calving house

Tomjim

I am a PT farmer and when cows are due to calve I will normally take the cow out of the slats for about 2 weeks beforehand and leave the cow in a dryhouse.

However there is then a lot of work involved as I clean out the cow each day. Is there any way around this such as placing the cow maybe in an isolated slatted house with rubber mats and calving the cow in this unit.

Anyone experience of this or any other suggestions

Tora Bora

Why two weeks. I take em out when bones are down for calving.

Bizzum

Halve your work and take them out a week before calving!

Dunedin

Tora Bora wrote: »

Why two weeks. I take em out when bones are down for calving.

+1 and 3 days after calving, they are in the field....... :D

49801

have a simular difficulty here.
we try and take them out of slatted unit at the last minute.... but does happen you could have a cow taken out for 2/3 week too early:eek:

if had a clean sheet in the morning i'd have a deep straw bed house for cows starting to bag up with lots of space so it doesn't get dirtied too quickly and its not the end of the world if cows calf there by mistake.

john62

Would anyone be able to tell me the average size needed for a calving pen. Minimum size needed etc.??

Thanks.

David brown

i think average calving gate is 12'.so 12'x12' with slots available to make a quick exit;)

49801

David brown wrote: »

i think average calving gate is 12'.so 12'x12' with slots available to make a quick exit;)

that sounds right... have a larger calving pen here more like 15ft by 20ft and it is far too big and harder to clean out.

1chippy

twelve foot is too tight in lenght if you need to put the jack on the cow. 16 i have found is the best option, (just enough).
quick q for any of the guys that have calving gates. i mounted ours to the wall at home and had two cows drop awkwardly and sort of wedge them selves against the wall. has anyone had any probs like this. i was thinking of extending it out a bit from the wall. any thoughts.

Bizzum

1chippy wrote: »

twelve foot is too tight in lenght if you need to put the jack on the cow. 16 i have found is the best option, (just enough).
quick q for any of the guys that have calving gates. i mounted ours to the wall at home and had two cows drop awkwardly and sort of wedge them selves against the wall. has anyone had any probs like this. i was thinking of extending it out a bit from the wall. any thoughts.

I agree 12' can tight with a calving jack. We have 15' and it's fine.

Our calving gate is mounted off a wall too, but only a stub of a wall 5' long. I have never seen noticed a problem with cows when they go down.
The short wall does allow the jack to be used in a much greater range without the wall getting in the way.

What make is the calving gate? Maybe this affects the way the drops?

leex

We installed a calving gate a week ago and used for first time today. A great job - would highly recommend to anyone thinking of getting one.

k mac

Have a 3 bay slatted shed but no other sheds. Not overly stocked so would it be possible to bed one bay with straw and let cow's in before they calve. Or is it completely unsuitable?

Kovu

k mac wrote: »

Have a 3 bay slatted shed but no other sheds. Not overly stocked so would it be possible to bed one bay with straw and let cow's in before they calve. Or is it completely unsuitable?

Not completely unsuitable but not ideal. No lying area at the back?

What we did before we built on two calving pens was to divide the slatted pen up in half with a 14ft gate and bed the half. It didn't give the cow as much place to plough the straw up while walking and if there was an issue we could close the gate and catch her.

kollegeknight

I have a big calving area, about 20'x14' with calving gate at one end. Have rubber mats down and keep straw to minimum until calving. Scrape dung into a Channel. Found smaller areas a bit tight for jack etc.

On slats I have an area with cubicle mats that if I had a doubt about a cow, if leave her in there to reduce work on calving unit and also keep unit free in case another cow needed it.

k mac

No lying area at the back kovu. It's my intention to build a dry shed at the back of the slatted shed. Some sort of a lean too the full length of the 3 bay shed. Any idea of what that might cost. I know how long is a piece of string! !! Just ballpark figure.

Kovu

k mac wrote: »

No lying area at the back kovu. It's my intention to build a dry shed at the back of the slatted shed. Some sort of a lean too the full length of the 3 bay shed. Any idea of what that might cost. I know how long is a piece of string! !! Just ballpark figure.

We build two calving pens with a crush running between them onto a three bay a few years back. So now a fully enclosed shed, can check what that cost if you like, not got the figures to hand at the minute.

k mac

Kovu wrote: »

We build two calving pens with a crush running between them onto a three bay a few years back. So now a fully enclosed shed, can check what that cost if you like, not got the figures to hand at the minute.

Thanks if you could please that would be great. My crush is running along the back wall of the shed on the outside so my idea is to build the new calving shed on to that side of the shed and then the crush would be enclosed. Handy with our weather !!

Kovu

k mac wrote: »

Thanks if you could please that would be great. My crush is running along the back wall of the shed on the outside so my idea is to build the new calving shed on to that side of the shed and then the crush would be enclosed. Handy with our weather !!

It was about €12k, done without a grant, then got about €2k back in tax. The only reason we didn't go for a grant is that we'd have had to put in uprights in the middle of the shed where we line up the bales for feeding. Instead we bridged the overhang and avoided the pillars.

k mac

Kovu wrote: »

It was about €12k, done without a grant, then got about €2k back in tax. The only reason we didn't go for a grant is that we'd have had to put in uprights in the middle of the shed where we line up the bales for feeding. Instead we bridged the overhang and avoided the pillars.

Was that the TAMS grant you are talking about?

Kovu

k mac wrote: »

Was that the TAMS grant you are talking about?

I don't know which one it would have been, once we heard there had to be pillars put up to brace the overhang (specifically to fulfill the grant spec, not needed at all) we just looked to do it ourselves. This was six years ago now as well.