Flooring materials inside Barns

[Southdown]

What is the best flooring material for barns with livestock (sheep)? Do you have black dirt, gravel, etc?

We are building a new barn and are ready to haul the fill in for the interior flooring. We need a lot of fill inside, at least 7 truckloads. We're thinking about black dirt, then sand on top of that, then gravel/limestone on top of that. Sand should be helpful with drainage. Limestone should help pack it down and add lime. Black dirt could get soggy, but if it's underneath, perhaps not. We're needing to build up the ground level quite a bit.

Suggestions?

 

[SheepGirl]

My neighbor's barn is just dirt floor. Inside the cinder block barn, where the pens are, is cement floors, but the rest of that barn is also a dirt floor. When we build our barn it's just going to have a dirt floor.

The only thing with the gravel though is I'd be concerned gravel would get stuck in their hooves and cause them to go lame.

 

[Southdown]

Yes, I've thought about that with the gravel: it would not be very comfortable to lie down on and could get lodged into the hooves. I'm also concerned about adequate drainage if I only do black dirt. With all of the peeing and pooping on the dirt, it could get pretty sloppy. I'm pretty sure gravel is cheaper than dirt, but I don't want to cause problems by trying to save money either.

 

[SheepGirl]

With the barn floor at my neighbors, when the sheep peed, it would be quickly absorbed by the dirt (although it would leave a wet spot...but there was no puddle). And when they pooped, it would just fall to the ground and dry up, and it would be stepped on by the sheep, which ground it up and helped become 'a part' of the dirt. It was never messy. The only downside is that the dirt is dry and when you're trying to herd the sheep in the barn into one of the pens, it would stir up dust. It never came up to head level, but it the dust clouds got to the hocks on the sheep which would make some sheep cough or sneeze if they had their heads down.