Livestock Building

A farmer approached us after using a local agent to design and obtain planning permission for an additional livestock building on his 40 acre holding. The system he operated was a 40 cow suckler herd with 30 store cattle bought in at 6 months and sold when fit between 24 and 30 months.

The planning permission had been granted 5 years previously. However, he had not started it because its design did not fulfil his requirements and the drawings illustrated a building 30m long situated on a site with a 7m drop along its length.

There were 2 existing barns on the holding, one was to be used for the storage of straw and fodder and the other to fatten the youngstock. This left him with an existing requirement for housing 40 suckler cows and followers and 10 replacement heifers and storage of farm machinery and equipment. Acorus calculated that this would require a 32m x 25m (105’ x 92’) building plus a lean-to midden. To allow for herd expansion of up to 60 cows we designed a building 37m x 25m (121’ x 92’) using a central feed passage.

With the use of a detailed planning report and agricultural justification we successfully obtained planning permission for a building which will fulfil business requirements and enable him to expand the business giving his son the opportunity to farm once he leaves college.