Cubicle Shed

nordisk

Can anyone tell me the current average price per cow for a slatted tank and cubicles, with automatic scrapers. And without automatic scrapers including price of shed?

irishh_bob

nordisk wrote: »

Can anyone tell me the current average price per cow for a slatted tank and cubicles, with automatic scrapers. And without automatic scrapers including price of shed?

id skip the scrapers if i was you , thier very finicky , expensive and require a lot more service and up keep than slats

as for the cost , last year a 50 cubicle shed including slatted tanks could be put up for not much more than 50 k , material prices are up a bit this year from what i hear , labour prices are still very keen though

nordisk

Thanks. I hear a lot of people are moving away from scrapers and back to slats again alright.

denis086

we have alfa laval scrapers fitted i dont know if its the fella who fitted them did a poor job or is it just a poor design the timers and the cut of mechanism stoped working after a year and the seals on the rams keep going because they put the ram box under the door so all the slurry gets gathered up around the rams and it looses a fair bit of oil as a result we had a chain scraper system before this one but the chains got worn and the cost to replace the chains was the same as a new system but we had hardly any problems with the old system but that was just an electric motor
i wouldnt go for all slats in the passages if a cow goes down bringing in a heavy machine to carry her out mightnt be such a nice experience we have tractor slats on an outside tank outside a straw bedded shed when were cleaning it out it isnt a nice experience driving over them plus ive heard of lad having to cull cows because they slipped in the collecting yard and lost a teat or a couple of teats in one case because of the slats im sure it would happen alot more frequently if the cows were on them all winter
it might be worth considering a water gusher (hope thats spelt right :rolleyes:) theyre a very good job we gush out the passgaes with a slurry spreader when we leave out the cows it cleans them really well and makes powerwashing it easier where the scraper just smears the muck mind you it works better if you have a seperator and use dirty water to gush out the sheds if we were building it again we would definitely fit one

jap gt

i used to work building tanks sheds etc, from what i have seen of scrapers they are very dangerous to cows, when they have been running the same path for a bit they polish the concrete, i have seen loads of cows and a few men falling on the slippery surface, i would avoid them

bogman_bass

I wouldnt go all slats. they arent nice for cows to walk on plus the risk of damaged hooves/spins etc.
if you dont like automatic scrapers maybe go for the tractor mounted option

denis086

jap gt wrote: »

i used to work building tanks sheds etc, from what i have seen of scrapers they are very dangerous to cows, when they have been running the same path for a bit they polish the concrete, i have seen loads of cows and a few men falling on the slippery surface, i would avoid them

another good point but if you get the floors grooved it fixes this we got all our yards for cattle/cows done to help stop this we had alot of cows spreading their legs and they took too long to recover and thats even if they ever did

tismesoitis

think auto scrapers are a great job have a scraper pushing 6 bays fitted by alfco in trim (alfa lavalle) close on 15 years back just broke down once and that was only something small in the last year they came out and fixed it no charge!! will be looking for another one in the next year or two and deff would not pass them.

F.D

I think Slats everywhere would be a bad idea for cow comfort and movement concrete passages would be the best option, as far as flushing goes i think it can spread germs if not properly managed also it can be expensive i think the smell can be an issue also i read a few article before on the farmers weekly website which was interesting, a cubicle passage without a auto scraper is madness,with an auto scraper you can scrape as often as you like without upsetting the cows, cleaner cubicles etc, with a tractor you will probably scrape twice a day, which will leave a fair pile of slurry to be moved,
has anybody ever done or considered pricing up a over ground tank with the cubicles just scraped to a recption tank,
would it be better than all the digging and moving soil when doing a slatted tank
What would the cost per cow be with this setup?

cniriain

just like to ask if anyone out there lives near a slatted shed? Do they smell as am concerned for sick relative plannin to live across road from one. Any advice would be most welcome or reassurance....or not..

restive

I live one hundred meters from one. No smell unless agitating the tanks.

cniriain

thanks Restive that is very reassuring

yellow50HX

cniriain wrote: »

just like to ask if anyone out there lives near a slatted shed? Do they smell as am concerned for sick relative plannin to live across road from one. Any advice would be most welcome or reassurance....or not..

I'm assuming your not from a farming backround here. There is always a smell of some sort when you have animals indoors regardless of wheather there is a slatted tank or not.

like everything it depends on the circimstances. A slatted tank is just a way of collecting the slurry (waste from the animals). These are a large underground tanks, the top of which has holes in it to allow the waste to fall though and into the tank. Not all sheds have them, some use straw bedding to soak up the manure and fresh straw added when needed, while others push the slurry into a large outside tank.

As has been already said there is usually a much stronger smell when the tank is being emptied and i would assume this is what you are concerned about. The smell its self is not dangerous just very unplesant. The danger with empting slatted tanks is from gases that cannot be smelled. These become concenrated in the slurry over time and can escape in one go during agitating (this is mixing the slurry and liquidising it to make it suitable for speading in a vacuum tanker). The gases can become trapped inside the shed and will push away the oxygen making the area unbreatable and this is where most deaths occur and why there should be no-one (human or animal) inside a shed during this time. This is same issue that occurs with carbon monoxide pisioning in house.

The air outside a shed will disipate the gases and reducing the concentration of toxic gas.

cniriain

many thanks for taking time to write in such detail - my concern was smells like rotten es constantly bombarding her house - i do not particularly mind smell of slurry but a constant smell of it would be very nauseating to someone who is already in bad health . I wonder too if gasses would be in air and water would be in danger??Maybe I am over dramatic but I would rather err on the side of caution, and risk sounding stupid for a loved one. Many thanks ..ps what times of year does agitating occur please?Is smell same as slurry spreaded smell or worse?

yellow50HX

cniriain wrote: »

many thanks for taking time to write in such detail - my concern was smells like rotten es constantly bombarding her house - i do not particularly mind smell of slurry but a constant smell of it would be very nauseating to someone who is already in bad health . I wonder too if gasses would be in air and water would be in danger??Maybe I am over dramatic but I would rather err on the side of caution, and risk sounding stupid for a loved one. Many thanks ..ps what times of year does agitating occur please?Is smell same as slurry spreaded smell or worse?

again it depends on the type of housing and the type of animals (pig slurry smells pretty bad). most slurry is spread in spring and authnm while some is also spread during the summer. again this is depnedant of ground contsions and some farmers spread everything at once while other do small laods more regually. Slurry is not spread from novmeber to mid janury. most farmers agitate just before spreading. when this is done in spring the gases arent as concenrtrated as the waste is being added to the slurry all then time. in authumn or summer a crust forms over the slurry in the tank and traps the gases when this crust is broken the gas escapes. some farmers have built in agitaors when work every day so there is no build up. the gas does affect water (there are drinking troughs in the sheds for the animals).

if its just the smell then it might be good to build up a realtionship with the farmer and ask him to let you know when he is spreading. the smell will usually only be around on the day it is done. most people are as accomodating as they can be but the reality of moving to live next to a working farm is that you will have to put up with smells and noise's and he/she has a business to run and a living to make.

cniriain

many thanks - much appreciate your time and detail and information.

Dont be daft

cniriain wrote: »

my concern was smells like rotten es constantly bombarding her house - i do not particularly mind smell of slurry but a constant smell of it would be very nauseating to someone who is already in bad health . I wonder too if gasses would be in air and water would be in danger??Maybe I am over dramatic but I would rather err on the side of caution, and risk sounding stupid for a loved one. Many thanks ..ps what times of year does agitating occur please?Is smell same as slurry spreaded smell or worse?

Yellow50hx is spot on in what he's saying. But I think the smell is probably not going to be the most disrupting thing.
There will be noise from the shed when it fills up in the winter.
Depending on the farming system in place and the numbers involved it could become very loud especially at feeding time or during certain events within the farming schedule.

Unfortunately the farmer will be in a very limited position to minimize this and its just part and parcel of living in the countryside.

kowtow

Dont be daft wrote: »

..it could become very loud especially at feeding time or during certain events within the farming schedule.

The Cow's Christmas carol concert springs to mind.

Dont be daft

kowtow wrote: »

The Cow's Christmas carol concert springs to mind.

I was thinking of a herd test but yeah, them Christmas carol concerts do get mighty loud alright.

cniriain

many thanks