Retrofitting Covered Housing Over an Existing Feedlot: What Needs to Be Considered?

If you already have an operating feedlot and you’re considering covered housing, you don’t necessarily need to start again.

Covered housing can be designed around existing pens, but retrofitting is different to designing a new feedlot from a blank site. Your pen layout, feed alleys, drainage, access routes and other infrastructure are already established. Your cattle, people and machinery already move through the site in a particular way.

The job is to develop a covered structure around that existing operation.

That’s where we can help.

You don’t need to work out the building before you talk to us. Start with the feedlot you have, the area you’re considering covering and what you’re trying to achieve. We can start working through how covered housing could fit.

Start With the Feedlot You Already Have

For a retrofit, we don’t start with a standard building size.

We start by looking at the existing feedlot.

If you have a site plan, survey, aerial image or existing drawings, we can use those to begin understanding the pens you’re considering covering and how the wider operation works.

We’ll look at things like existing pen dimensions and slopes, cattle capacity, feed alleys, machinery access, drainage, services and other infrastructure. Just as importantly, we’ll want to understand what’s working well now and what you’re trying to improve by adding cover.

From there, we can begin developing a structural concept around the operation rather than asking you to make the operation fit around a predetermined building.

What Can TechSpan Work Through With You?

You don’t need to arrive with a completed retrofit design.

During the early concept stage, we can start working through:

Which pens or areas could be covered
Practical building orientation and configuration
Structural spans and column locations
Building heights and clearances
Roof configuration
Interfaces with existing fences, feed alleys and infrastructure
Machinery and operational access
Roof-water collection requirements
Opportunities for future stages or expansion
How the structure could be constructed around an operating feedlot

Some of those decisions will also require input from your civil, environmental, planning or feedlot specialists.

Our role is to coordinate the building solution with those requirements, so the structure isn’t being designed separately from the feedlot around it.

Can You Put Covered Housing Over Existing Pens?

Yes. There are already Australian examples of covered housing being retrofitted over conventional feedlot pens.

Airlie Feedlot in Queensland is one example documented by the Australian Lot Feeders’ Association. Its covered housing project was designed over existing pens and had to respond to the existing pen slopes, deep pens and long rows. The design also considered ventilation, natural light, stormwater management and how the structure would work with the existing operation. The feedlot remained operational during construction.

The Airlie Feedlot case study from ALFA is a good example of why retrofit projects need to start with the site that’s already there.

Your feedlot will have its own constraints and opportunities, but the principle is the same: understand the operation first, then develop the structure around it.

Working the Structure Around Existing Pens

One of the first things we can start testing is how a structural grid could work across your existing pen layout.

Where columns sit matters.

A column position that works structurally may not work if it interferes with a gate, feed bunk, cattle movement or the equipment used to clean the pens.

MLA’s covered housing guidance specifically identifies the interaction between columns, gates, feed bunks and pen-cleaning equipment as something that needs to be considered when developing covered housing.

This is where understanding your operation becomes important.

We can work through the spans and column positions needed for the structure while considering the access and clearances you need underneath it.

If there are areas where columns simply won’t work operationally, we want to know that during Concept, not once the building has already been detailed.

What Happens to the Water When You Add a Roof?

Putting a large roof over existing pens changes how rainfall moves through the site.

Rain that currently falls directly onto the pen surface becomes roof runoff once that area is covered.

MLA’s covered housing guidance notes that typically more than 95% of rainfall hitting a roof becomes runoff. As a general rule, every millimetre of rain falling on one square metre of roof represents approximately one litre of water.

That means a 10,000 m² roof receiving 25 mm of rainfall represents around 250,000 litres of water before allowing for losses.

For a retrofit, we need to understand where that water can go.

As the building concept develops, we can establish the roof catchment area and coordinate the building’s guttering and downpipe requirements with the wider civil and environmental design.

TechSpan isn’t designing your feedlot’s complete drainage or effluent system. We can, however, make sure the structure provides the information and interfaces your civil and environmental specialists need.

That’s an important distinction because the roof shouldn’t be designed first and the water dealt with later.

Our Feedlot Drainage & Effluent Management guide looks more closely at how covered housing changes water management across a feedlot.

The Building Still Needs to Work as a Feedlot

Covering the pens doesn’t change what needs to happen underneath them.

Cattle still need to move through the facility. Feed needs to be delivered. Pens need to be cleaned. Machinery needs access. Staff need to be able to work safely and practically within the operation.

These operational requirements help shape the building.

We can look at the clear spans, building heights, column positions and structural configuration in the context of the equipment and access you need.

If there’s something about the existing operation that already causes problems, tell us.

A retrofit is an opportunity to understand those constraints before the new structure is designed around them.

Ventilation and Building Configuration Need to Be Considered Together

Putting a roof over cattle also changes the environment underneath it.

Building width and height, roof form, openings, orientation and stocking density can all influence conditions within covered housing.

MLA developed its Feedlot Covered Housing Systems Best Practice Design and Management Manual specifically to help Australian lot feeders assess these kinds of design and management considerations. The research behind the manual found considerable variation in the geometry and management of Australian covered housing systems.

In other words, there isn’t one covered housing configuration that should simply be copied from one feedlot to another.

For a retrofit, we can develop the building geometry around the existing site and operation, while working with the relevant specialists on the environmental and animal-management requirements that influence the design.

Our Covered Feedlot Design Parameters Guide goes into these considerations in more detail.

Don’t Forget How You’ll Clean the Pens

Pen cleaning and manure management also need to work underneath the new structure.

MLA’s covered housing guidance identifies machinery access, gate widths, column positions, bedding and manure management as considerations for covered systems.

From a building perspective, we want to understand what equipment you use and where it needs to go.

That helps us work through practical clearances, column locations and access requirements as the structural concept develops.

Your feedlot and environmental specialists can then determine the appropriate bedding, manure-management and operational systems for the facility.

Again, the important thing is that these decisions aren’t being made independently of each other.

Can You Keep Operating While the Cover Is Built?

Potentially, yes, but it needs to be planned around the individual site.

For an existing feedlot, shutting down a large section of the operation while a structure is erected may not be practical.

The Airlie Feedlot project is a useful Australian example because the feedlot remained operational throughout construction.

If maintaining operations is important for your project, tell us early.

It may affect how we approach the structural configuration, construction sequence, site access, crane movements, material storage and the areas required for erection.

There may also be opportunities to stage the project so particular areas are completed before work moves to the next section.

The right approach will depend on the feedlot, but construction methodology is worth considering while we’re developing the building, not after the design is finished.

What About Approvals?

An existing feedlot approval doesn’t necessarily mean new covered housing can proceed under the same approval.

What is required will depend on your location, existing approvals, feedlot capacity and the scope of the proposed works.

You don’t need to determine that pathway alone before speaking to us.

Your planning and environmental specialists can establish the specific approval requirements, and we can coordinate the building solution with the information they provide.

This becomes particularly important where the new roof changes stormwater management or where the project forms part of a broader expansion or modification to the feedlot.

Our Feedlot Approvals and Feedlot Environmental Requirements guides explain those considerations in more detail.

Do You Need to Cover Everything at Once?

No.

Your first stage might cover a particular group of pens, with additional areas planned for later.

If you think another stage is likely, we want to know about it.

It may influence the orientation and configuration of the first structure, the direction future buildings could extend, roof-water management, site access and where other infrastructure is positioned.

That doesn’t mean designing or paying for the entire future facility now.

It simply means making today’s decisions with tomorrow in mind.

What Do We Need From You to Get Started?

You don’t need a finished design.

If you have them, an existing site plan, survey, aerial imagery, pen dimensions, drainage information and existing approval documents can all be useful.

But the most important starting points are simpler:

What part of the feedlot are you considering covering?

How many cattle does it need to accommodate?

And what are you trying to improve?

Bring us what you have.

From there, we can start developing the building concept, identify what information is still needed and work with the wider project team as the solution develops.

Retrofitting Covered Housing Starts With the Existing Operation

An existing feedlot isn’t a blank site, and we don’t treat it like one.

There will be infrastructure to work around, operational requirements to maintain and existing conditions that influence what can be built.

That’s why our process starts with understanding your operation.

Through Concept, Configure and Construct, we can develop the structural building solution around your existing feedlot, carry it through engineering and detailing, manufacture the steel and deliver the structure.

Where civil, environmental, planning or specialist feedlot input is required, we work alongside those people so the building fits within the wider project.

You know how your feedlot needs to operate.

We’ll help you work out how to build covered housing around it.