Planning my Someday Farm barn, stall, pens, browsing area..?

[Harbisgirl]

Hello,
I dont have any animals or housing or ..anything. Just planning and researching right now. We live on 5 wooded acres we have the back 1.5 acres fenced off separately and I was thinking Id like to use that for livestock. Im trying to figure out what size barn I need to have to accommodate my animals. I dont want too many, just enough for my hubby and I for milk and meat. At the moment I am planning on 2 goats, 2 pigs, 1 donkey and maybe later on well expand to bunnies or ducks or guinea fowl or something. But thats later. So here is my idea, let me know if Ive planned for enough room. Two Nigerian Dwarf does for milk and for eating the massive groves of poison oak on our property - we will sell the kids, a breeding pair of pigs (probably American Guinea Hogs) and keeping 1 or 2 of the offspring for food and selling the rest, and 1 little donkey cuz I heard they are good protectors and we have the occasional coyote, mountain lion and bobcat. Okay, so Im using that as an excuse to have a little donkey - I think theyre adorable  I was thinking on a 20x15 barn for all of them, split into five or six 5x5 stalls plus a 5x7.5 milking room and a 5x7.5 ft tack room.. 1 stall for the goats to sleep in, 1 for goat kidding/quarantine. 1 stall for pigs to sleep in, 1 for pig birthing/quarantine. 1 stall for donkey. 1 spare for ..whatever. Are the stalls big enough? Since Im getting NDs they wont need too much room. American guinea hogs are fairly small, and Ill be getting a small or mini donkey as well. Is this okay? Oh, for climate were in zone 9a. We live in California (elevation 2700 ft) it gets upper 90s maybe 100 in the Summer, cold and snowy in the winter but not too arctic lowest lows into the teens at night.


My questions to the group are :
 Is the barn size/layout adequate?
 What would you change/improve?
 Are these animals friendly and ok (breed wise barring individual personalities) to be housed together/mingle/browse out on the land together?
 Will they need separated outdoor pen areas?
 Is 1.5 acres of browsing area sufficient? I will of course be feeding them hay/alfalfa/grains/supplements to supplement what they cannot browse for and especially when pregnant/in milk. The does will have controlled access to the brush and poison oak on the rest of the 5 acres during most of the year.

Here is my lame little diagram

 

[Harbisgirl]

Can you guys see my pic? I'm at work and it blocks photobucket pics so half the time I can't see anybodies pics...so I'm not sure if you can see mine

 

[ksalvagno]

The stalls are pretty small. Also, you are going to want doors to go outside for all the animals right out of their stall and not have to run them through the barn to go out to a field.

Horse stalls are usually something like 12x12 or 12x14 which is what you would need for the donkey. My goats have a 12x24 area in the barn and I have 2 Nigerians and an Alpine mix plus extra space in the barn that I use for kidding stalls. Are the pigs going to be breeding pigs or just ones that you raise up enough to butcher? They do destroy things so you may not even want them in the barn if you are only raising them enough to put into the freezer.

The milk and tack room are probably fine.

 

[SheepGirl]

1. Barn size -- I think it would be easier to build a 16x20 than a 15x20 because sheets of plywood (if that's what you're going to use) are 4' wide x 8' long. Layout -- I wouldn't have stalls. If you just have a big area for all the animals to congregate that would be ideal because they could then choose their favorite spot to lay down.

I assume your putting feed/hay/supplies in the tack room?

2. I would get rid of the stalls. It could get tricky locking them in at night; my sheep in the summer prefer to be out grazing at night and then during the day they stay inside where it's cooler. In the winter, they are out grazing during the day and they come in the barn at night.

3. Don't know as I've never had goats/pigs/donkeys.

4. The goats and the donkey can be housed together, but I'm not sure if hogs could be put in with them. I know a member on here has her hogs with her sheep (except during lambing) so I guess it could be done with goats and hogs.

5. A donkey will need at least 1-2 acres by itself. Each goat will need 1/5-1/2 acre (so 2/5-1 acre total) and I'm not sure about the hogs. Of course it really varies...I'm not familiar with your area or your zone so I don't have a black and white answer for you.

 

[ksalvagno]

You really don't want the hogs in with the goats. The goats could get salmonella from the hogs plus the hogs could get aggressive.

 

[Harbisgirl]

1. Barn size -- I think it would be easier to build a 16x20 than a 15x20 because sheets of plywood (if that's what you're going to use) are 4' wide x 8' long. Layout -- I wouldn't have stalls. If you just have a big area for all the animals to congregate that would be ideal because they could then choose their favorite spot to lay down.

I assume your putting feed/hay/supplies in the tack room?

2. I would get rid of the stalls. It could get tricky locking them in at night; my sheep in the summer prefer to be out grazing at night and then during the day they stay inside where it's cooler. In the winter, they are out grazing during the day and they come in the barn at night.

3. Don't know as I've never had goats/pigs/donkeys.

4. The goats and the donkey can be housed together, but I'm not sure if hogs could be put in with them. I know a member on here has her hogs with her sheep (except during lambing) so I guess it could be done with goats and hogs.

5. A donkey will need at least 1-2 acres by itself. Each goat will need 1/5-1/2 acre (so 2/5-1 acre total) and I'm not sure about the hogs. Of course it really varies...I'm not familiar with your area or your zone so I don't have a black and white answer for you.

Good thinking on building it to suit the plywood sheets

I love the idea of not having stalls so that they can congregate - didn't know that was an option. I'd make one or two for kidding/quarantine but an communal area would be great.

Even a mini donkey would need 1 full acre?

 

[SheepGirl]

Probably, yes. But if you want a donkey for a guardian, you will have to go standard or mammoth size. A mini wouldn't be too effective against a pack of dogs or coyotes, much less a mountain lion or bobcat. But with predators like those I would go for one or two livestock guardian dogs.

 

[Harbisgirl]

You really don't want the hogs in with the goats. The goats could get salmonella from the hogs plus the hogs could get aggressive.

That is something to consider - the salmonella. I'm not overly concerned about them being aggressive - respectfully cautious but I don't expect any issues. The person I know who breeds them has the sweetest piggies you've ever seen. They're more like happy dogs. Short little Labradors

 

[Harbisgirl]

Probably, yes. But if you want a donkey for a guardian, you will have to go standard or mammoth size. A mini wouldn't be too effective against a pack of dogs or coyotes, much less a mountain lion or bobcat. But with predators like those I would go for one or two livestock guardian dogs.

Yeah, true. We have properties around us with ranches and dogs so it's fairly rare but a real threat nonetheless

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Probably, yes. But if you want a donkey for a guardian, you will have to go standard or mammoth size. A mini wouldn't be too effective against a pack of dogs or coyotes, much less a mountain lion or bobcat. But with predators like those I would go for one or two livestock guardian dogs.

X2.