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Homemade Pastured-Livestock Mobile Shelters
Homemade Pastured-Livestock Mobile Shelters

With his three side-by-side Pastured-Livestock Mobile Shelters, Killam, Alberta, farmer Ron Ruzicka's animals get fresh pasture twice a day, shade, a shower when it is hot, and plenty of feed and water on demand. The framework of each 16- by 32-foot shelter is 1-inch steel tubing, and the side panels are 3 feet high. To stiffen the structure, Ruzicka ran a 32-foot-long steel tube from front to back at ground level. A second length of tubing connects the tops of the side panels at their midpoints, which further strengthens the structure, supports the roof panels that cover the back half of the pen, and carries a length of 3/4-in. waterline halfway across it, the water flowing out the end. When it gets hot, Ruzicka turns on the water to cool the livestock. A second line runs to a nipple-waterer at the front-center of the shelter. All waterlines are connected to a 450-gallon tank mounted on a salvaged dual-wheeled sprayer carriage. Ruzicka mounted skis from old snowmobiles on each pen's front corners. Hooking them up to the toolbar of an old rod weeder, he's able to pull the three shelters in unison to the next fresh-pasture spot.

Estimated Cost Cost range: See below

Limitations Limitations Addressed by Product: Lower extremity, Upper extremity, Strength/endurance, Back


SourceAdapted from Farm Show Magazine, Vol. 43, No. 5
Don Ruzicka
Box 579
Killam, Alberta, T0B 2L0
Canada
Websitewww.sunrisefarm.ca
Phone780-385-2474
Est. Cost$1,000-$1,400 depending on material costs. May be less if using tarps rather than metal roofing. Please contact Don Ruzicka for a detailed list of materials used and other information that may prove useful in the construction and use of this shelter.
Last updated: Dec 29, 2023


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