In the barn, there are "stalls" down the middle and along the back wall. These stalls are set up on a curb about 10 inches higher than the floor of the barn. Sawdust is piled in the middle and raked down into each stall as needed. The theory is that beef want a dry place to lay down. As the alley gets crappy with manure, the beef lay in the stalls, tail facing towards the alley. When they stand up, they tend to have a bowl movement. The manure then ends up in the alley and not in their bed.
Opposite of the stalls is a feed trough with headgates. The beef push their head through the gate to get to the feed. In this case, we are chopping the hay with what's called a TMR (total mixed ration). The machine is like a giant mixer with a series of knives in it. There are several benefits here. One, I can mix two different bales to get the desired feed quality I want (protein, fiber, carbs, etc). Second, the beef can't sort through the hay and pick out what they want. When it is chopped and mixed together, they tend to eat all of it. This means less waste and more dry matter in the beef.
The first week has been clunky as we figure out how to use the barn and how to clean it. The beef are settling in though and seem to be quite happy. I'm excited because I don't have to drive across muddy fields to feed the beef and at night I'm not worrying about them breaking out. Further, I also get to save all their manure in one place. Each week we scrape the barn out and get two trailer loads of manure soaked sawdust (approx 7 tons). This is added to my compost pile and in March we'll spread it on the fields for fertilizer.
