Noble happy with monoslope building

Bob Noble put up a monoslope bedded barn in 2007 for feeding cattle and he's pleased with the result.

"I love the building except when I make the payments," he said.

Noble's farm near Riceville was one of the stops on the recent Beef Feedlot Facilities Tour in eastern Mitchell County. The event was sponsored by the Mitchell County Cattlemen, Iowa State University Extension/Iowa Beef Center, the Coalition to Support Iowa's Farmers and Osage Cooperative Elevator.

Noble put cattle in his building on Labor Day 2007. The building is 100 feet by 240 feet and has a 499-head capacity with two pens. It has feed bunks on the north and south end.

Noble's cattle feeding operation also includes two open concrete 175-head lots with sheds.

Construction cost for the monoslope was $600 per head space including manure storage, an insulated roof and earth work.

"Five years ago, land was not as high as it is now, but it seemed high at the time, and to try to support another family on the operation, a $300,000 building seemed like a better investment than buying land, and it fit my likes and passion," Noble said.

Randy Theis works with the operation, and Noble's father, Harlan, who is 90, helps out.

"Randy is very knowledgeable and awful good help," Noble said.

Manure storage on the south side the monoslope building will hold up to eight weeks of scraped manure if it isn't too wet. If manure is sloppy and won't stack, it will hold two weeks of scraped manure.

Manure is scraped from the sides of pens two times per week unless it is damp or humid and then it's scraped more often. The bedded pack in the middle of the pen is left in place and hasn't been removed in the last two years, Noble said. Bedding is added when manure is cleaned.

"Typically two bales per pen are added, or for full bedding, 10 bales per week," Noble said. "We use a bale processor for bedding. Bedding will improve cattle comfort. It's not free, but I think it's a pretty good investment."

To clean and bed both pens takes approximately two hours. That includes cleaning waterers.

The bedded confinement is less labor in winter and adverse weather, but more labor in summer and fall compared to the outside pens, Noble said.

"Cattle comfort is better in adverse weather," he said.

Noble's cattle come from many sources, so it's difficult to get an accurate comparison with outside pens. In general he's noticed more consistent dry matter intakes and maybe higher dry matter intakes than the outside lots. He has also observed a small improvement in gains.

"Sometimes we get as much as two pounds better dry matter intake inside the building than outside," Noble said. "I was never told to expect that before we built the building so it was a pleasant surprise. As a result gains are a little better inside the building."

One change he would make if he were to do it again would be to groove all concrete surfaces where the cattle move not just where he thought there would be cattle traffic.

Noble farms with his parents and his wife, Jayne. The couple's daughters, Andrea and Amanda, both teach in Riceville. Their son, Dustin, is attending Luther College.

Noble's operation includes 720 acres, some is pasture but most is planted to corn.

The feedlot has a one-time capacity of 1,200 head and markets about 2,000 head of cattle per year.

Noble is the agent for Iowa Cattle Marketing Coop in Osage and markets the farm's cattle through that entity.

Other tour stops were the Karl Fox and Eric Klaes farms at Elma and Joe Miller's new narrow monoslope bedded facility near Osage.