What size for single side feed passage

st1979

Am looking to build a straw bedded shed in an existing unused silage pit thats walled. Internal width is 37'x75' so was going to put a feed passage down 1 side. Would 15' be good enough or excessive as the feed passage that would leave 22' of straw bedded area. Shed will be calving/dry cow shed as the rest is auto scraper cubicle sheds

jeff greene

Depends on how you're feeding them, a straight run with a feeder 12'/13' would be enough. Loader and grab or bales, I think 13'-15' would be fine

sprouty

Would a feed barrier near each end work instead?
Might give you same feed ared without loosing lying space?

Muckit

sprouty wrote: »

Would a feed barrier near each end work instead?
Might give you same feed ared without loosing lying space?

Now there's brains for ya;)

sprouty

Muckit wrote: »

Now there's brains for ya;)

Easy there Muckit...head swelling here....didn't invent the wheel!:D

Muckit

No, true! But twas a good solution to the problem!

st1979

Yea your all very clever here;). But in fairness you could be right leave the passage on the outside of the shed. I remeasured the pit internally its 38'4 at the bottom of the wall. It has 3 mass concrete wall sides 1 of the 75' sides is against a shed. Its front faces on to the existing scraper passage way for the feed barrier for the cubicle shed. Handiest thing would be to use the barrier to feed the straw bedded shed but am short already for feed space. Could pull out the back wall of pit as i really need to do that any way to clean out shed as it would have best access. and put barrier gates on it to feed but that would only give me 38' of feed space. Other option is take out 1 of the 75' walls. just not keen on taking down whats already there also what machine would i need to do it. I guess a 13 or 20 ton with a hammer as its too thick for consaw as its probably 16" thick at the base. Good getting other peoples advice for these type thing as sometimes you can get stuck into 1 idea. I think discussion groups should have more of this and a little less about am i grazing 4.0cm or is it 4.25cm.

49801

whats the recommendation on cow per square ft of straw bedding again
(45-50^2ft?).
so max number of cows would be 60 on the old silage slab. realistically you will have quite a bit less if you putting in pre and post calving areas as well as creep space.
37ft feed space might work?

st1979

Sorry forgot to say they are dairy cows so will be no creep area. But have no machinery shed so might for a while use part for machinery and part for the dry cows that would leave enough feed space

49801

so what do you want in there?
number of cows
machinery space
calving area
number of feed spaces

i know there is a machine you can hire to cut the walls rather than a track machine with a hammer. it bolts to the wall and will do a vertical cut. looks like a massive consaw. worth looking into if you want to create a doorway at the back for example. Think Bob charles has experience with them. i dont like the sound of a jackhammer creating lots of vibration around mass concrete walls and foundations.

Manoffeeling

Is 15 feet of a passage ok? The shed is 90 foot long, with pens on the left for handy stock or straw while a tank on the right.

yellow50HX

Build a L shaped pen. How many cows are you talking?