Homemade wooden houses for growing young cattle

Calf houses are successfully used in individual farms and on large farms when raising young animals. In home-made manufacturing, the design is a small wooden box. Boxes of factory production are made of strong polymer.

What are calf houses for?

Previously, the young were kept together with the adult herd. A calf near a cow gains weight faster. In addition, there is no need to equip an additional room. However, the legacy method has a huge drawback. Adults are carriers of pathogens. Cows have good immunity, and young calves are still weak. The young begin to get sick, lose weight, and some individuals even die.

Due to the great competition in the agricultural market, farmers have become a serious problem associated with the need to improve the survival rate of young animals. To separate the calves from the adult herd, houses were invented. The design is like a box. Private livestock breeders knock down wooden houses. For farms, food-grade polymer boxes are produced. The material is durable, completely eliminates the possibility of injury to animals.

Plastic boxes are lightweight and durable. The lower part has an extension, due to which the stability of the structure is ensured. The house lends itself well to washing, easily moves or is transferred by two people to another place. Install the box inside the barn or outside it. From the side of the entrance, they equip a metal fence for walking animals, install feeders, drinkers.

Advantages and disadvantages of raising calves in houses

The technology of keeping calves in separate boxes has its positive and negative sides.

Advantages:

• Separate rearing of calves eliminates the possibility of contracting dangerous diseases from adult cows.
• Houses are easier to keep clean. Plastic boxes lend themselves well to washing, it is convenient to change the bedding for calves more often.
• The box installed outside the barn allows the calves to breathe clean air, and not ammonia vapors.
• When boxing is installed outdoors, young animals receive sunlight. Animals absorb vitamin D, which promotes health.
• The solid walls of the house protect the calf from drafts and cold winds. Reduces the likelihood of an animal developing a cold.
• Young animals grown separately are easier to control: assess the general condition, growth, weight gain.
• Separate houses make it possible to provide individual nutrition to each calf, to raise weak individuals to their feet.

Disadvantages:

• additional costs for the purchase of boxes for calves;
• with the onset of cold weather, the box is more difficult to heat, the calves begin to consume more feed;
• in order for the calves to set up boxes separately, free space is required.

However, due to the possibility of repeated use, the houses pay off over time, they begin to make a profit.

Types of houses for young cattle

According to the material of manufacture, the houses differ:

• wooden;
• plastic.

By design:

• individual;
• group.

An individual calf box contains only one animal. The calf grows from birth to 10 weeks. An animal isolated from the general herd develops faster, its immunity improves. The prefabricated plastic individual box resembles a small hangar with a semicircular roof. Opposite the entrance doors there is a metal fence that forms a calf walking area.

Young animals up to 4 weeks old, weighing up to 30 kg are issued boxes measuring 150x130x130 cm. The dimensions of the house for calves aged from 4 weeks, weighing 40 kg are 200x130x140 cm. The size of the doorway in the first case is 84×55 cm, in the second variant – 94×57 cm.

Group boxes are in demand by farms with a large number of livestock. Young animals are transferred here after a ten-week stay in individual houses. In group boxes, calves adapt to a herd lifestyle. The number of individuals for one house depends on their physique, weight:

• calf weight 150 kg – minimum area 1,5 m²;
• calf weight 200 kg – minimum area 1,7 m²;
• calf weight over 200 kg – minimum area 1,8 m².

It is optimal to create a herd of young animals from 5-20 individuals of the same age. Calves driven into a group should not be sick. There should be free space inside the house. Young animals are kept in group boxes until they reach the age of 6 months. Depending on the model, the size of the factory-made structure reaches 43×21,8 m.

Requirements for houses

For the successful rearing of young cattle, compliance with sanitary standards, strict requirements are imposed on the houses and the technology of keeping animals:

• A place for boxes for young animals is chosen on a hill, where there is no possibility of flooding with sewage. Take into account the wind rose.
• Boxing is removed from residential buildings, sources of water intake.
• When making houses for calves on their own, they use safe, strong, durable materials. Hardwood is generally preferred. In addition, wood has high thermal insulation properties.
• The dimensions of the house must correspond to the age and physique of the animal.
• It is important to take care of additional heating of young animals. Calves aged from 14 days to 6 months maintain an air temperature of +15^оC.
• Ventilation is required. With the help of regulating dampers inside the house, the air speed is provided in winter – 0,3 m / s, in summer – 0,5 m / s.
• Ventilation maintains humidity – from 40 to 75%. Ventilation ensures that the maximum concentration of gases inside the box is: ammonia – 15 mg / m³, carbon – 0,25%, hydrogen sulfide – 5 mg / m³.
• Each house is assigned individual drinkers, feeders, maintenance equipment, and overalls for working personnel.

Inside the boxes maintain constant cleanliness. After each cleaning, the floor is disinfected with bleach or formaldehyde.

How to make an individual house for calves with your own hands

A home-made box for young cattle helps save on the purchase of an expensive factory-made design. If there are materials, tools, construction skills, they create a suitable project and get to work.

Necessary tools and building materials

The base and floor of the house will be wooden. To work with the material you will need a saw, screwdriver, planer. Roofing material choose corrugated board. Metal shears are needed to cut sheets. You will also need a marking tool: tape measure, pencil, level.

The frame of the box for calves is made of timber with a side size of 50×50 mm. For the floor, a board with a thickness of 40 mm is suitable. Sheathing of the walls of the house is carried out with OSB boards or a board 20 mm thick.

Creating a project

Adhering to the recommended dimensions of the house for a certain age of the calves, draw up a drawing. The boxing scheme will help to roughly calculate the required amount of material. Separately, the project provides for a fence for walking young animals. Its optimal dimensions are 150x130x100 cm (length, width, height, respectively).

Building a house

The step by step process consists of the following steps:

• Billets are cut from a bar. First, a rectangular frame is knocked down, which forms the basis of the box frame. The corner connection of the beam is performed with cuts with a depth of 25 mm. For connection use nails or self-tapping screws.
• Racks of the box frame are attached perpendicular to the frame. The elements are reinforced with mounting metal corners. The verticality of the racks is checked with a level. They are installed 4 pieces in the corners and 2 additional, forming a doorway.
• The rear pillars are cut in height so that they are 100 mm shorter than the front supports.
• From above, the racks are fastened with a strapping of timber. It is identical in size to the bottom frame. The irregularities that have arisen at the joints are cleaned with a planer.
• The finished frame of the calf box is sheathed with OSB boards. When using a board, it is laid end-to-end, and the joints are additionally closed by stuffing planks on top.
• Logs are attached to the lower frame. The floor is laid from the board.
• Three slats are nailed to the upper trim of the box frame: one in the center, and two closer to the edges. Sheets of corrugated board are fixed to the crate with self-tapping screws. Along the perimeter of the roof, a wind bar is attached to protect against drafts.
• The doorway of the box remains open. With the onset of cold weather, it is hung with a tarpaulin.
• The calf walking fence is made of metal racks and mesh. It can be designed removable or stationary with a gate.
• If the house will stand on the street in winter, the ceiling and walls are insulated from the inside with foam plastic or basalt wool. Thermal insulation from above is covered with sheathing of OSB boards.
• Ventilation holes are cut out in the ceiling, air ducts with adjustable dampers are inserted.

When the house is ready, proceed to the internal arrangement. Install feeders, drinkers. The floor is covered with hay.

Rules for caring for calf houses

Individual housing allows you to better care for calves, pay more attention, prevent diseases in a timely manner, introduce healthy supplements into the diet of young animals, and prevent moldy feed. House maintenance is based on keeping clean. Plastic structures are equipped with a smooth floor. It cleans well from manure, dirty bedding, and is easy to clean. To remove calf waste, open the back cover. Part of the manure is thrown out through the doorway.

On the threshold of the house, a beam must be laid. The element prevents the removal of bedding by animals, as well as the introduction of organic waste from the street. The inner surface of the walls, the ceiling of the plastic structure is washed with a rag soaked in a disinfectant solution. Wooden houses are disinfected by whitewashing with lime or by treating them with special store-bought preparations.

For ease of care, the fence is equipped with structural elements that allow you to close the calf inside the house or paddock. It is optimal to have a removable or hinged railing. During maintenance without a corral, access to the house is simplified. A big plus is the removable canopy. It is placed to shade or protect the animal from precipitation, and if necessary, removed.

Up to three feeders are installed on the fence of the corral. Each inventory is designed for a specific type of feed. Don’t forget about the drinker. To simplify the care of young animals, boxes are installed as close as possible to the farm. Maintenance personnel will have to cover a shorter distance. Increase productivity and quality of care. In addition, calves will constantly see cows, which affects the improvement of appetite.

Conclusion

Calf houses accelerate the growth of animals, their physical condition improves. With a separate content of young livestock, you can resort to early fertilization of the heifer, which allows you to increase milk production.