Jumping the Moon Dairy - the next chapter

[babsbag]

My goats are not all smart either the one tog could not figure out how to get to the grain from the stand so she jumped off and went around to the front to get it

That is so "goat like" They certainly do have a way of solving puzzles, just not the right way.

 

[Devonviolet]

This is so fun, watching your progress!

I'm praying that you are able to get things running smoothly, quickly, so you can get certified and start selling your milk. You may have said this already, but do you mind if I ask who you will be selling to, and/or marketing your milk to?

 

[babsbag]

I will advertise the milk everywhere that people frequent...feed stores, grocery stores, CL, coffee shop, facebook, etc. Interested people will do like a herd share and commit to a certain amount a week. I am trying to get my farm on the local farm trail so I can have up to 8 people a day at my place to buy milk, otherwise I have to meet them out at the main road. I will also do farmer's market and a few small local stores, especially for the cheese. When I find the right person and the right place I want to open a "From our farm gate to your plate" store and offer a place for people to sell the wares that are grown on their farm or made in their kitchen under the CA cottage food law. I have my eye on a store already, it would be very small and have a drive through window, but that is down the road by a few years.

I need new buck pens. I am not doing breeding like last year, one at a time. I want to be able to take the does that need to be bred to a certain buck and put them in his pen and leave them there. But my buck pen needs shelters and a place to eat out of the rain. I may be super woman but not sure about building these on my own.

I would like all of the feeders in a row under one roof and a roof for me to feed from too, and store hay. And of course the area I want to use faces south which gets slammed with rain and wind so it needs doors...life is never simple. I am thinking 6'x 8' for each eating and sleeping area and then the rest of the pen will V out to a wider width. I need a 5' overhang for me to walk under and store a few bales of hay so 13' of roofing. Not sure of the size yet for the rest of the pens...I have too many bucks...7 to be exact....and I don't really want to build 7 pens but there is no other way to do selective breeding. But at 6' across for each pen that is 42 linear feet of roofing and that won't be cheap, not to mention the stock panel to go between the pens. I have some 4x4 goat and sheep fencing I can use but I sure hate to stretch fence; I hate stretching fence. I also want to do part of it in stock panel so I can remove it after rut and let them each have a buddy or two. I will leave a perimeter run around the pens so the dogs can patrol the perimeter of all pens and not have to have access to each one individually.

I'm tired just thinking about this. I have about 2 months to get this done... I would love to just run out and buy some roofing but I have some old pieces that I may need to salvage but it sure is nice when it is all the same length. I am thinking that I may piece these together on the ground and patch any holes and treat them as one 15' length; never installed it that way but I might give it a go.

 

[Bruce]

That is so "goat like" They certainly do have a way of solving puzzles, just not the right way.

If it works, it isn't the "wrong way"

 

[misfitmorgan]

You could do something like this as well bags it uses slightly less roofing material and maintains the 5ft alley and gives you a 6x8 for storage or overflow pen. The mesh block looking stuff is the cattle panels i just didnt make the texture with an alpha.

 

[babsbag]

@misfitmorgan, that is a really nice building and if I had the space for that it would be great. I need to build in a straight row for a few reasons but mostly to give the bucks access to some browse and place to hang out. The pens will be long and narrow but at least they will have room to roam. The map I just did says 79' across the front but I am going much narrower than than, but it will fan out as it moves north. The feeders and alleyway will be across the front.

The other reason is because the only level area I have would be too close to the dairy if I don't do it in a linear fashion.

 

[misfitmorgan]

I had thought about that being the reason you wanted to do a single sided shelter, i thought maybe you could do a double and put it in the middle...but maybe that to far from the utilities/water? Not having a level spot would be a problem too though.

 

[babsbag]

Too many trees to clear in the middle and it slopes down hill rather quickly. I may have to take out some oak trees just to give them some sun in the winter. I found some used roofing on CL that I might go and buy. It is only 8' long so I would have to piece it, I would make it 12' (minus the overlap) to make it simple. Do you think that joining them end to end before installing them would work? Can you think of any reason that it wouldn't? I could even put a thin piece of plywood as a splice at the seam for stability, not all the way to the edge though so it won't interfere with the lapping of the next sheet. Thoughts?

I have quite a bit of used stuff here already, I just need to sort it and see what I have. All different colors unfortunately.

 

[misfitmorgan]

Why are you wanting to piece it together into 12ft sections before putting it on the roof?

Another question...if the barn has to be 8ft deep for the stalls plus 5ft deep for the alley/storage....why would you want 12ft peices?

also i believe they have a do it yourself paint for tin now.

 

[babsbag]

I was going to do a single slope roof and just crunch it down to 12 feet, I don't think that bucks will mind losing a foot of sleeping space. 7x6 should be big enough for one to get out of the weather.

I wanted to piece it together first as reaching across 3' panels to do the seaming while on a ladder is just not my idea of fun, I've done it too many times and if I don't have a cross member right there it can be hard to get the screw to go through the metal without some pushing up from the bottom. If I do 12' I only need one cross member in the middle and I would do it at 5' and let a foot hang over each end. I don't have to worry about snow here so as long as it has a slight slope to it I'm good to go.