# Floor in goat barn



## rule4 (Feb 19, 2013)

I have built a small post and beam barn into the side of a hill to hopefully house a few pygmy goats. The floors are 5/8 plywood with joists being 12inch on center. I had really wanted to go with a dirt floor for drainage but the lands topography somewhat prevented that without doing some major work... so that's where I am currently at.

How should I proceed with preparing the flooring for goats? The available area of the barn that would house the goats is 8x12. I am leaning towards laying down linoleum over the plywood, cutting in a few drain holes and then buying some plastic pallets to lay over top of that. Cover the whole thing in straw and hope that the urine will pass through the straw and pallets and out the drains in the floor. I could then lift up the pallets in the spring and fall and hose the whole thing out and start fresh. 

I could also use free wood pallets and just tighten up the spacing on the slats and toss them if they get too nasty over time and put new ones down.

I know I wont be out there changing the bedding weekly... I deep liter my coops and it works well. Would this same approach work with the goats. 

An advice would be really appreciated. Thanks.


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## Cashewnut (Aug 30, 2009)

I have a concrete floor in my goat barn, so I can't say a whole lot about the wood and pallets, but goats pee, and they pee *a lot*.


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## rule4 (Feb 19, 2013)

Cashewnut said:


> I have a concrete floor in my goat barn, so I can't say a whole lot about the wood and pallets, but goats pee, and they pee *a lot*.


That's my big fear. I've never had goats but I keep reading about how much they pee


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

You can't use pallets without risking broken legs.

Put down the linoleum and forget the drain holes.
Put a layer of pelletized lime about 2" thick, then cover that with a deep layer of either pine shavings or straw.

Clean as needed and add more bedding as needed
The lime will help keep odors down.


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## barnbilder (Jul 1, 2005)

Used carpet. Carpet is the only way to make a goat floor. Put down gravel, dig a nice deep ditch on the upper side to keep out rain, put carpet on top of your gravel, lightly staple to hold in place, bed however deep with straw or hay they pull from racks. Use low pile and it won't catch a pitchfork as bad. When you clean it, pull the staples loose and beat it off a little. Stays nice and dry, lasts a lot longer than I expected.

Lady that showed us this trick swept hers every day, she was too crippled to do a big goat barn cleaning. Pellets sweep up, pee goes through. We bed ours, but you can do it either way. It's going to get nasty, a little lime will help with any odor, it is going to smell like a barn, no matter what you use, but the carpet method really cuts down on the ammonia smell that comes with soaked deep bedding. The moisture wicking of this method makes each shovel full of bedding much lighter as well, if cleaned in a timely manner. 

Sounds like the dumbest idea ever, I thought it was, and said as much, when the milker person informed me, the lowly shoveler person that we were going to do it, but I am a believer now.


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## sammyd (Mar 11, 2007)

Concrete and deep bedding.


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## sonya123 (Dec 4, 2016)

We have some of the same issue right now. We have concrete floor in the barn and use straw as bedding, but now are trying to only put straw in some of the barn, to cut down on straw use. The goats seem to like laying on the bare concrete. Is it ok for them do that ?


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## barnbilder (Jul 1, 2005)

If your goats spend a lot of time in the barn, as most goats do, I never thought standing on concrete could be good for their feet and legs, over time. It can be a little damp as well. With concrete, there is no place for wetness to go, and if something comes up, you are left with adding more bedding. If you find yourself in a situation that is ongoing, it can get quite high, becoming a situation of it's own. If you are milking goats, remember that their udder is resting on the floor. If has anything liquid on it, that is a possible mode of mastitis contraction. 

If it is just a handful that like to hang out on a bare concrete spot because it is cool, that would probably be fine, but any kind of crowding forcing some herd members to lay in the less than ideal spots could be bad.


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## Heritagefarm (Feb 21, 2010)

I would not do anything other than a dirt floor.


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## barnbilder (Jul 1, 2005)

I've tried them all. Carpet over gravel is the best.


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## sammyd (Mar 11, 2007)

We ran deep bedding on concrete for several years. The pen did not smell bad (except when we started forking them out), never needed to add lime. We never had a case of mastitis once we switched to deep bedding. We even stopped using teat dip after milking. The udders were never wet or dirty, perhaps some bits of the dry bedding would stick on the hairier udders but we just brushed that off before milking.
Twice a year we would empty the pen and by having a concrete floor we had all of the nutrients available for use in the garden or field. We didn't have any drain away into the ground under the pen.


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