Farm Structures, Buildings and Fencing: Siting and Materials
Farm Structures, Buildings and Fencing tests the siting, design and maintenance of kraals, crushes, dip tanks, stores, poultry houses and fences, with attention to animal comfort, hygiene, cost and durability.
Siting and design rules
- Choose well-drained, level ground with all-weather access, near water and feed, away from dwellings and downwind of them, and secure against theft.
- Orientation matters in a hot climate: a long axis east–west limits direct sun on the long walls, while ridge height and open eaves give ventilation.
- Floors should slope to a drain, be easy to clean and rough enough to stop animals slipping.
- Stores for feed and seed must be dry, raised on a plinth, ventilated and proof against rodents and birds.
- A dip tank needs a footbath and holding pens; a crush restrains cattle for dosing, vaccination and inspection.
Fencing
- Types: live hedge, thorn, diamond mesh, barbed wire and electric. Barbed wire suits cattle, mesh suits goats and poultry, and electric fencing is cheap but needs an energiser, insulators and a good earth.
- Strainer posts at corners, gates and every 100–200 m, braced both ways; line posts at about 3 m for cattle; gates wide enough for machinery.
Worked example: material estimate
A rectangular plot 200 m × 150 m has a perimeter of 2(200 + 150) = 700 m. At 3 m post spacing, 700 ÷ 3 = 233.3, rounded up to 234 posts. Five strands of barbed wire = 5 × 700 = 3 500 m; add 10% for tying and waste = 3 850 m. Add strainers and gates separately.
Traps
- Forgetting that gates and corners need extra strainer posts.
- Siting a poultry house on low ground that floods.
- Under-estimating wire by ignoring the 10% waste allowance.