How big should a set of stock yards be?

Size them for the largest mob you will actually handle at once, not the average one, because the day the yards are too small is the day it matters. The total area is the mob size multiplied by the space each animal needs, which differs enormously between weaners and mature cattle and between cattle and sheep. Yards that are too small are dangerous and slow; yards that are far too large are hard to work stock in, so bigger is not automatically better.

How much space does an animal need in a yard?

It depends on the class and size of stock and on how long they will be held, so no single figure is supplied here. Holding pens where stock stand for a while need more room than a forcing pen where they are packed to move them forward. The right figures come from a yard designer or from the standards your council or processor expects, and the number you choose here should be one you can point at.

Why can yards be too large?

Because stock work best when they have somewhere obvious to go and a person can control the space. An oversized pen lets a mob spread out, mill and turn back, which takes longer and is more dangerous than a pen sized to fill properly. The forcing pen in particular relies on being tight enough to keep animals moving forward, which is why it is sized separately here rather than as a share of the total.

Stock Yard Sizing Calculator NZ

This sizes a set of yards from the mob you need to handle: the total area, the holding pens, the forcing pen and the length of race, with the space each animal actually ends up with. The first decision is which mob to size for, and the answer is the largest one you will genuinely handle at once rather than the average, because the day the yards are too small is precisely the day it matters, and yards are not something you extend halfway through drafting. The second thing worth knowing is that bigger is not automatically better. Stock work best when they have somewhere obvious to go and a person can control the space, and an oversized pen lets a mob spread out, mill and turn back, which is slower and more dangerous than a pen sized to fill properly. The forcing pen depends on this more than anything else, which is why it is sized separately here rather than taken as a share of the total. No space per head figure is supplied. It differs enormously between weaners and mature cattle, between cattle and sheep, and between a holding pen where stock stand for a while and a forcing pen where they are packed to move them forward, so the figure you use should be one you can point at.

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This is a sizing calculator, not a yard design. Safe stock handling depends on layout, gates, footing, flow and escape routes at least as much as on area, and none of that is arithmetic. Space per head figures should come from a yard designer or from the standards your council or processor expects. Get a design before you build.

Largest mob handled at once

Space each in a holding pen

Space each in the forcing pen

Animals in the forcing pen at once

Race length each animal takes

Animals held in the race

Holding pens wanted

Build cost

/m2

450.0 m2

of holding pen area for the mob

Each holding pen112.5 m2

Forcing pen27.5 m2

Race length20.4 m

Indicative build cost$114,600

The build figure covers pen area only, before gates, a crush, a ramp, water or the race. Size for the largest mob you will actually handle at once. Yards are not something you extend halfway through drafting.

No space per head figure is supplied. It differs by class and size of stock, by species, and by whether stock are standing in a holding pen or packed in a forcing pen. Take the figures from a yard designer or from the standards your council or processor expects.

How it works

The holding area is the mob size multiplied by the space each animal needs, and dividing that across the number of pens you want gives the size of each. The forcing pen is sized on the animals you put in it at once rather than on the whole mob, at the tighter space per head that a forcing pen uses. Race length is the number of animals you hold in the race multiplied by the length each takes. The build cost applies your rate to the holding and forcing areas, and is indicative only: gates, a crush, a loading ramp, water and the race itself are not area and are not in it.

Sizing for the mob you actually get

The average mob is the wrong basis. Yards get used hardest at weaning, at TB testing and when a truck is waiting, and those are the days everything arrives at once. Sizing on the average leaves you short exactly when a mistake is most likely and everyone is in a hurry, and the cost of the extra area at the build stage is small against the cost of working stock in yards that do not fit them for the next thirty years.

Worked example

Sizing for a mob of 250 at 1.8 square metres each needs 450 square metres of holding pen, which across four pens is 112.5 square metres each. A forcing pen taking 25 animals at 1.1 square metres each is 27.5 square metres. Holding 12 in the race at 1.7 metres each needs 20.4 metres of race. At $240 a square metre the holding and forcing areas alone come to $114,600, before gates, a crush, a ramp, water or the race itself, which is why the figure is indicative rather than a budget.

Related calculators

Farm Fencing Materials: fencing the rest of the property.
Stock Units: what the property carries.
Stock Water: water at the yards and in the paddocks.
Drench Dose Checker: what happens once they are in the race.

Data sources: no space per head standard is supplied, because it differs by class and size of stock, by species and by the type of pen. This page does arithmetic on figures you supply, and it is not a substitute for a yard design.