housing a dairy herd

TheSunderz

hi all
Just wondering wud u be able to house a dairy herd completely on straw. wud it be a cheaper option than a new cubicle house?? a straw chopper wud prob be used? wud they be problems with mastitis?:)

royalmeath

If your serious about milking cows then cubicles are they only answer. Its not just the cost of the straw but the diesel your
burning and the depreciation and maintainance on a straw chopper.At current prices cubicles can installed in an existing shed
quite cheaply and if your anyway handy you could pour the bit of concrete yourself.

yellow50HX

royalmeath wrote: »

If your serious about milking cows then cubicles are they only answer. Its not just the cost of the straw but the diesel your
burning and the depreciation and maintainance on a straw chopper.At current prices cubicles can installed in an existing shed
quite cheaply and if your anyway handy you could pour the bit of concrete yourself.

yeah have to agree, espically strating from a green field site. I know of lads that straw bed their cows but thats cos they have their own straw and put the dung back out on stubble. If your buying in straw then its fine for a few years or for extra housing, but in teh long run the cubilces are the way to go. The issue of cows staying on udders is also a concern.

blue5000

Anyone know what cubicle and slurry storage is costing /cow?

OP it's only an option if you have your own straw. I think next year power stations are going to be burning straw, that will put a floor in the straw market.

dzer2

blue5000 wrote: »

Anyone know what cubicle and slurry storage is costing /cow?

OP it's only an option if you have your own straw. I think next year power stations are going to be burning straw, that will put a floor in the straw market.

They are supposed to be burning myscanthus but there is a lot of it around and they arent buying that so cant see them buying straw.

babybrian

@blue 5000, putting in cubicles at the moment in an existing slatted shed, built new tank outside 60x12'6 and yard work that goes with it, new roof 60x30, 60 cubicle spaces and it will be costing €300/cubicle space. I would imagine complete new build would be somewhere close to 800/900 per cubicle.

Timmaay

From an nitrogen and P/K point of view, how does straw bedded dung stack up against cubicle slurry? Or is that too negligible a difference to influence the debate of straw bed v cubicles?

In my case,the milking cows are all on cubicles at the minute, however all the heifers and drycows are strawbedded, but I need to put in more storage for the waste off that, so thinking of just putting in all cubicles and large tank. The capital cost is the obvious hurdle there, but a big advantage of slurry for me is that I'm on one large block of land that is fairly dry, so putting out lots of watery high N slurry with an umbilical makes good sense.