B.FLT.4018 - Feedlot Covered Housing Systems – Best Practice Design and Management Guide

Summary

Most cattle feedlots in Australia are kept in open pens. The Australian Lot Feeders’ Association has developed a shade policy, with a goal for all cattle in feedlots to have access to shade or shelter by 2026. The use of covered housing systems has emerged as a potential solution for protection of feedlot cattle from summer heat and wet winter weather and may also deliver other benefits. While the feedlot sector has some experience with covered housing, a lack of independent guidance on design, cost of construction, production response, management and regulatory controls may present an adoption
barrier. Hence, this project was conceived to identify and describe best practice design and management for covered housing systems in a written manual.

Objectives

The main objective of the project was to deliver a covered housing systems: best practice design and management manual, backed by a literature review of national and international developments in covered housing systems. Included in this document were a comparison of the capital costs of a covered feedlot versus an uncovered feedlot, an evaluation of any ancillary economic
benefits/opportunities of covered housing, a review of regulations for approval, construction and operating covered housing facilities and case studies.

Key findings

The project identified that there is strong interest in covered housing systems in the Australian feedlot industry. However, independent research to support the development of these facilities is lacking.

While the project delivered a covered housing systems: best practice design and management manual, this was challenging as Australian-based design and management research on covered housing systems is very
limited.

There is only a small number of covered housing systems in Australia and these cover a broad range of building geometries and management. Most sites with established covered housing systems have refined their design and management over time and covered housing systems used in north America and Europe are primarily designed to manage livestock in cold climates, often with snow. Most of the research from these is not applicable to Australian systems.

A key finding is that the cost of construction of covered housing systems is very site and design specific and material and labour costs vary considerably between regions and over time.

Benefits to industry

The covered housing systems: best practice design and management manual will assist producers in making decisions around whether to implement covered housing on their farm and provide guidance for constructing and managing same. It also provides information that will assist regulators assessing
applications for covered housing systems, which will help industry to navigate the regulatory approvals process.

MLA action

MLA plans to undertake a large body of research to investigate optimal stocking density, animal welfare, animal performance, bedding management and odour under different covered housing systems for the Australian lot feeding industry.

Future research

Design and management knowledge for Australian covered housing systems is limited and largely based on trial and error at this stage. Research needs to happen quickly to help early adopters avoid mistakes. We recommend a review and update of the manual as soon as new research is completed.