Concrete or Gravel for Cattle Barn Floor

in-too-deep

Well-known Member
My wife and are getting a pole barn this spring on our beef cow-calf farm. 40x56x14 unheated. It will mostly be used for calving and doctoring and temporary housing of critters. Possibly alley and squeeze chute someday. And chore TRACTOR storage. NOT full-time feeding/watering. Our farm is sloping, but yellow clay subsoil and black-rich claey topsoil. Poor drainage. Would love to have concrete floor, but it looks like at least $10k to get that. We're worried that gravel would get mushy and sloppy especially in the spring. I hate mud. We have enough of that. Would it be ok to compact subsoil, put down geo-textile fabric, and use 4-6" of good compacted gravel or crushed concrete? Could install rain gutters on the eaves to direct rain water away from building. Drain tile around perimeter? I know we could always do concrete later, but if I do gravel, I want to do it right in case it stays. What do you think? Thank you.
 
How about using crushed limestone? Then, when you clean up the manure, you won't worry about rocks in your spreader and in your field.
 
Temporary? You might get away with it,but if there will be cattle there constantly,it'll eventually be a mess. No matter what aggregate material you put down,it'll end up in the manure spreader every time you clean it out.
 
Just a though. Lots of free stall barns use sand bedding . So if you put down a foot or so of sand, and bed on top as needed. When you clean out , so what if some sand goes out too, just add more back. You did say cattle will not be in this area all the time.
There really is nothing that works as well as concrete . Perhaps just plan to do 1/4 to 1/3 of the floor each year, ont or two truck loads of ready mix each year, will be the best money you ever spent.
 
If you do tile around the perimeter, I'd put two down the middle too. How about asphalt millings for the floor? I put some in the hole the cattle stomped out around the water tank. It got good and hard with them walking on it. I didn't even spread it, the cows got to first. Ended up fairly flat and packed.
 
Yea, that's a tough one, of course concrete is the only correct answer, but you get to write the check so it's very easy for me to say! :)

Gravel doesn't pack well under hooves, tears it up. The manure soaks in pretty easy and makes it a messy deal over time.

The crushed concrete comes up over time, and then you haul it in the field..... little missiles coming out of the spreader.....

I think raised packed clay might almost do better? Top with limestone a little and would be about the best here, but we have limestone, I know you don't.....

Be careful with the tile in our state, the forms for having a livestock building in my half of the state go into great detail about drainage tile and big red NO rejection stamps all about. I think your half of the state is a little less excited about that so far, but the current legislature it heck bent on evening that all up and much more.

Boy, I just had no good news at all!

Paul
 
Yeah, I really miss limestone gravel. Packs so well. I got some Class 1 gravel they use for shoulders of highways and put it around a waterer uncompacted, and it turned out great. Smaller stones and plenty of fines. Stayed firm even when it was really wet. Probably buy that if we decide gravel. $6.50/yard at the pit. Waiting for a call back on the price of crushed concrete.
 
I don't think you would want gravel as it will get the stones wedged in the feet of the cay and give them foot problems. I know I would not want it. Bad enough them walking on a gravel drive. When we were milking we just had the dirt as was when the building was put up and bedded with straw. You hauled a little out so you would just have to find some soil to put back in and level and pack.
 
I have heard that about their hooves. The gravel I am looking it is screened pretty small. Around 1/2" at most I bet.
 
I would rather work with a dirt floor instead of trying gravel. You can always cement one bay at a time, starting with the livestock bays first. Dirt floor works well under hay storage areas and under tractor and implement storage areas too, so long as the floor is above the outside grade.

I western Iowa many dirt floors in older cattle barns were cemented back in the 1950's and 1960's. If gravel was a a workable option, most of those would have been graveled instead of spending the extra money for cement.
 

My neighbors had a gravel floor in their young stock barn. It got a little more over dug every year. The manure wan't supposed to go into the lagoon but some did. One time a good sized boulder got into the spreader and caused one of the augers to walk. That was expensive. It sounds like asphalt millings or bedding sand could be good solutions. I used pine shavings over the dirt in our sheep barn with straw over that. It resulted in a boundary layer probably two inches thick that enabled me to keep from digging the dirt up, when cleaning out each spring.
 
After reading all the post I think either concrete it now and be done or compacted sand with tile around/under the building. I am lucky in that we have limestone all around us so Here I just used 3/4 road rock ( 3/4 down to lime) and compact it.
 
If you do stone or gravel be careful when you haaul out the manure. I put some #2 stone around the water and dad scooped a few of them up into the spreader,I got a nice knot on back of head. We line all our barns with ag lime. I am close to the limestone capital of America so it's cheap.
 
Concrete would be permanent, gravel will end up in the field where you spread the manure (and the gravel, a little bit with each load).
 
Since you maybe storing/parking some equipment in it, possibly work on some kind of equipment, or something else in it sand is a bad idea. I still deal with a pole barn with sand for a floor, and everything in it still gets coated with dust/sand, its no fun.
 
It's kinda confusing cause they weigh it anyway. He quoted me asphalt by the ton. Don't know why the Class 1 is yardage.
 

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