Building our Goat Tote. The TnF Farms practical, budget-friendly, small livestock transporter.

It’s soon 2024. Perhaps you’ve been living under a rock. Let me prep you before you emerge from ignorant bliss. Everything costs more. Too much more. For some items the pricing is ridiculous.

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I have been on the lookout for a livestock trailer. For months, I have cruised Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace and have concluded there are 2 kinds of used livestock trailers available in the open market right now:

The used livestock trailer marketplace is a “crap” shoot

The first kind of livestock trailer is decent and used. It’s showing use. There are some scratches and dings and perhaps it has a “dirty” floor. All of these issues are easy to overcome. Hitch on to that trailer, pull it home, give it a little spit and polish and you’ll have a great piece of equipment for a lot of years.

The second kind of item may have once been a trailer and it’s not used, it’s used up. Underneath all of the rust, maybe you can identify the original paint color. The tires are bald and at least one bearing is locked up. The wiring is chewed up. And the floor? Gone. Rotted away. If there’s any windows left, they’re broken. Bubba is kind enough to suggest you bring a trailer to put this trailer on. Sheesh, Bubba must’ve found this tetanus and e-coli hob-cobbery in some grove and dragged it home with his lawn tractor.

Then if you do find something decent, good luck connecting with the seller

I’m going to briefly cover my interactions on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. People are asking stupid money for their stuff. It’s not marked up so you can haggle. They believe someone will be dumb enough to pay them that much money. That is if you can get them to answer.

I go out of my way to not taunt sellers with the annoying “Is it still available?” My latest frustration is using buying phrases like “I can come right now with my pickup/trailer.”, “I can come today, when would you like to meet?” and “Where are you located, I’ll stop at the ATM on the way, I can pay cash.” Seems to merit no response.

Buying a new or nice-condition used livestock trailer just doesn’t make sense for me economically. I’ll probably eventually lose the battle with my wife, but right now we don’t have large animals like cows or horses. With some exception, I just don’t see us using it often enough to justify the expense of buying it and paying the taxes for such a large purchase. Then I have to license it every year. The used and “ain’t”-so-nice trailer is more the price point I’m looking for based on our usage. Sorry Bubba, but I “ain’t” coming for that trailer that belongs at the scrap yard you have listed for $2000.

Like any animal farm, we need to transport livestock at TnF Farms

I hate asking to borrow stuff from friends and neighbors. Especially when it comes to something large like a trailer. In the past, we’ve traded out or hired people to transport our American Guinea hogs to the processor. The first time my wife decided we were getting goats, she folded the seats in her SUV down and laid out a tarp. Other than 6 Nigerian Dwarf goats being backseat drivers, it… was… messy.

She recently informed me that we will be getting more goats. I did not want to have another cleanup job like that again. Plus I wanted to spare her SUV’s interior. I needed to figure something out. Fast.

When we first were settling into TnF Farms, I went through this same buying circus trying to get a little odd job utility trailer. I could buy a brand new 5×8 trailer from Tractor Supply for $1,000ish dollars. Or I could keep chasing some marginally responsive clown and pay them $900 for a beat-up 5×8 trailer that needed new wiring. Decision made, I went to Tractor Supply bought a brand new trailer, and it’s been put to work ever since.

The TnF Farms design for a small livestock transporter

Our utility trailer does not get daily use but it gets regular use. It weighs less than 500 pounds and can carry 1500 pounds. My wife’s little SUV gets over 30 miles to the gallon which is almost triple the mileage of my pickup. Her SUV is rated to pull 1500 pounds. Why not make something that goes on the 5×8 utility trailer?

We have an outdoor dog pen / small animal shelter. It’s approximately 6’ x 4’ and we picked it up a while ago from Tractor Suppy for $250. I like that it can be moved and most of the time it is in one of our farrowing pens. So why not put this on the utility trailer?

No. I’m not just going to ratchet strap it down, and call it a day. Animal hooves are not going to tolerate a wire mesh floor. Also, this is going to need some mass. If the trailer doesn’t have enough weight, it will be very bouncy. Transporting animals is stressful all around, including for the animals. I do not want to shake them up any more than I have to.

Usually, I move the dog pen with the tractor, why not permanently mount it to a skid? That would keep it flat, square, and make it very sturdy going down the road and as a shelter.

Designing the TnF Farms Goat Tote

I usually fire up AutoCAD for some of my major designs. Most of the TnF Farms project-in-a-day stuff is notebook doodles and straight out of my mind. My “skid” is going to be a custom-made pallet. I’ll make the skid just big enough that I can run a 2×4 flat all the way around the dog pen. The skid will be all green-treated lumber so it can be outdoors and resist animal waste. I’ll use 2×4 stringers and regular decking for the upper and lower deck boards. The decking will allow liquid to drain and also provide a little traction for animals being transported.

Connecting the deck boards to the 2x4s, I will use 2” deck screws. I have some places where I’ll need a larger reach and will use a few 3 ½” deck screws. I’ll also use 3 ½” Lag screws with washers to mount the flat 2x4s to the top of the skid.

Reinforcing the dog pen

The dog pen uses carriage bolts and wing nuts to hold the panels together. Who thought this was a good idea? You can’t put a lot of torque on them, they never stay tight then they slip down. Any medium to large, active dog is going to flex the panels and eventually get out. I replaced all of the wing nuts with nylon-insert nuts. Then I spent some time thinking of a simple and cheap way to hold the dog pen to the skid. I finally settled on using galvanized pipe strap. This way I won’t damage the dog pen panels, drilling new holes and it’s reversible if this ends up being a disaster.

To hold the skid on the trailer, I originally planned to use some robust eye screws then saw they were outrageously priced. So I settled on D-ring anchors. These will catch the ratchet straps that will hold the skid to the trailer when going down the road.

Making our Goat Tote more roadworthy

I opted to not use the roof that came with the dog pen when it is being used for transport. We had a remnant of cattle panel lying around that fit almost like it was designed for the dog pen. I attached the cattle panel with stainless steel zip ties.

Some animals don’t like wind when being transported. Some really don’t care. We could end up moving our animals in the wintertime. North Florida winters can still have some very cold days. Besides, when the dog pen is just being an animal shelter, some wall coverage is good for the weather in general. Harbor Freight is always running a promo giving away a small blue tarp. Attaching 2 of these free tarps with ball stretch cords will cover the front, top, and sides.