Randy, Kevin and Larry Schultz give their new hoop cattle barn high marks.

The McLoed, N.D., brothers built a 42 x 546 foot two years ago. It's a three-sided barn with 6-foot tall concrete walls, a canvas roof and sidewall and steel-sided end walls. A concrete bunkline, pad and feed alley run the length of the open wall. The pens are bedded with cornstalks and cleaned several times a year. Manure is stockpiled on a containment pad until it can be spread on their cropland. There's no manure run off from the site. Everything is contained and kept away from ground and surface water.

Randy Schultz says he is extremely pleased with their hoop barn. They background cattle, fatten cull cows and calf cows in it.

It cost about $100,000 to prepare the site and $350,000 to build the barn -- about twice as much as an outdoor feedlot for the same number of cattle, but the Schultz brother says it has been worth it.

The Schultzes have backgrounded calves in the barn, used it for calving and have fattened cull cows it in and are pleased with the results. They and the cattle don't have to fight mud any more. The building keeps the cattle drier and out of the wind in the winter and provides shade to keep them more comfortable in the summer.

"The barn has given us back so many options," Kevin says. "We can manage our cattle for the market again and not the weather or the condition of the feedlot."

"It's been a godsend," adds brother Larry. "It's made things easier on the cattle and easier on us."

The Schultz brothers say might erect another one someday.

For information on how the Schultzes received cost sharing from USDA and technical assistance from the North Dakota Stockmen's Association, see the latest issue of Dakota Farmer. Don't have a copy? Email me at [email protected].