Formerly PaMike
Member
I need some advice from you guys on a cattle feeding area I currently use that I would like to either pave or concrete. I have been thinking about this for years, and I think its finally time to do something. The area is a 16 ft wide allyway that connects my winter pasture and my barnyard at my bankbarn. The ally way is sloping from the barn uphill to the pasture. It has high tensile fence on bothsides. At one spot I have a fence line feeder where I can feed grain and where we used to feed small square bales. There is also a gate along the side where I can drive into the allyway, then up the hill into the pasture. Currently I take the skidsteer with a round bale in the allyway, up the hill and to a feeder in the pasture. Currently I have geo cloth down with stone on top. It provides great traction when trying to go up the hill with the skidsteer. The downside is its hard to scrape the manure off without getting a lot of stones in with the manure. Also, the ally slopes side to side at the gate. This makes it even harder to scrape without digging stone.The ally slopes up at the gate to form a sort of “berm” so the sloppy stuff doesn’t run out into the driveway, and down to the barn.Ally is about 35-40 ft long and I usually run 15-20 steers. My thought is either concrete of pavement. Here are my concerns:
1.Traction-I need something that the skidsteer will grip. I know the skidsteer is terrible on asphalt in the snow..Maybe a rough asphalt?
2.Runoff-We get a lot of water. Currently the stone allows some water to sink in. Neither asphalt of concrete would. Has anyone used the new permeable asphalt or concrete? Could I form up some slats in the concrete, like in a hog barn?
3.Cost-I assume asphalt is cheaper than concrete. On ag concrete, do they even run a trough over it? I wouldn’t see why you would need to.That would save on cost.
Fire away with ideas, suggestions etc etc. I want to do this right the first time, and never have to mess with it again.
Thanks
1.Traction-I need something that the skidsteer will grip. I know the skidsteer is terrible on asphalt in the snow..Maybe a rough asphalt?
2.Runoff-We get a lot of water. Currently the stone allows some water to sink in. Neither asphalt of concrete would. Has anyone used the new permeable asphalt or concrete? Could I form up some slats in the concrete, like in a hog barn?
3.Cost-I assume asphalt is cheaper than concrete. On ag concrete, do they even run a trough over it? I wouldn’t see why you would need to.That would save on cost.
Fire away with ideas, suggestions etc etc. I want to do this right the first time, and never have to mess with it again.
Thanks