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Madison Co. Virginia | Just my observations from our small dairy.
We have a three-bay commodity shed. The bays are approximately 13 feet wide(it's been a while since I measured), and are 48 feet deep. Each bay holds one semi-load of feed, and could probably fit two if pushed in. We never have more than one load at a time, though. Frequently we have space to park a loader tractor in front of a full load of feed. We also use some of the empty space in the front of the bays to store some small pre-mix piles against the walls.
The shed is made of used powerline poles planted in the ground and a concrete floor poured around all of them. The exterior walls and interior dividers are 4 feet of concrete. The posts are 8 feet apart, so two 4x8 sheets of plywood perfectly formed one section of concrete wall. The exterior walls have horizontal purlins and vertical oak weatherboarding above the concrete. The interior walls are extended 3 feet higher using two-inch planks of rough sawn oak. Unless you're piling feed a lot higher with a loader, this seven foot height is all you need for a walking floor trailer. They can't pile it more than 5 feet high against the wall anyway. The apron out front would be very nice. We don't have that. One possibility is make that apron dead-level so you can unload a dump trailer sideways in front of the building without flipping it.
Our ceiling is too low for a dump trailer. We have to specify a live-floor trailer every time, and it adds to the cost of hauling. Is it even possible to build a commodity shed high enough for a dump trailer?
You should not have much of a pest problem if you take care of the premises. Groundhogs both love the free food, and the easy ability to tunnel under the floor. Keep it mowed around the shed and you won't have a problem. That gackle of barnyard geese that wanders through the feeding center every evening about dusk will eat a lot more feed than you realize. Might need to limit their traffic patterns.
Can you chalk up any savings to doing grain pre-mixes? Are there employee mistakes in feed mixing that could be reduced by feeding fewer ingredients? For example, once a week, you yourself mix several loads of grain/mineral concentrates, and dump that in a empty bay. For the rest of the week, the feeder only needs to add three ingredients to the mixer; silage, baleage, and pre-mix. | |
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Commodity Shed vs Bulk Bins
