Covered cattle yards can provide significant benefits, from encouraging low-stress livestock handling to safer working conditions.
A roof over cattle yards and working areas also provides operational benefits such as flexible working hours and improved staff retention.
Plus, a cattle yard cover improves animal welfare and protects your cattle yards and crushes, helping you get the most out of them
A good yard cover design goes a long way to ensure a project delivers on these benefits, such as best-practice heights, bay spacings that work with your yard design and features like gable infills or canopies that provide excellent weather protection.
So, in this article we discuss eight recent covered cattle yard projects – we have included a variety of sizes and designs – and explain why the design works.
You will also find handy price guides, project galleries and information on planning your covered cattle yards.
We hope this article provides you with ideas for your project!
Read on to get inspired.
8 Covered Cattle Yards To Inspire Your Project
In this list of 8 Covered Cattle Yards, you will find a variety of projects from smaller builds that cover the main working area or crush to larger facilities.
For example, we have included some bull sale sheds that have covered yards too. These great multi-use investments provide good value for money and can help make a positive impression at your on-farm sales and events.
Regardless of your project size and budget, you will find some great ideas including functional configurations and cost-effective sizes.
Each project also includes a handy price guide.
1
Covered Cattle Yards With Canopy
We recently completed several cattle yard covers with canopies in South-East South Australia, including projects at “Moville”, Willalooka (pictured) and nearby at Marcollat.
Size: 38m (L) x 18m (W) x 3.5m (H)
Location: Willalooka SA
Discover other projects across the state in the South Australia Farm Sheds Brochure.
Build Date: 2023
Price Guide: Approx. $110,000 – $135,000 including GST, delivery and installation.
Several features contribute to this functional and effective design.
Firstly, gable infills provide extra protection from the prevailing weather – and still allow airflow through the cover
Secondly, the standard 18-metre span helps create a cost-effective design. You can learn how, here – What Are The Standard Spans For Farm Sheds?
However, while a standard span has been used, the design uses non-standard 7.6-metre bay spacings. This is to ensure the column placement works with the yard layout. If you are building a roof over existing cattle yards, bay spacings can also be varied throughout the cover. For example, a 38-metre long cover could be made up of 8-metre bay spacings and a 6-metre bay spacing.
Similarly, if there is fall across the site, the column length can be adjusted to allow for this. For example, extra column length has been included in this project.
Getting details like column length and placement right in the design stage is important. Our building consultants will visit the site to take measurements and levels before finalising the design.
Finally, this project incorporates a canopy over the main working area. This provides extra weather protection and is a cost-effective way to gain additional coverage rather than upsizing the span width. For example, an 18-metre span cover with a 5-metre canopy is often more cost-effective than a 21-metre span.
The yard cover project at Marcollat also effectively uses a canopy, and we have included photos of both builds in the gallery below.
2
Classic “Roof-Only” Covered Cattle Yards
This yard cover project was one of several built for dairy operation in South West VIC with a sideline beef business.
Size: 25.5m (L) x 18m (W) x 4m (H)
Location: Kolora VIC
You can discover more Action sheds in this area in the South-West VIC Farm Sheds Brochure.
Build Date: 2022
Price Guide: Approx. $65,000 to $90,000 including GST, delivery and installation.
If creating a cost-effective design is a priority for your project, then this is a textbook way to achieve this.
There are three main details that contribute to this.
Firstly, the design utilises the classic roof-only configuration without any wall cladding or gable infills to increase the project costs.
Secondly, standard 8.5 metre bay spacings have been used. These are some of the most cost-effective bay spacings available and provide great value for money. For example, 8.5-metre bay spacings use the same amount of roof purlins as an 8-metre bay spacing – so you are essentially getting more bang for your buck.
Finally, this project also uses a standard 18-metre span. Of course, there are other standard spans you could consider such as 24 metres or 27 metres for a larger scale project.
However, while we recommend using a standard size span, we understand that these won’t work for every yard cover project due to the yard layout and site conditions.
Another standout feature of this project is the well-prepared site access. This helps ensure the yards and yard cover are accessible even in wet weather.
View more details and features in the gallery below.
3
24 Metre Span Covered Cattle Yards
This recently completed project in the Riverina area ticks all the boxes when it comes to a smart cattle yard cover design.
Size: 48m (L) x 24m (W) x 5m (H)
Location: Hay NSW
You can discover more Action shed builds across the state in the NSW Farm Sheds Brochure.
Build Date: 2023
Price Guide: Approx. $175,000 – $200,000 including GST, delivery and installation.
The size of this yard cover is the main contributor to the smart design. The 48m (L) x 24m (W) configuration has been successfully used for hay sheds, machinery sheds and cattle yard covers – it is tried, tested and proven to work.
This size works thanks to the standard 24-metre span (this is arguably the most popular farm shed span) and the standard 8-metre bay spacings. Not only are they cost-effective, but standard spans and bay spacings are also designed to be functional.
Several other details contribute to the functional design including the 5 metre clearance height. This provides airflow through the cover and adequate clearance height for machinery under the gable infills.
We usually recommend a clearance height of at least 4 metres for a cattle yard cover, depending on whether the cover includes gable infills or partial walls, machinery access requirements and whether it is covering a crush.
This cover also includes an end wall and gable infills to help provide the right balance between weather protection and airflow.
Browse the gallery below for some of our favourite photos of this project.
4
Covered Cattle Yards With Colorbond Cladding
Attention to detail on the finishing touches can make all the difference to a project – and this project built in 2021 is a great example.
Size: 24m (L) x 15m (W) x 3.6m (H)
Location: Moorak SA
Build Date: 2021
Yard Supplier: ProWay Livestock Equipment
Price Guide: Approx. $60,000 – $85,000 including GST, delivery and installation.
One of many successful collaborations with Proway Livestock Equipment, this project delivers on the details.
Firstly, this bay spacing has been adjusted to work with the ProWay yard layout. The three-bay configuration consists of a 7-metre bay spacing and two 8-metre bay spacings.
Secondly, the standard 15-metre span ensures that the design is cost-effective and functional.
The Colorbond cladding (including the gable infills and partial walls) is a great finishing touch and helps the cover blend in with the surroundings including a well-prepared site.
The Action custom gutter system (this is a standard inclusion) has also been supplied in the Colorbond colour for a neat and cohesive finish. The benefit of this system is that it allows the gutter to be plumbed to the end of the cover, rather than down the face of the columns. This helps prevent damage to the downpipes and keeps stormwater out of the yards.
Putting a roof over your cattle yards is a great opportunity to capture stormwater runoff. You can calculate how much stormwater you could capture by using the Rainwater Harvest Calculator.
View the project in more detail by checking out the photo gallery below.
5
Bull Sale Shed & Cattle Yard Cover
Size: 51m (L) x 27m (W) x 4.5m (H)
Location: Mortlake VIC
You can discover more builds in the area in the Western District Farm Sheds Brochure.
Build Date: 2021
Yard Supplier: ProWay Livestock Equipment
Price Guide: Approx. $200,000 – $230,000 including GST, installation and delivery.
Completed in time for Banquet Angus’ 30-year celebration and their 23rd Annual Autumn On-Farm Sale, the facility was designed to fit in seamlessly with the ProWay yards.
Features of the project include:
- An enclosed southern wall for weather protection, and wall vents and sliding doors to provide airflow through the facility when needed.
- Skylights and hi-bay lighting are installed over the yards so that the undercover yard area can be used at any time of the day (or night!).
- An eave height of 4.5 metres provides adequate clearance height for machinery access.
- Partial cladding to two sides of the cattle yard cover provides extra weather protection without completely blocking the airflow through the cover.
6
26 Metre Span Covered Cattle Yards
This project in Western Victoria uses custom features to create a workable design.
Colorbond cladding is the perfect finishing touch to help the cover blend in with the surroundings.
Size: 25m (L) x 26m (W) x 4m (H)
Location: Derrinallum VIC
Build Date: 2022
Price Guide: Approx. $105,000 – $135,000 including GST, delivery and installation.
Some of the custom features of this project include a gable infill and a non-standard span and bay spacings.
While we would recommend using a standard 27-metre span if possible – this is a great way to reduce project costs and timeframes – a custom span can be used to fit in with the yard design.
This project has also been built with the future in mind. Cleats have been added to one of the side walls to make it easy to clad the wall in the future. The advantage of doing this in the manufacturing stage is that it allows the cleats to be fully hot dip galvanized.
The photo gallery below shows the project in more detail.
7
Covered Clipex Cattle Yards
The seventh project in this list is one of several recent collaborations with cattle yard supplier Clipex.
Size: 18m (L) x 21m (W) x 4m (H)
Location: Buckley Swamp VIC
Build Date: 2023
Yard Supplier: Clipex.
Price Guide: Approx. $75,000 to $100,000 including GST, delivery and installation.
A gable infill, concreted working areas and a simple two-bay configuration (9-metre bay spacings) make this a very workable and practical set-up.
You can see more details on how this set-up works in the gallery below.
8
Covered Cattle Yards & Charolais Sale Shed
The final project on the list is the fantastic sale shed facility completed for Mount William Charolais, along with Te Pari.
Size: 24m (L) x 18m (W) x 4.2m (H)
Location: Willaura VIC
Build Date: 2022
Yard Supplier: Te Pari
Price Guide: $85,000 – $110,000 including GST, delivery and installation.
The bull sale arena shed is a well-planned project with attention paid to even the smallest detail. For example, Rob planned the placement of the building to capture the view of the Grampians mountain range from the sale grandstand.
Other features of the project include an enclosed bay for an office area, a concrete slab floor, skylights, Colorbond Woodland Grey cladding and a Corten steel plasma-cut sign supplied by Action.
Learn about Rob’s Action experience in the video below – and scroll on to browse the project gallery.
Project Gallery
That’s a wrap on 8 of the best covered cattle yards – you will also find plenty more examples in the Latest Project Gallery.
For more information and articles like this, check out the Learning Hub.
