Opinions on new farm facilities

Paddysniper

Hello,
I'm looking for your opinions on farming
Last year we were lucky enough to be able to buy a 50 acre farm.
Slatted unit versus straw bed?
If slatted unit seems to be the most ideal is it better to have cubicles? No dairy stock just suckler cows in time.

Also it needs a new crush.
Have the option of putting one inside an old lean to on a barn or setting up a new one where there was one before, outside in a small yard with the pen on the road that goes through the farm.

Can't beat advice and knowledge from people that have gone through it so
Thanks in advance.

mf240

Slatted tank with rubber mats and a straw lieback for calves and calving pens would be my choice.

Put a tank and roof in front of an existing shed perhaps and use it as the lieback.

Put the crush in this shed somewhere , or along one side.

Paddysniper

mf240 wrote: »

Slatted tank with rubber mats and a straw lieback for calves and calving pens would be my choice.

Put a tank and roof in front of an existing shed perhaps and use it as the lieback.

Put the crush in this shed somewhere , or along one side.

A ly back being separated with a wall to the main area yeah?
Do cows in a slatted shed need cubicles or do you mean that they could go to the ly back from the feeding barrier?

Good loser

I would favour the crush on the roadway as mentioned. Maybe a locking gate in one pen?

Paddysniper

basically what is there on the roadway is a long wall with piers which the old crush is by and directly across the road is another wall. the rest is squared off with gates which are hanging.

the crush in the lean to option would be beside the road also.

freedominacup

Roadways, fencing, soil fertility, water, re-seeding and the right stock will help you pay for these other facilities not the other way around.

yellow50HX

freedominacup wrote: »

Roadways, fencing, soil fertility, water, re-seeding and the right stock will help you pay for these other facilities not the other way around.

would have to agree with that.

however housing an important thing to look at too and i very much dependant on your animal type plans. If your going to have animals then yes a crush and handleing facilites are going to be needed. Depending on the land type and the numbers you are planning to stock you may not need a lot of housing. If your looking at suckler cows then depending ont eh number you could out winter them. This would probaly mean that you would have stubble and fodder crop like beet or kale for them to winter on while the grassland is recovering. You could then use the existing shed as a calving shed to be ableto house animals if required.

straw bedding is fine and is ideal for the short term (ideal bedding for calves but needs much more for bigger animals) if you access to cheap straw as the cost of bedding on expensive straw bought in could be the same and the repayments on a slatted tank.

If you plan on havign the whole farm on grassland and having cattle numbers up to max for your land then you'll need winter housing. A slatted tank is proabbly the best option in the long term as it can be used by several animal types so it can be used by store, sucklers, weanlings, finishers etc etc. An important thing is the lieback, many farms with cows will use cubicles as it keeps the cows clean and dry, and are easy to maintain. The use of rubber matting on the slats allow the cows to lie comforatably on the slats.

I would have a perference for cubicles for cows but thats cos i came from a dairy backround and the housing was already in place. You will need to look at your long term plans and your cattle number and type will ditacte what housing you require. You'll then need to fit that around your budget.

Try to use as much of what is there already, but try to make it as flexibable and user friednly as you can (you may decide to move from sucklers to stores in 5 years time).

Paddysniper

freedominacup wrote: »

Roadways, fencing, soil fertility, water, re-seeding and the right stock will help you pay for these other facilities not the other way around.

Yeah we're working on the important bits, we have a good start made. I'm well aware that a shed wont make money but it would make the job easier. That's a long way down the line anyway.
Plan is to out winter as much as possible and in bad weather give them the use of a covered shed.

Paddysniper

yellow50HX wrote: »

would have to agree with that.

however housing an important thing to look at too and i very much dependant on your animal type plans. If your going to have animals then yes a crush and handleing facilites are going to be needed. Depending on the land type and the numbers you are planning to stock you may not need a lot of housing. If your looking at suckler cows then depending ont eh number you could out winter them. This would probaly mean that you would have stubble and fodder crop like beet or kale for them to winter on while the grassland is recovering. You could then use the existing shed as a calving shed to be ableto house animals if required.

straw bedding is fine and is ideal for the short term (ideal bedding for calves but needs much more for bigger animals) if you access to cheap straw as the cost of bedding on expensive straw bought in could be the same and the repayments on a slatted tank.

If you plan on havign the whole farm on grassland and having cattle numbers up to max for your land then you'll need winter housing. A slatted tank is proabbly the best option in the long term as it can be used by several animal types so it can be used by store, sucklers, weanlings, finishers etc etc. An important thing is the lieback, many farms with cows will use cubicles as it keeps the cows clean and dry, and are easy to maintain. The use of rubber matting on the slats allow the cows to lie comforatably on the slats.

I would have a perference for cubicles for cows but thats cos i came from a dairy backround and the housing was already in place. You will need to look at your long term plans and your cattle number and type will ditacte what housing you require. You'll then need to fit that around your budget.

Try to use as much of what is there already, but try to make it as flexibable and user friednly as you can (you may decide to move from sucklers to stores in 5 years time).

That's great info there, I appreciate the effort.
It will be all grassland whatever other roads we take with it.
I don't like the idea of cattle lying on slats all the time so I think slats + cubicles could be the way to go.
Must get the crush sorted and look towards a small slatted shed when the importants things are covered.

munkus

Paddysniper wrote: »

That's great info there, I appreciate the effort.
It will be all grassland whatever other roads we take with it.
I don't like the idea of cattle lying on slats all the time so I think slats + cubicles could be the way to go.
Must get the crush sorted and look towards a small slatted shed when the importants things are covered.

Our cow shed was built for dairy cows 20 years ago but now houses sucklers. We'll be taking down the cubicle irons this year as they offer no real advantage and often I see cows getting belted up against them by the bullies. These bigger cows need more room that the dairy ones.

Paddysniper

munkus wrote: »

Our cow shed was built for dairy cows 20 years ago but now houses sucklers. We'll be taking down the cubicle irons this year as they offer no real advantage and often I see cows getting belted up against them by the bullies. These bigger cows need more room that the dairy ones.

If your were to do it again would you put in all slats or slats plus the step up with mats and no irons?

yellow50HX

munkus wrote: »

Our cow shed was built for dairy cows 20 years ago but now houses sucklers. We'll be taking down the cubicle irons this year as they offer no real advantage and often I see cows getting belted up against them by the bullies. These bigger cows need more room that the dairy ones.

yeah the CH, SIM, BB suckler cows tend to be must bigger then the dairy cows so need more room and wont fit into cubicles built in the 80's. most lads i know with big cows will use straw bedding for them. We have mostly AAX and LMX cows so they are around the same size as our old dairy cows so will fit fine.

That said 1 friend of mine cut out all his old fixed cubicle's and replaced them with adjustable ones. They can slide on railing to make them wider or narrower. He put them in about 5 years ago and reckons he can adjust them depending on the size of the animals he wants to house. They had houseign for about 80 dairy cows on cubicles but he now has that split between sucklers, replacments and stores. They are all housed on cubicles but the width of the cubcile is different for each group. He also did it so that if he decided to go back into dairy the cubicle house's could be used again with minimial adjustment.

munkus

Paddysniper wrote: »

If your were to do it again would you put in all slats or slats plus the step up with mats and no irons?

if I was building a shed for sucklers it would be slats with the mats, no cubicles, wide as possible. Good article in the FJ about 3 weeks ago where that O'Malley lad from Louth built a 40 cow shed for 60k. He left 5 foot space between the end of the slat and the feeding barrier to give more room and reduce drain on the hoof it seems.

Paddysniper

munkus wrote: »

if I was building a shed for sucklers it would be slats with the mats, no cubicles, wide as possible. Good article in the FJ about 3 weeks ago where that O'Malley lad from Louth built a 40 cow shed for 60k. He left 5 foot space between the end of the slat and the feeding barrier to give more room and reduce drain on the hoof it seems.

Must check that out thanks.
I'd imagine the dung would build up quickly on that 5' space and that the cattle would prefer to ly on the flat surface?

munkus

Paddysniper wrote: »

Must check that out thanks.
I'd imagine the dung would build up quickly on that 5' space and that the cattle would prefer to ly on the flat surface?

You'd think that but I suppose in most cases their heads are going to be out eating and the other end will be over the slats. You wouldn't get the capacity in without that either.

He also said that he built the shed bang in the middle of an out farm. He designed it in a way to allow cows and calves access out in any direction, as the block is divided in 4.

mf240

Paddysniper wrote: »

Must check that out thanks.
I'd imagine the dung would build up quickly on that 5' space and that the cattle would prefer to ly on the flat surface?

Dung never builds up inside the neck rail. It will on a solid bit at the back allright.

Paddysniper

That's some food for thought as they say.
Thanks for your opinions.

thenashlegend

One of the bigger farmers here in Mayo put up a new slatted house a couple of years back and has ended up bedding the cattle in the passage ways. According to him they did much better over the winter and the straw bedding was far more beneficial to the land than the slurry come spring time.

grazeaway

thenashlegend wrote: »

One of the bigger farmers here in Mayo put up a new slatted house a couple of years back and has ended up bedding the cattle in the passage ways. According to him they did much better over the winter and the straw bedding was far more beneficial to the land than the slurry come spring time.

How does he feed them?

I have a preference for straw bedding too but find there is much less hassel with slats. Also unless you have access to plenty of cheap bales (ideally your own) the costs of buying in the straw every year could be the same as buying slats over the long term.

Moved away from bedding the yearlings over the last 2 years to save the straw for feeding.

thenashlegend

grazeaway wrote: »

How does he feed them?

Over the slats probably Haven't seen the operation, was just talking to him about it one day.

grazeaway

thenashlegend wrote: »

Over the slats probably Haven't seen the operation, was just talking to him about it one day.

He must cover the slats, they must be tractor slats to be able to take the weight.

mf240

the neckrails were probably put on the back of shed and the are still standing on the slats to eat but facing away from the passage thats now bedded.

thenashlegend

Well its a double slatted house, so there's the left hand passage, then slats, centre passage, more slats and a right hand passage. Surely the slats would be well up to holding a few blocks or half a bale?

To be honest I'm not sure what the arrangement was but I'll be finding out soon enough!

yellow50HX

thenashlegend wrote: »

Well its a double slatted house, so there's the left hand passage, then slats, centre passage, more slats and a right hand passage. Surely the slats would be well up to holding a few blocks or half a bale?

To be honest I'm not sure what the arrangement was but I'll be finding out soon enough!

From that layout it sounds like he probably beds the outside areas and has the slats as the feeding area that way there is no dunging of the bedded area.