Animal Housing Area
Free Animal Housing Area calculator with clear step-by-step results.
About Animal Housing Area
Sizes an animal shed from stocking density. Head count multiplied by the space allowance per animal gives usable pen area; a service allowance is added for feed alleys, gates and bedding storage; and dividing by your intended building width returns the length you need to frame.
Formulas
Pen area
Pen area = animals x space allowance per animal
Building length
Length = (pen area x (1 + service allowance)) / building width
Worked example
With the default values below, Animal Housing Area returns Total housing floor area of 43.20. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.
Inputs used
- Number of animalsaccepts 1–5,000
- 24
- Floor space per animalminimum 0.05 m2
- 1.5 m2
- Feed alley / service allowanceaccepts 0–100 %
- 20 %
- Planned building widthminimum 1 m
- 8 m
Results
- Total housing floor area
- 43.20 m2
- Pen area for the animals
- 36.00 m2
- Feed alley and service area
- 7.20 m2
- Building length at that width
- 5.40 m
Step by step
- 1Values used
- 2Pen area
- 3Building length
- 4Total housing floor area= 43.20 m2
- 5Pen area for the animals= 36.00 m2
- 6Feed alley and service area= 7.20 m2
- 7Building length at that width= 5.40 m
Assumptions and limits
- The result is derived only from the 4 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
- In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax or compounding frequency into account.
- Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.
- Minimum space allowances for farmed animals are set by law in most jurisdictions and differ by species, weight and flooring type. Check the applicable welfare regulations before building.
How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.
Minimum space allowances for farmed animals are set by law in most jurisdictions and differ by species, weight and flooring type. Check the applicable welfare regulations before building.
Frequently Asked Questions
What space allowance should I use?
It depends entirely on species, weight and system - roughly 0.1 m2 for a laying hen, 1.5 m2 for a growing pig on slats and 3-4 m2 for a bedded dairy cow. Use your local welfare code figure.
Does the service allowance cover manure storage?
No. It covers the alleys and passages inside the shed footprint. External slurry stores, silage pads and yards are sized separately.