Dairy / Beef Farm Building Plans - Cork

19driver83

Im the process of making plans to build a cubicle shed to house 60-70 cows and slatted area for replacement heifers / beef cattle.

I have been looking at the teagasc site and would like to build something similar to the attached plan for the dairy cows (8 eyes) and then add two eyes containing slats at the bottom.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

I am located in the Cork area and would appreciate some advise on how to approach the build. Whether to approach a contractor and get them to do everything or try to cut costs and break it down, if so can people recommend suppliers, trademen, etc.

Is the first step to get myself drawings completed and then a bill of materials?

stop thelights

What part of cork are you located in? The plan seems good just where ever you place the shed make sure you can extend or even construct a mirror image of it some time down the line.

Give wide scarper passages 10ft 12ft if there eating on the same lane. Plenty of head space and wide feeding passages.

the father built a shed like this in 94 and i've plans to mirror now lucky it was placed so this can be done without much hassle and will sit nicely with the rest of the farm yard when completed.:D

19driver83

stop thelights wrote: »

What part of cork are you located in? The plan seems good just where ever you place the shed make sure you can extend or even construct a mirror image of it some time down the line.

Give wide scarper passages 10ft 12ft if there eating on the same lane. Plenty of head space and wide feeding passages.

the father built a shed like this in 94 and i've plans to mirror now lucky it was placed so this can be done without much hassle and will sit nicely with the rest of the farm yard when completed.:D

In Mid-Cork. I had planned to locate the shed so that I could mirror it in the future, thanks for the good advice.

If your father build the shed in 94, im curious of the spec. I see sheds now with steel roofs and it seems a complete over kill to me. We have plenty of sheds with timber roofs. Would this be a considerable saving?

1chippy

If your talking timber purlins in comparison to metal purlins, they work out at e4 dearer per purlin in steel, working on a 16' bay. not much in the overall scheme of things. regret not using them myself.

Farmer Pudsey

I would galvanise all steel rsj remember that you do not want steel structure rusting in 15 years time. Get compeditive prices cash is king( ie telling people they will be paid going out the gate by cheque) 25 newton concrete is good enough for a lot of that work if handled right ( no flooding with water watch contractor and tell him extra water no pay).

19driver83

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

I would galvanise all steel rsj remember that you do not want steel structure rusting in 15 years time. Get compeditive prices cash is king( ie telling people they will be paid going out the gate by cheque) 25 newton concrete is good enough for a lot of that work if handled right ( no flooding with water watch contractor and tell him extra water no pay).

Thanks Pudsey, sound advice.

Tipp Man

I like your plan, a nice straightforward shed

As an idea what about scraping the tank and slats and use a tower?

19driver83

Tipp Man wrote: »

I like your plan, a nice straightforward shed

As an idea what about scraping the tank and slats and use a tower?

Is there a considerable saving using a tower?

Tipp Man

19driver83 wrote: »

Tipp Man wrote: »

I like your plan, a nice straightforward shed

As an idea what about scraping the tank and slats and use a tower?

Is there a considerable saving using a tower?

I don't know to be honest, probably a fair more costly initially although your double tank with slats will costs a few quid as well

What I do know is that we have 6 tanks dotted around the yard and we are still short of storage, our yard is a mess as we did it piece by piece over the last 30 years. and we never really planned it

If we were starting again we'd put up a tower at 1 end of the yard and then simply add sheds in a line as needed extending the scraper as necessary

Not saying that's best for you but maybe somethIng to consider?

5live

19driver83 wrote: »

Is there a considerable saving using a tower?

Going from when i put up a tower 10 years ago, cost/gallon storage was halved in using a tower.

If you are going with slats, i would go for a deeper tank. Instead of an 8ft tank, go for a 10ft tank if ground conditions allow. For a 10% increase in costs of concrete and reinforcing bars, you will get a 25% increase in storage volumes

freedominacup

I think the feeding area is to small for the number of cubicles. Much more than a 2:1 ratio between cubicle length and feed barrier length restricts intakes which is detrimental in dairy herds where heifers can easily intimidated.

Ensure that you can drive at least a tractor and loader down each passage in the shed. Cows go down and from bitter experience it usually happens on Sun mornings Not being able to get machinery to them is some dose. I wouldn't restrict the width of passages either cubicle or feeding. Wider ones make for easier cow flow and more contented cows.

To go from an 2.5m passage to a 3.7m one in your 6 span shed would use around another 5m of concrete and should cost a negligible amunt extra to lay. 3.7m might be excessive but 3.1m should be what you aim at. Some sort of loitering area would be a consideration also. A level wider space not cubicles or feeding area where cows can socialise will help with identifying bulling and also help with cow comfort.

I'd also give serious consideration to installing cubicles for my yearling heifers.

19driver83

Anyone have any recommendations for builders, someone to produce drawings, suppliers?

Cork Region

cjpm

5live wrote: »

If you are going with slats, i would go for a deeper tank. Instead of an 8ft tank, go for a 10ft tank if ground conditions allow. For a 10% increase in costs of concrete and reinforcing bars, you will get a 25% increase in storage volumes

Is it possible to mix a tank that is 10 foot deep?? Most slurry pumps are 8ft I thought?

You wouldn't want to be sucking it out with a rusty vacuum tanker either, she'd calve!!

88ucd

Check out www.ryanbrothers.ie they specialise in farm buildings in the Munster area and have a very good reputation.

5live

cjpm wrote: »

Is it possible to mix a tank that is 10 foot deep?? Most slurry pumps are 8ft I thought?

You wouldn't want to be sucking it out with a rusty vacuum tanker either, she'd calve!!

All you are doing is sucking up the liquid at the bottom and using it to break up the crust at the top. The agitator only needs to reach as far as the liquid and away you go. It may be a problem if you cannot empty the tank after agitation but a relatively small one

19driver83

88ucd wrote: »

Check out www.ryanbrothers.ie they specialise in farm buildings in the Munster area and have a very good reputation.

Did u use these yourself?

sucklerlover

I like that design.Im thinking of somethink similar for next year.I getting too old for pushing straw bales.My neighbour was goin building a shed this year with sixty cubicles.50K was best price for tank and shed he told me but when he went to bank for 30k they started talking about planning and security so the job is put on hold.Hes a dairy farmer so what hope have i of getting a loan.Is this the banks way of fobbing people off?

farmerjack

sucklerlover wrote: »

I like that design.Im thinking of somethink similar for next year.I getting too old for pushing straw bales.My neighbour was goin building a shed this year with sixty cubicles.50K was best price for tank and shed he told me but when he went to bank for 30k they started talking about planning and security so the job is put on hold.Hes a dairy farmer so what hope have i of getting a loan.Is this the banks way of fobbing people off?

Banks won't touch a loan for a shed or any development work without planning permission. Have just gone through the process of planning permission and the county council have hammered me with a huge development levy, which has made the whole project completely unviable.

freedominacup

farmerjack wrote: »

the county council have hammered me with a huge development levy, which has made the whole project completely unviable.

How much/m2 or was it just an arbitrary figure basically plucked from the sky?

Harvest 2020 is going to be smothered in it's cradle if government bodies are going to start milking the situation like this. Any other industry that's being "encouraged" is always given a by on these sorts of charges. Fair enough if we are to do it without grant aid but levying charges for nessecary developments is another thing altogether.