cattle courts

Bespoke, high-quality steel framed cattle courts

Thorburn Group have been erecting cattle courts across Scotland and Northern England for over 60 years. During that time, we have gained a wealth of knowledge that makes us fully equipped to provide you with a high-quality building that will stand for years to come.

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What do our range of services include?

Whether it’s a slatted cattle court or bedded building, bull pens or calf houses, we can create a building to suit your exact requirements. Not only that, but we can design and fabricate the internals of your building, including gates, troughs, barriers, scrape passages, as well as installing Galebreaker roller screens. We can even refurbish old cattle courts, whether it’s re-cladding or a new internal fit-out.

Internal Fit-Out: When designing a new cattle court, it is essential to ensure it meets not only your current needs but is also future-proofed for your planned growth. We can meet with you to discuss your requirements and design a comprehensive internal fit-out to suit. Whether it involves gates and barriers, troughs or scrape passages, we will design, fabricate, and install the entire solution for you.

Galebreaker: We are one of the main dealers for Galebreaker, renowned across the UK for its quality and technologically advanced ventilation equipment. If you are looking to promote ventilation in your cattle court, we can supply and install products to suit your building and requirements. You can learn more about the ventilation requirements for cattle in our FAQs section.

Galebreaker Bayscreen

Galebreaker AgriDoor Pro

Galebreaker Rollerscreen

Concrete: We can also install concrete floors, whether it’s polished, steel float, brushed or tamped, our experienced team will ensure a high-quality floor is laid with impeccable attention to detail. A concrete floor is ideal for a cattle court due to its weather tolerance and resistance against high volumes of animals.
Design: The initial stage of your cattle court is of course the design, and our experienced team will ensure they create designs to your exact requirements. This is followed by CAD drawings to give you a visualisation of what the completed cattle shed will look like. We can also complete any necessary planning applications on your behalf. Discover more about the team here.
Groundworks: We have our own internal groundworks team who can take any space of land and transform it into building-ready ground. They offer a range of services to suit the job, from demolition to drainage, levelling to setting out. Discover more about our civil services here.
Fabrication: We have our own workshops, filled with teams of experienced welders working to fabricate not only the building’s steelwork but the internals as well. Using state-of-the-art machinery, we guarantee high quality every time. Discover more about our machinery here.
Turnkey Service: As you can tell, we really do handle every stage of the process, allowing you to focus on running your farm. We even have dedicated project managers who liaise with all of our teams and any outside contractors (such as electricians or plumbers) ensuring the Cattle Court is completed by the agreed deadline.

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Cattle Handling Systems

Did you know we also design, fabricate and install bespoke cattle handling systems? We have been providing this service for over 30 years, collaborating with customers to create entirely new handling systems and cattle courts that better suit their needs. Discover more about our cattle handling systems.

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If you know exactly what you want and are ready for a FREE quote, get in touch today, and someone will contact you to discuss your building needs.

Not quite decided? Why not give one of our sales team a call, having worked on hundreds of buildings over the years, they are more than qualified to give their expertise.

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FAQS - Cattle courts

What are the housing standards for cattle?

Depending on what side of the border your farm is located, there will be different animal welfare regulations you must adhere to. When you get to the design stage, we will ensure your building is in line with the relevant regulations.

However, outside of regulations, there are a number of different standards you should adhere to, to ensure the best safety and productivity of your animals.

Feeding – The feeding system should aim to keep clean feed in front of the animals, while minimising bullying of animals and labour of changing feed.
Cleaning – Buildings should be designed so they can be effectively cleaned.
Ventilation – Sound ventilation is crucial to upkeep the animals health, there are a number of different acceptable features to aid clean air.
Flooring – The key with the flooring is making sure it is comfortable under foot for the animals, while also promote complete drainage of excess liquids.
Space – How many animals are you planning to hold in the building in the immediate and distant future?

It helps to think about the procedures and systems you currently have in place, are they working for you? What would you change? This is all helpful information when we are putting together your quote and design.It seems like a lot to think about, but not to worry as we can offer our expertise on how the building should be designed to best accommodate your animal and farms needs.

What is the best housing for cattle?

There are a few different options on how you should house your cattle, however the best option really depends on the type of farm and breed of cattle you have.

The two mains options would be slatted or bedded, both could be made indoor or outdoor, depending on the breed of cattle and what they prefer. Some cattle are more hardy than others and prefer to be out in the elements, while others thrive in indoor environments.

If you are looking for advice on which is the best option for you, speak to our team of experts.

Do you design the internals of the cattle court as well?

What ventilation is required for cattle?

Ventilation is extremely important to the animals health when they are being housed. Natural ventilation is the most preferred method. This is the most cost effective, and it should be designed so that it works effectively on a calm day when there is no wind, but also still protects the animals from high wind days.

There are three basic requirements when considering ventilation; fresh air, moisture and draughts. The goal is to have the air as clean as possible, this means the ventilation in place should minimise moisture, dust, gases and air speed. Ensuring this technology is in place, will keep the animals health in top condition.

You can perform a smoke test to show the flow of air in your building.

We can advise on the proper ventilation requirements during the design process.

What should you consider when planning a cattle court?

Animals Welfare
First and foremost, the animals health and welfare must be the priority of your building, so this looks like designing a building that puts minimal stress on the animal and promotes efficient management of the stock.

The Future Of The Farm
Although it’s important to be building for the immediate needs of your farm, it is also smart to consider the possible changes your farm may go through in the next 5-10 years and how this new cattle court will fit into those changes.

Environment
What kind of impact is your new building going to have on the environment? Are there any features you can add to minimise pollution and visual impact?

Safety of Staff
How safe will your staff be operating the building?

Regulations
Are there any planning approvals you need to carry out before the building can go ahead? Not to worry, that’s a task we can take off your hands with our in-house planning approvals department. We will speak to the local authorities on your behalf, ensuring everything is being conducted properly, meaning you can sit back and relax.