Cattle night yard
A dry, fenced resting area on compacted hardcore and murram, with a roofed end for shade and rain and a feed face along one side.
- For
- Rest, feeding and a safe night for the cattle
- Built from
- Hardcore, murram, eucalyptus and mabati
The Farm
The place they come home to
2.17 acres at Isinya: the permanent headquarters of a livestock farm, the night base the animals return to, and the store the feed comes back to.
- Headquarters
- 2.17 acres
- Ground
- Black cotton soil
- Rainfall
- Two seasons
- Role
- Night base · feed store
The home farm is not where the animals eat all day. It is where they drink, are fed up, looked over, sorted, milked and shut in safe, and where everything they leave behind is gathered up and put back into the feed.
The ground
Black cotton soil: rich, heavy clay that swells when it is wet and cracks open when it is dry. It grows good grass and destroys careless foundations, so everything permanent stands on a raised, drained pad.
The work
Water, feed and a safe night for the herd; fodder grown, cut and stored; manure gathered every morning and returned to the land as compost.
The next step
More land for feed: a fodder and support farm of around ten acres, then leased fodder blocks as the herd grows into them.
Everything the evening needs
Each part of the home farm serves one moment in an animal’s day or one stage in its life. None of it is ornamental, and all of it is built to be hosed, mended and moved.
Galla and Dorper night pens
Open sided shelters with low mabati barriers against the wind, timber rails and raised, drained floors. Goats and sheep penned apart so they can be fed and managed as what they are.
- For
- Secure night housing for the small stock
- Built from
- Eucalyptus posts, mabati, timber rails
Water
Storage tanks filled from the water source and from every roof that can be guttered, feeding durable troughs set on concrete where the ground takes the most wear, and drip lines out to the fodder blocks.
- For
- The first stop every evening
- Built from
- Tanks, guttering and durable troughs
Feeders
Food grade plastic drums cut lengthwise and mounted at the right height for each animal. Cheap to make, easy to scrub, and quick to replace.
- For
- Supplementary feed, hay and minerals
- Built from
- Food grade drums, cut lengthwise
Hay store
A dry mabati roof on eucalyptus posts, bales stacked off the ground on pallets, sides open enough for air and closed enough against driving rain.
- For
- Dry season reserves
- Built from
- Eucalyptus, mabati and pallets
Silage
Pits or sealed tubes for chopped Napier and forage sorghum, sited on firm, drained ground close to the feed face.
- For
- Wet feed through the long dry
- Built from
- Pits or sealed tubes on drained ground
Maternity pens
Quiet, clean, bedded pens for does, ewes and cows close to giving birth, where they can be watched without being disturbed.
- For
- Kidding, lambing and calving
- Built from
- Timber, mabati and deep bedding
Young stock
Separate pens for kids, lambs and calves, so they can be fed, weighed and watched while their mothers go out.
- For
- The next generation of the herd
- Built from
- Timber rails and mabati barriers
Quarantine
A pen well apart from the rest, downwind and down slope, where every animal that arrives spends its first weeks before it joins the herd.
- For
- Keeping disease out
- Built from
- Its own pen, water and feeder
Handling race
A timber race and crush, with sorting gates, for inspection, treatment, weighing and loading, so that handling an animal is quick, calm and safe for everyone.
- For
- Health checks, sorting and breeding control
- Built from
- Timber race, crush and sorting gates
Feed preparation
A covered, raised floor for chopping, mixing and measuring, where bought in concentrate, home grown fodder and minerals become the evening ration.
- For
- Mixing supplementary feed on the farm
- Built from
- A raised, roofed floor
Manure and compost
Pens scraped every morning, manure stacked and turned under cover, and the compost carted back out to the fodder blocks.
- For
- Fertility for the next crop of feed
- Built from
- A covered heap and a wheelbarrow
Out by day, home by dark
The animals spend their days grazing and browsing on permitted land, and come home to the headquarters every evening. This is the day the whole farm is organised around.
- 06:30
First look
Every pen walked and counted. Anything lame, off its feed or about to give birth is spotted before the gates open.
- 07:00
Milking
The milking females are milked where there is milk to take, and their young fed before the day starts.
- 07:30
Out
The herd walks out with a herder to the day’s grazing and browse. Young stock, heavily pregnant females and anything under treatment stay at home.
- 08:00
Clean down
Pens scraped, manure onto the heap, troughs scrubbed, feeders refilled, and the evening ration mixed.
- 16:30
The walk home
Back along the track before the light goes. It is the part of the day everything else is organised around.
- 17:00
Water
Straight to the troughs. On a dry day, this is what the whole walk home is for.
- 17:15
Feed and minerals
Supplementary feed, hay or silage according to the season, with minerals and salt always available.
- 17:45
Inspection
Feet, eyes, coats and condition, and a look at every animal that stayed at home.
- 18:00
Breeding control
Females sorted, sires kept where they belong, anything in season or close to birth moved to the right pen.
- 18:30
Shut in
Young stock back with their mothers where they should be, gates checked, and everything secure for the night.
Times shift with the season and the light. The order does not.
Built for black cotton soil
Simple, practical construction suited to Isinya: materials that are local, repairable and right for a hot, dry, windy place with heavy clay underfoot. Resourceful, not cheap: the money goes where wear, water and hygiene demand it, and nowhere else.
Frame and roof
- Main posts
- Treated eucalyptus
- Rafters & purlins
- Eucalyptus and sawn timber
- Roofing
- Mabati, guttered to storage
- Sides
- Mostly open, for air
Pens and gates
- Barriers
- Low mabati, against wind and draught
- Rails
- Timber
- Gates
- Simple timber and mabati
- Feeders
- Food grade drums, cut lengthwise
Ground and water
- Resting areas
- Compacted hardcore and murram
- Foundations
- Raised pads, shallow drainage
- Concrete
- Only at troughs, feed faces and wash downs
- Troughs
- Plastic or simple, durable concrete
Black cotton soil moves with the seasons. Every permanent structure sits on a raised pad with the water led away from it, and footings are taken down below the layer that swells and shrinks.
The feed store comes before the herd.
A home farm, and land around it
The headquarters does not feed the whole herd on its own, and it is not meant to. The farm widens in a fixed order, and only when the feed and the animals have earned the next step.
- 01
The headquarters
2.17 acres, owned. Water, night housing, feed storage, young stock, breeding control and the manure that goes back out as compost.
Owned · running - 02
The fodder and support farm
Around ten acres bought nearby, mostly for growing feed (grass for hay, Napier and sorghum for silage, legumes for protein) and for the room a growing herd needs.
The next purchase - 03
Leased fodder land
Long term leases on 5 to 10 acre blocks to start with, then more as the herd grows into them. Leased land is for feed; the animals still come home at night.
As the herd grows - 04
Permitted grazing
Day grazing and browse on land where the farm has permission to be, walked out in the morning and home by evening.
Every day
The people behind the farm
Tangama Farms is owned by Mohamed Siraj and Fatoumata Pethe. Andrew works on the farm.
Mohamed Siraj
Owner
Fatoumata Pethe
Owner
Andrew
Farm worker
Follow the farm
The herd, the feed, the building and the weather, written down as it happens, including the parts that go wrong.