Design your cattle yard cover with shed designer.

What is a cattle yard cover?

A cattle yard cover is an open-walled, high-eave roof structure built over the working yards, race, forcing pen and crush, designed to take heat, rain and UV out of the handling job. The shell is intentionally simple. What earns the build is the post spacing around the crush, the eave height above the race, the gutter run away from the loading ramp, and how the columns sit relative to the panels you already own. ShedDesigner's cattle yard cover templates are sized around the working yards underneath.

Pick the closest template, set your span, eave height and bay layout to clear your existing yards, then submit your design once for free comparable quotes from ShedSafe accredited dealers in your region.

Sizing a cattle yard cover

Three numbers decide whether the cover earns its keep over a 30-year run.

Span and footprint. Standard cattle yard covers run 12 to 24 m clear span without internal columns, with bay lengths of 7.5 to 9 m. The yards underneath set the brief: cover the receiving yard, the forcing yard, the race and the crush at minimum. Loading ramps and the cattle scale are usually covered too. Match the span to the longest dimension of your working yards plus a 1 m buffer for column footings outside the panel line.

Eave height. Plan a minimum 4.5 m eave above the race so a vet can work the head with a paddle held overhead, and a tractor with a forced-feed or cleanout bucket can drive in. 5.0 to 5.5 m is the working benchmark on commercial yards. A low eave costs you every day for the next three decades.

Post placement. The single most-undersized detail on first builds. Posts must clear the panel line of your existing race and crush, with at least 600 mm between any column and a working surface. Put a column inside the forcing pen and you have a permanent injury hazard for the operator and the stock.

If you also need a separate machinery or hay storage build, see also our machinery sheds and hay sheds pages, or the broader farm designs category.

Heat, water and welfare

Worth designing in, not bolted on.

Heat-load reduction. BlueScope's published Solar Reflectance Index data shows Surfmist at SRI 81 (solar absorptance 0.33), Pale Eucalypt at SRI 51, and Monument at SRI 27 (BlueScope, COLORBOND® steel solar reflectance properties, ASTM E 903-96, 2022). A cool-roof colour over a forcing yard materially reduces handling stress on a 38 °C day. For Bos taurus breeds (Angus, Hereford, Murray Grey), heat stress begins above a Temperature Humidity Index of 74, with severe stress above 79 (Meat & Livestock Australia, Tips & Tools: Reducing heat load in feedlot cattle).

Gutters and water capture. A 24 × 18 m cover sheds roughly 432 kL of rainwater per year on a 1000 mm rainfall block. Pipe the downpipes to a tank and the cover pays itself back in stock water through the dry months. Direct discharge into the yards washes effluent across the working surface and onto the loading ramp, which is the failure case.

Slab or compacted base. Most cattle yard covers sit on a compacted gravel or limestone hardstand under the yards, with a concrete slab only under the crush, scales and loading ramp. Decide at quote stage so the dealer prices both options.

Before you get quotes

A cattle yard cover sits in the weather for 30 years and works every weaning, every drafting, every vet visit. Four things worth knowing before quotes go out.

100% Australian-made BlueScope Steel. Across structural framing and Colorbond® cladding. BlueScope's COLORBOND® steel cladding for sheds and garages carries a warranty of up to 15 years against corrosion to perforation, with the exact period set by location and application (BlueScope, Garages & Sheds Warranty). Check your build on BlueScope's online warranty estimator.

Primary producer write-off. Cattle yard covers used in primary production may qualify for the temporary full expensing or instant asset write-off rules in force for the relevant income year. Talk to your accountant before you sign the build, because timing the install to your tax year can change what you can claim (Australian Taxation Office, Simpler depreciation for small business).

ShedSafe accredited dealers, no exceptions. Every dealer on ShedDesigner is third-party assessed under the Australian Steel Institute's ShedSafe programme.

One design, multiple quotes. Your cover design goes out to dealers in your region. Every dealer prices the same shell, with the same post layout and gutter spec, to the same engineering, so the quotes you get back are directly comparable.

Browse the broader Farm Designs range for hay, machinery, dairy and shearing builds.