Slatted shed Advice or tips

F.D

We have decided to make a start on a slatted shed in the next week or so, i just said i would ask the question what would people do different if they done it again or tips to pass on, the plan is 5 bay single with a Crush at the back 3 bays long, unsure weather to leave a space in between the crush and cattle like an area to feed meal along/ walkway, 14.6 slat, other question is weather a bar along the feed fence is enough or would we be better off with a proper barrier ? its mainly pit silage we feed,
anyway all advice welcome or any pics of your own set ups, thanks

mayo_lad

i would use a proper barrier about a foot and a half from the outside floor level as it will

1 give the cattle a proper space to feed and reduce jostling for space very important when your dealing with in calf cows

2 reduce the amount of silage being pulled into the slats

tvo

keep the drinkers outside the shed if possible saves having to get into the pens to clean out [EMAIL="sh@t"]sh@t[/EMAIL]

mayo_lad

tvo wrote: »

keep the drinkers outside the shed if possible saves having to get into the pens to clean out sh@t

depends on the height of the drinkers and type of drinkers
the small jfc plastic drinkers are good for staying clean

Dunedin

tvo wrote: »

keep the drinkers outside the shed if possible saves having to get into the pens to clean out sh@t

1. would agree with this and furthermore, try to insulate as best possible so as to protect from frost. going with kettles every morning is no fun.

2. make sure to raise feeding passage way to ensure no water is flowing in on feeding area from any side.

3. Leave enough space for feeding area to be manouverd by bigger tractor than you have now/diet feeder etc. you never know what the farming of the future holds.

4. when designing shed, do so with a view to either building on to it or even doing another shed in the future. you might think now that you might never be doing it, but you just never know.

5. lastly, spend a week going around and looking at other sheds for design. no matter how much pictures and advice you get here on boards, you cannot bate going and looking at other designs..... God knows there was enough put up during the 'grant' days.

best of luck.

MfMan

mayo_lad wrote: »

i would use a proper barrier about a foot and a half from the outside floor level as it will

1 give the cattle a proper space to feed and reduce jostling for space very important when your dealing with in calf cows

2 reduce the amount of silage being pulled into the slats

+1
Important in particular if feeding round bales.

If you are putting in barriers with the diagonal / slanted bars, ensure that there is enough of a space between the bars to cater for cattle with horns or butts of horns - they can be very restrictive otherwise. To this end, perhaps do one bay with the ordinary horizontal barriers?

Rubber mats on the slats may be worth the extra expense?

Will you extend the shed roof / canopy out over the feeding area to keep silage etc. dry? Don't forget lights and / or an electric power source.

mayo_lad

MfMan wrote: »

+1
Important in particular if feeding round bales.

If you are putting in barriers with the diagonal / slanted bars, ensure that there is enough of a space between the bars to cater for cattle with horns or butts of horns - they can be very restrictive otherwise. To this end, perhaps do one bay with the ordinary horizontal barriers?

Rubber mats on the slats may be worth the extra expense?

Will you extend the shed roof / canopy out over the feeding area to keep silage etc. dry? Don't forget lights and / or an electric power source.

on the rubber mats front don't skimp on them I've seen some mats destroyed after 5 years . have a look at mayo mats there all we use at home and we have some mats from them for over 20 years now http://www.mayomats.com/index2.htm

BeeDI

I was considering putting mats on my slats. Got a qote last week of €1200 per pen for 14.5 fott slat PLUS VAT.
Mad me think again about the returns!

Any of you fellas, have them? Are they worth the expense? Is animal cleanliness any better? Does lameness problems improve? What do ye think?

reilig

mayo_lad wrote: »

depends on the height of the drinkers and type of drinkers
the small jfc plastic drinkers are good for staying clean

Agree with you Mayo Lad - the best way to identify the proper JFC drinkers is to look for the ones with the swinging lids.

Also agree with your poing on the Mayo mats - have them on cubicles for over 20 years now and they are as good as new. However, when I went to buy slat mats from them I looked at the job that they had done for other people. They basically laid a large piece of rubber over the slats, secured it on all 4 sides and cut the holes for the slats through the rubber with a saw. The ones that I saw had a large build up of slurry on them. On one of them the rubber had stretched and it wasn't properly over the hole of the slat after just 2 years. None of the guys that owned the sheds that I looked at would recommend Mayo Mats for slats. I don't know if they have a different product now???

I ended up putting on the easi fix mats and 10 years later, they are still there and they are in great condition.

reilig

BeeDI wrote: »

I was considering putting mats on my slats. Got a qote last week of €1200 per pen for 14.5 fott slat PLUS VAT.
Mad me think again about the returns!

Any of you fellas, have them? Are they worth the expense? Is animal cleanliness any better? Does lameness problems improve? What do ye think?

10 years ago i did them for €700 per pen. They are well worth it IMO, especially for cow comfort. Cattle seem a lot happier on them, lameness problems have decreased and I would guess that it is a lot warmer for cattle to lie on rubber than on concrete. €1200 is very expensive though. But they definitely are a long term investment.

Bitten & Hisses

An external tap and power socket on each gable is a must. I also put power sockets in strategic places for when I'm power washing. I got my pen divisions made with 5 bars x 2.5" (Outside diameter) blue band galv pipe and I wouldn't go any lighter. When you see what happens when there's a cow bulling in a pen, you'll be glad to have them.

mayo_lad

also you mite want to put a calf gate in the front of the crush to help you to feed calves with unruly mothers (and save you having to take out the bottom bar every time you want to do this )

Dunedin

I would recommend mass concrete walls too. might be a little bit more expensive although prob not a lot, but a much better job.

prob not as essential for cows but definitely for stronger bullocks.

blue5000

Has anyone used a wire rope as a head rail, instead of a tubular bar?

pakalasa

Just a few to add to the list;

• Use galvanised steel for the shed. Should pay back in longer life.
• Build up the first 6" or so around the base of the uprights with cement. This will keep the slurry away and stop it rusting.
• Build well in from the farm perimeters and field hedges. You can add a creep area etc at a later stage if you want.
• If an open sided shed - face it east, all bad weather, the vast mayority anyway, comes from the west.
• Build to Dept spec, a lot of thought went into compiling this from people who should know what they are doing (..can hear the smart comments already). I've heard people on this forum advocating using less steel in the tank....DONT. It's the steel that gives concrete strength in tension.
• Spent time visiting other sheds, as said already.

vanderbadger

does anyone have a straw layback off their slats, think i remeber seeing it in the sheds section of the journal, i think there was a slatted area near feed barrier and then another section under same roof that was straw bedded, think the farmer had sleepers accross the entrance to straw that cows had to walk over to stop them dragging straw out on slats, handy I suppose if you had a few calf pens off the straw area also, still you talking about a fairly big shed when you go into that kinda setup

BeeDI

vanderbadger wrote: »

does anyone have a straw layback off their slats, think i remeber seeing it in the sheds section of the journal, i think there was a slatted area near feed barrier and then another section under same roof that was straw bedded, think the farmer had sleepers accross the entrance to straw that cows had to walk over to stop them dragging straw out on slats, handy I suppose if you had a few calf pens off the straw area also, still you talking about a fairly big shed when you go into that kinda setup

I have built shed with creep area. Put door on one gable end of slatted area. Plan is leave the door open, so that cows can go in and out of the slats as they feel like. Walk 150 meters to a 2 acre sacrifice paddock. Will not have any feeder or give them any feed in the paddock. Just a lie down area and exercise area and water drinking area from the stream (especially if and when pipes in slats are frozen)

I'm going to try that this winter, to see how I get on and how cows react:pac:

What do ye think??

Dunedin

BeeDI wrote: »

Walk 150 meters to a 2 acre sacrifice paddock. Will not have any feeder or give them any feed in the paddock. Just a lie down area and exercise area and water drinking area from the stream (especially if and when pipes in slats are frozen)

exercise makes a huge difference to cows when calving. I generally do a similar exercise (pardon the pun) about 8 weeks every year before calving.

vanderbadger

BeeDI wrote: »

I have built shed with creep area. Put door on one gable end of slatted area. Plan is leave the door open, so that cows can go in and out of the slats as they feel like. Walk 150 meters to a 2 acre sacrifice paddock. Will not have any feeder or give them any feed in the paddock. Just a lie down area and exercise area and water drinking area from the stream (especially if and when pipes in slats are frozen)

I'm going to try that this winter, to see how I get on and how cows react:pac:

What do ye think??

will the 150m be across a concrete yard, sounds like a good idea except the 150m will be covered in ****e from cows going in and out, oftened wondereing about doing something similar , letting the cows into a handy enclosure filled with sand, anyone ever do that or would the sand turn into ****e from bad weather and muck?

BeeDI

vanderbadger wrote: »

will the 150m be across a concrete yard, sounds like a good idea except the 150m will be covered in ****e from cows going in and out, oftened wondereing about doing something similar , letting the cows into a handy enclosure filled with sand, anyone ever do that or would the sand turn into ****e from bad weather and muck?

Its a four foot wide door. Gravel road way right up to it. 2 Lines of electric fence each side barely 4 feet appart all the way to gateway of paddock. 150 meters away. I hoping they dont hang around on the way to or from the paddock. Just go out for a lie down or a mooch around the place. Come back in for a feed, and maybe lie down in bad weather.

To be honest, I dont have a clue how well it will work, but thinking the exercise will be good for them. Paddock in question is very very sheltered.

pakalasa

If it's a normal paddock, it will turn to sh**. If it is some way rocky or sandy, that would help a lot.
If you stop spreading fertiliser or slurry on the paddock and stop grazing it completely over the summer, it will become firmer under-foot. I've seen this a lot with old unused pastures. Cattle would hardly mark it in the winter.

reilig

BeeDI wrote: »

Its a four foot wide door. Gravel road way right up to it. 2 Lines of electric fence each side barely 4 feet appart all the way to gateway of paddock. 150 meters away. I hoping they dont hang around on the way to or from the paddock. Just go out for a lie down or a mooch around the place. Come back in for a feed, and maybe lie down in bad weather.

To be honest, I dont have a clue how well it will work, but thinking the exercise will be good for them. Paddock in question is very very sheltered.

Your gravel road will have a lot of muck on it when you're finished the winter.
it will be interesting to see if, when given the choice, will cattle go outside or stay inside.

BeeDI

The Teagasc trials tell us that cattle on slats, and access to woodchip pad, spend a lot of time on the wood chip.
So I'm thinking mine will go walkabout a good part of the time.
Muck on the road is a definite downside, but hoping that keeping it very narrow will disscourage loitering between shed and field:)

Bitten & Hisses

reilig wrote: »

it will be interesting to see if, when given the choice, will cattle go outside or stay inside.

I reckon they'll always go outside unless it's blowing a gale or lashing rain. When we had the cows in a cubicle house and open concrete yards in the past, they always spent a lot of their time outdoors, rather than on the cubicles. On the milder dry winter nights, some used even lie down in the yard for the night!

BeeDI

Bitten & Hisses wrote: »

I reckon they'll always go outside unless it's blowing a gale or lashing rain. When we had the cows in a cubicle house and open concrete yards in the past, they always spent a lot of their time outdoors, rather than on the cubicles. On the milder dry winter nights, some used even lie down in the yard for the night!

Yeah. When God gave them a leather hide, he didn't have rubber lined slats in mind for them:cool:

cjpm

Need advice on concrete cattle slats.

Span of 11'6", i'm thinking of putting in tractor slats even though i don't really need them, just in case i suppose...

Who makes the best ones, i've heard of plenty of horror stories about slats cracking after 10 years.

Some people weld the high strength rebar, i've heard stories that this is not the best as it reduces the strength of the bars??

Is 35mm cover to the concrete sufficient?

Any one have the durapac slatted mats? Are they any good? Worth the expense?

Any opinions appreciated.

pakalasa

Bitten & Hisses wrote: »

I reckon they'll always go outside unless it's blowing a gale or lashing rain. When we had the cows in a cubicle house and open concrete yards in the past, they always spent a lot of their time outdoors, rather than on the cubicles. On the milder dry winter nights, some used even lie down in the yard for the night!

Ya, they rather be out, even in the freezing cold, as long as it's not driving rain. Cattle like their space too, that's why they thrive better at lower stocking rates on slats.

Often wondered if there's some crop like elephant grass or something that cattle could winter on without creating mud. Think of the cost it would save. Remember in Brazil, cattle are out 365 days, no problem.

5live

Go deep. 8 ft deep only a few bob dearer than 7ft and 12% more storage. Extend roof 3ft over feed will keep silage/hay in good condition longer again for fairly small money. Agitation points outside the tank for safety. Plenty of lights but can be put in later. Enjoy:D

F.D

Thanks for all the advice everyone much appreciated we have actually started digging out the tank so full steam ahead for the next few weeks luckily the ground is very good so we will be able to use it to back fill so some money saved there!! still need to finalise the area at the back with the Cattle crush, i think i would like an area inbeteen the crush and the cattle for access and also to feed meal along. but some say its not necessary, but one interesting thing i seen was gates all along the crush so an animal out of any pen in the middle needed to be treated you didnt need to do a lot of moving of stock to get them to the back of the crush