true if the room is designed for several cows. If there are several dozen livestock, then the frame of the building is made of metal. In large rooms put automated systems for cleaning manure. The floor should have a slight slope - 2-3 cm.
The choice of project depends largely on your goals and the number of cows in the herd. If you chose the option with free placement of animals, then you will have to expand the area much. When placing cows in stalls, less space is required. This method of keeping animals is considered more cost-effective.
There are special prefabricated cowsheds. They are also made on frame technology. A ready-made set of building materials will come to you from the manufacturer, you just have to assemble the structure according to the attached documentation.
Materials and Tools
For the construction of the barn, the following materials will be needed: boards, boards of different sizes or bricks, foam blocks, gas blocks. It all depends on your desire and budget. To organize the foundation, you can use piles, concrete or ready-made blocks. Warming is done with mineral wool, polystyrene foam or foam. Outside and inside, the frame should be covered with a vapor barrier film, on top - with wind and moisture protection.
During the construction process, you may need the following tools and supplies:
- a circular saw;
- jigsaw;
- Sander;
- hammer;
- screwdriver;
- drill;
- furniture stapler;
- nails, screws, staples for a stapler.
If you still decide to use metal for the construction of the frame, then you will need a welding machine and electrodes. In this case, it is necessary to have certain skills and a high level of mastery in this kind of work.
The foundation for the barn
The choice of foundation should be based on the following indicators: estimated support load and soil type. When building a barn, it is necessary to use a buried foundation, it can be of several types, we will consider the most popular options:
- Tape. A moat digs at least 80 cm deep and 40-50 wide along the perimeter of a future building. Reinforcement is laid in the ditch , and formwork is being erected on the surface. After everything is ready, you can pour concrete. It must be of high quality, frost-resistant and durable. In order for the foundation to gain strength, not cox, you need to cover it with polyethylene. At this stage, you need to take care of the openings for the communication pipes, if you are going to bring water to the building and drain the sewer. When the foundation freezes, they will be made much more difficult.
- Pile. Screw piles are a very popular modern way of arranging the foundation. Its advantages are that even sections with a slope and moving soil are suitable for organizing the basis of the room. The size of the piles is selected individually. The binding of such a foundation can be made of wooden bars, but it is better to use metal.
Foundation organization is a very important event. If you do not have enough knowledge in this area, then it is better to entrust this process to a team of specialists. If you make mistakes in the basic structure, the building can quickly squint and deform, the building will sag, the walls will crack.
Frame erection
Frame construction is the simplest and most budgetary option for erecting a barn, so the further work that will need to be done will be considered precisely with this type of construction.
Between the foundation and the wooden harness there should be a layer of waterproofing. Usually, roofing material is used for this. You can put it in 2-3 layers.
First we do the strapping using a beam of 150x150 cm, then the second one, on which the logs of the first floor will be located with a step of 60 cm.For this purpose, boards of 50x150 cm are suitable. The lumber that is used to lay the strapping should be treated with an antiseptic in several layers. This will protect the wood from decay. The floors in the barn must be reliable and leakproof so that no waste seeps through the cracks.
For the construction of the frame of the walls we use the same board 50x150 cm. The step of the racks should be 50-60 cm. Do not forget about the installation of jibs, they will add rigidity to the wall structure. They should have openings for windows and doors. The internal partitions that will separate the stalls are built in the same way as the walls. After the construction of the main box on top, it is necessary to empty the beam.
The most common are cowsheds with a gently sloping roof angle. The overlap should rest on the beam of the upper harness. An ideal roof angle would be an indicator of 45 degrees. For insulation, we use a waterproof film. As a ceiling, you can use metal tiles, sheets of metal or ondulin.
For wall cladding, you can use OSB sheets or plywood. The external design depends on your financial capabilities: lining, siding and other popular materials are suitable, of which there are currently a huge number on the construction market.
Insulation of the barn
So that the barn can keep warm, it is necessary to take care of the insulation of the frame walls. There are several types of material, consider some of them:
- Mineral wool. The most budget option. Mineral wool for insulation is sold in tiles or rolls. It fits into the openings between the racks in several layers and between the floor lags. This type of insulation has its negative sides: mineral wool tends to slide and fold into an accordion if the layer is not thick enough. When the waterproofing film is damaged in some places, then the cotton wool will begin to absorb moisture, after which it will lose its thermal insulation properties.
- Styrofoam. This material is also called foam. We are used to seeing it in packages of various household appliances, where it is used to protect equipment from bumps and chips. The material itself consists of small balls glued together, which are very light and airy. Polyfoam is a very convenient material, because it does not absorb moisture, does not deform, and weighs very little. Stacking and cutting it is very simple. The joints are processed with foam. This is done so that there are no cold bridges left. The negative side of such a heater is a little evaporation. The material is considered non-environmental.
- Penoplex. This material is similar to polystyrene, but its density is much higher, which means that the heat-conducting properties allow the use of a much smaller thickness of the insulation. Penoplex is an extruded polystyrene foam. Its service life is more than 50 years, it does not pass steam and moisture, does not burn, but simply melts.
- Polyurethane foam. Modern synthetic insulation that is sprayed from a cylinder. After the foam hardens, a dense surface with low heat-conducting properties is formed. If you plan to use a large amount of polyurethane foam, then it is more profitable to purchase liquid material in barrels. For the insulation process, you will need a compressor, an apparatus for supplying compressed air and a sprayer itself.
When laying the insulation, make sure that there are no gaps. Through such bridges of cold, a large amount of heat leaves the room.
Cowshed Communications
Even if you have one or two cows, it will be much more convenient to keep them if you bring the main communications to the barn: water supply, sewage, ventilation.
Water supply. A pump or pump station is used to supply water. Better to use the ground option. A hose must be drawn from the water source; PVC pipes are ideal for plumbing. They need to be buried underground and wrapped with insulation, otherwise in winter the water may freeze. Correctly calculate the power of the pump, because the water will have to be delivered at a distance of 20 m, just such a gap should be between the barn and the source of drinking water.
Sewerage. Each cow gives about 20 liters of effluent daily, so you need to install a system that will allow you to extract this mass from the barn. The floor in the room should be made at an angle of 1-2 cm per 1 m, but not more. A deeper slope can adversely affect the condition of the limbs of cows and even lead to miscarriages of pregnant individuals. A gutter should go along the edge of the chambers, into which drains will flow, it should also be done at an angle. With these little tricks, it will be easier to remove manure from the barn. In large rooms put special automated manure conveyors, which are scrapers. Cleaning is carried out without the use of manual force.
Ventilation. With the accumulation of caustic gases emanating from decay products in the barn’s air, uncomfortable conditions are created both for people who have to go into the barn for servicing cattle and for the cows themselves. Therefore, harmful fumes should be taken outside, and fresh air saturated with oxygen should come from there. In a small barn, you can organize a natural ventilation system: a pipe is installed in the roof to remove used air; small holes are made in the walls for fresh air to flow.
Heating. Cows emit a sufficiently large amount of heat for heating. The temperature at which the animal will feel comfortable is in the range from +5 to +25 ° C. Therefore, it is enough to make good insulation and one small radiator in the barn if you have 1-2 cows. Large industrial farms have special heating systems that turn on and off automatically to maintain a certain temperature level.
Cow feeders
The feeder must be functional, robust and reliable. Containers for dry and wet food should be separate and roomy. The hay box should be at least 1 m long, 30-40 cm wide. The approximate height of the feeder is 70-75 cm. The capacity for hay should have a lattice structure. Dry grass should not rot and rot. For convenience, you can make a folding wall so that it is convenient to introduce a new portion of the feed, as well as wash the feeder.
Plastic containers are suitable for water. There are special drinkers for cattle made of food-grade plastic, which is an environmentally friendly material. The price of such a capacity is in the range of 2000-5000 rubles. There are also more voluminous and functional drinking bowls, the cost of which can reach 20,000-25,000 rubles. For convenience, you can bring PVC pipes to the drinker. Water supply will greatly facilitate your work during cleaning.
A feeder and a drinking tank should be placed on the outside of the stall, this will allow you to make feed and water without going into the stall itself. To make feed and grain, you should also use plastic containers of the desired volume.
Finally
The construction of a small rural barn for one or two cows is not a very difficult task. Remember the key points in the construction of the building, think through the necessary communications in advance. Animals should be comfortable and comfortable living in your room. In the case of the construction of a large-scale barn for several dozen heads, you need to draw up a detailed plan project and consult with qualified specialists, they will explain to you how to build a barn so that it can meet all standards.