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Stinnett Family Farms is a small family owned and operated farm located in South Arkansas. Travis and his wife Crystal and their three beautiful children Jordan, Katie, and Levi operate their own homestead complete with a farm stand This program is designed to help you as you learn from our experience as well as our mistakes in the process of starting your very own homesteading journey. Grab a cup of coffee and sit back as you read through the “You Can Homestead Series”

Stinnett Family Farms Sparkman, Arkansas

(870) 678-2807

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The Homesteaders

How-To Manual

VOLUME 1

Cattle Panel Structures

A Homesteaders Guide To

Greenhouses, Barns, Sheds, & Other

Cattle Panel Structures:

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Hello all you homesteaders out there. I

hope everyone enjoyy Volume 1 of the You

Can Homestead Series “Cattle Panel

Structures”

In this edition of the “You Can Homestead

we want to talk about and hopefully help

you learn about building Cattle Panel

Structures. This book is designed and

focused on building barns, greenhouses,

storage sheds, and any other type of

structure you may need on your homestead.

Downloading this eBook has entitled you to

receive all volumes in the “You Can

Homestead Series.” Thanks again for

joining and please enjoy the book...

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Copyright © 2013 by Stinnett Family Farms

All rights reserved. This book or any portion

thereof may not be reproduced or used in any

manner whatsoever without the express written

permission of the publisher except for the

use of brief quotations in a book review.

Printed in the United States of America

First Printing, 2013

ISBN 0-9000000-0-0

Stinnett Publishing

707 Hwy 7 South

Sparkman, AR 71763

www.stinnettfamilyfarms.com

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Table Of Contents

Step 1 Gather Materials 1

Step 2 Constructing The Roof 10

Step 3 Brace The Ends 13

Step 4 Closing In 17

Step 5 The Home Stretch 21

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Step 1:

Gather Your Materials

Here is the list of materials needed for this

project:

6 T-Posts

6 Cattle Panels 16’ Long

1 20 x 30 Tarp

Tie Wire

Plywood

10 2x4x8’

1 2x4x16’

This is the equipment you will use to put it

all together:

Hammer

Nails or screws

Wire cutters

Pliers

Circular Saw

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Jig Saw

Tape Measure

The materials (if you have to buy

everything) will cost you approximately

$250. The only thing we had to buy for

this project were the cattle panels and the

tarp. The t-posts, tie wire, plywood, and

2x4’s were all salvaged from family that

tore down an old barn.

Building The Foundation:

The first thing you have to do in building

your structure is to get your foundation

square. You need to take the six t-posts

and set the four corner posts at 16’ long

by 10’ wide. Set three of the t-posts on

each side of your structure. The

remaining two posts will be set on either

side of the structure (the 16’ long sides)

centered between your two corner posts

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Next, you want to mount two of you cattle

panels along each side of your structure

and connect them to the t-posts using tie

wire as shown in the photo to the left.

I want to point out that the cattle panels

need to be on the outside of the t-posts. In

the photo you see that I have mive on the

outside, but when you put the tarp on you

will want them to be on the inside instead

TRUST ME!! Lol If you don’t put them on

the inside you will have them sticking into

your tarp.

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Step 2:

Constructing The Roof

The Roof:

The next step to building your structure is

to add the roof. This is much easier to do

with a helper. My wife helped me and we

got it done in no time. Start at one end of

the structure. Bend a cattle panel into an

arch as seen in the photo between the two

sides. Raise the panel up until only two

squares overlap the top of your sides. Use

the tie wire to secure the first piece of the

roof to the top of each side making sure

the roof panel is flush with the end of the

side panels.

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My wife told me to add that you should

start attaching the roof panels at the

opposite end of where you have your

remaining cattle panels so you don’t have

to go under the panels already attached

with the next panel.

Continue attaching the remaining three

panels overlapping the previous one by a

few inches. When you get to the very end

make sure the last panel is flush with the

end of your sides. You should end up with

a structure similar to the one in the next

photo.

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This is the completed structure without

the cover and supports. We made our

structure 16’ long, but you can actually

make it as long as you want. We will be

adding additional 16’ sections in the

future (more on that in your free

automatic updates to this eBook).

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Step 3:

Brace The Ends

The Door End:

Next you want to construct the ends of

your structure. Let’s start with the end

where your door will be. As you can see in

the picture below we measured from the

ground up to the roof and used 2x4’s to

construct a frame for our end wall and

door.

The length of your 2x4’s depends on the

size you want your door. We used an old

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screen door we salvaged from a torn

down house but any door will work just

build your frame around the size of it.

Next, you will want to add more framing

as shown in the picture below. We cut the

two short boards even with the top of the

side cattle panels. Next we cut two short

pieces of 2x4 and connected it to the

original door frame as you can see.

At the top corners of the door framing we

connected the frame to the roof using tie

wire. That completes the framing for the

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door end of your structure. I want to take

a minute and point out the cross beam at

the top of this photo. This was added to

strengthen the roof. Use your 16’ 2x4 and

mount it up tight against the roof of your

structure as shown. One end will sit on

top of your door framing:

and the other will have its own post made

from 2x4’s as seen in the photos here:

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We also connected the beam to the roof

using nails into the beam and then bent

over the top of the wire on the cattle

panel. You could also use tie wire.

By adding the beam you will be protected

from any weight that might be put on

your roof (like snow), and also if you plan

to hang anything from the ceiling. We

hung rabbit cages to make this into a

rabbit barn.

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Step 4:

Closing In

The Door End:

Now your construction is complete. The

only thing left to do is to enclose your

structure to keep the weather out. The

first step will be to cut and install the first

piece of plywood to the door end of your

structure as shown below. The easiest

way we found to do this is to put the piece

of plywood in place and use a pencil to

draw the curve of the roof and the

doorway

opening. Once

you have it

marked use a

circular saw to

cut the straight

pieces and a

jigsaw to cut

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the curve.

Once your piece is cut put it in place and

mount it to your framing with nails or

screws whichever you prefer.

Next you want to complete this process

for the opposite side of the door end of

your structure. When you are finished it

will look like this photo:

As you can see we left a space at the top

where the beam is sitting. This was done

intentionally

because we will

be adding a

custom sign in

that spot with

our rabbitry sign

on it.

If you want you

can just use some

of the scrap

plywood you had left and just finish it out

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completely with the plywood.

As for the other end, if you only want one

section as I mentioned earlier you can

finish the other end the same way you

finished the door end. You can either put

a door at both ends or finish it solid with

plywood.

If you decide to add additional sections in

the future just leave the end open and

cover it with plastic like we did in the

picture below to keep your critters warm.

Like I said, we made this into our rabbit

barn so we needed to close the end

temporarily to keep our bunnies warm

and out of the wind.

This picture shows

the tarp already

installed, but you

get the idea. When

you add the next

section all you

have to do is remove the plastic, roll back

the tarp, and start construction from step

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one. When you are finished adding

sections just frame a solid wall or a wall

with a door in the end of your structure.

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Step 5:

The Home Stretch

Adding The Tarp To Your Structure:

The next step in the construction process

is to install your tarp. We actually used

several sets of hands (wife, two kids, and

me) to make sure we didn’t tear the tarp

on any of the metal from the cattle panels.

We tied a rope to one of the holes on the

tarp and threw it over the structure. We

moved the tarp a little at a time up one

side and down the other. Use the metal

holes of the tarp to

connect it to the

front, bottom, and

end of your

structure as seen in

the photo.

As you can see here

the tarp will be too

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long on one side. You can either cut it off

and add holes (we got a kit that adds the

little metal pieces just like the rest of the

tarp so you can attach it to the bottom.

We just rolled it up and placed some

heavy pipes on it for now.

This concludes the construction for your

new cattle panel structure. The only thing

left is to add whatever door you found to

use, and add your cages or shelves or

planting beds or whatever else you have

decided to use your structure for.

We hope this manual will help you in

constructing a greenhouse, barn, or shed

that will last for years to come.

To find more helpful homesteading How-

to’s visit our website at

http://stinnettfamilyfarms.blogspot.com

We also have photos of the various things

we use these cattle panel structures for

on our homestead.

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If you have any questions or comments

about this manual please email us at

stinnettfamilyfarms@yahoo.com or leave

a comment on our website.

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Good luck in your cattle panel

construction projects. We would love

to see what types of structures you

made. Send us your pictures to

stinnettfamilyfarms.com and we may

include them in future updates to

this book. I wish you all the best

success in everything you do.