How to best use this shedspace?

Timmaay

I'm abit shy on space for the drycows at the minute, however I can easily enough cover the space below between the silage pit and feeding passage. Its about 16ft wide, the shed is 5bays long. The vertical sheeting on the existing shed can be removed and used to cover this extension, and a feed barrier put in its place. If I do this, I probably will aim to bed this space using woodchip/straw only, but a pipe across to the existing slats for the runoff. This is as I know there is alot of concrete under that space from the old yard, trying to dig out for a new tank here would be alot of work. I also want to keep costs low. If I try to bed a space like that with a feed barrier, will I end up with the bedding rising the cows up too much in relation to the feed barrier? How often would I need to change the bedding? Also, roughly how many cows would that space sustain? (16*70ft). I got a price of 4k for a proper steel A framed roof, I will instead most lightly just use timber rafters with a basic leanto, will only set me back 1000 or so all in for the roof, most of which I can putup myself. The floor would need about 11cu metres of concrete, so about 800euros, again I can do the most of this myself. Anyways, does all this sound like a runner, or what other suggestions would anyone have for me?

bob charles

are you using a diet feeder tim?

Timmaay

bob charles wrote: »

are you using a diet feeder tim?

Nope, and no plans on.

bob charles

that rules that out then

Figerty

roof it and put your machinery into it...
storage for bag manure.

or

put in a pen for sick animals or for calving if you need it.

or

You could just fill it with junk..:D

rancher

Timmaay wrote: »

Nope, and no plans on.

Is there room for a row of cubicles

Timmaay

Figerty wrote: »

roof it and put your machinery into it...
storage for bag manure.

or

put in a pen for sick animals or for calving if you need it.

or

You could just fill it with junk..:D

Ha, defo wont be for machinery or junk, every single bit of shed will be used for cows here postquotas! Using it for drycows would be idea as I'm currently mixing them with the milkers (disaster), I'd prb bed it as the drycows dont need cubicles, but I'm just fearful the bedding will result in the cows too high above the feed barrier, I guess that was my main question, am I asking for trouble doing this.

rancher wrote: »

Is there room for a row of cubicles

Cubicles would be ideal, but its only 16ft wide, so I couldnt have a row of cubicles and a feed barrier. I'm actually shy on feedspace the other side (for the milkers), cubicles there, but only feedspace for 45, makes it abit messy trying to feed concentrates ontop of the silage without a diet feeder. But I could add in an extra feed barrier perpendicular to the existing one for the cows, and cover it with another diy leanto roof.

rancher

Timmaay wrote: »

Cubicles would be ideal, but its only 16ft wide, so I couldnt have a row of cubicles and a feed barrier. I'm actually shy on feedspace the other side (for the milkers), cubicles there, but only feedspace for 45, makes it abit messy trying to feed concentrates ontop of the silage without a diet feeder. But I could add in an extra feed barrier perpendicular to the existing one for the cows, and cover it with another diy leanto roof.

could you not take down the wall and vertical sheeting and let the cows eat in the same feed passage as the other cows, ie replace the sheeting and wall with a feed barrier. then have a 8ft dung passage and 8ft left at the other side for the cubicle. as you may have guessed,,,haven't a clue what size a cubicle is

Timmaay

rancher wrote: »

could you not take down the wall and vertical sheeting and let the cows eat in the same feed passage as the other cows, ie replace the sheeting and wall with a feed barrier. then have a 8ft dung passage and 8ft left at the other side for the cubicle. as you may have guessed,,,haven't a clue what size a cubicle is

Would that not be too narrow? If it would work then that would be my best bet definitely. If its too narrow I could see cows backing out of the feed barrier straight onto the cubicles, you'd have a cow step onto a spin etc very quick then.

Edit: or wait, you mean have only the one feed barrier still? Problem with that is the current feed barrier abit tight as is, and I don't want to mix milkers and drycows anyway, which is the whole idea of covering this space.

Panch18

Timmaay wrote: »

Would that not be too narrow? If it would work then that would be my best bet definitely.

Would be ideal for weanlings I'd say, I've seen similar in quite a few yards

jersey101

Timmaay wrote: »

Would that not be too narrow? If it would work then that would be my best bet definitely. If its too narrow I could see cows backing out of the feed barrier straight onto the cubicles, you'd have a cow step onto a spin etc very quick then.

Ye 8ft is too narrow for a cow passage. 10ft at least. 12 would be best I'd say

Timmaay

Panch18 wrote: »

Would be ideal for weanlings I'd say, I've seen similar in quite a few yards

The plan longterm is to contract rear all of them!

Zr105

If you could keep the floor space a foot or more below the feed barrier you would be able to bed it for a bit before its becomes to high, feed passage higher than standing area is ideal but cows will manage if its level with standing area to,

so you could let it get bedded to a depth of say a foot at front and ram up a bit deeper to the back

Timmaay

Zr105 wrote: »

If you could keep the floor space a foot or more below the feed barrier you would be able to bed it for a bit before its becomes to high, feed passage higher than standing area is ideal but cows will manage if its level with standing area to,

so you could let it get bedded to a depth of say a foot at front and ram up a bit deeper to the back

Now we're getting places, I hadn't though of doing that at all!

Muckit

Up to yourself how you lay it out inside, but ld put the roof going at the same angle as the other lean to, with same height at eaves on new section. This will leave the high side a few foot above, giving an air outlet. Also shed will have same head height.

Don't take the easy option anyways and roof it straight down as it'l be good for neither stock nor machinery. The €3000 you think you'd be saving wouldn't be l8ng going over the lifetime of the shed on vet bills and possible animal losses.

Timmaay

Muckit wrote: »

Up to yourself how you lay it out inside, but ld put the roof going at the same angle as the other lean to, with same height at eaves on new section. This will leave the high side a few foot above, giving an air outlet. Also shed will have same head height.

Don't take the easy option anyways and roof it straight down as it'l be good for neither stock nor machinery. The €3000 you think you'd be saving wouldn't be l8ng going over the lifetime of the shed on vet bills and possible animal losses.

Yeh that's exactly what I was thinking also.

dar31

muckit has the right idea.
if its straw bedded, can you not clean it out every 2-3weeks

edit, has another look at the photos, dose the ground fall away from you, if thats the case it wont build up as much at the feed face, still clean out every month though, if bed gets to deep it will heat and lead to other problems

yellow50HX

A bit of a left field idea.

How about roofing it then putting a slurry sump at the end piping into the slatted tank on the other side. You could then slope the floor to it and put in cubicle mats. You can then clean them down with a yard scraper into the sump. If you want to put in cubicles you can put them in later.

If you can get straw for bedding at a reasonable cost and have some where to store it then that would be the best short term solution. Don't bother bedding by the feed passage it will only get soiled.

keep going

I know your not gone on digging a slatted tank but throwing in a slatted tank with rubber would hold alot of later calvers which could be transferred to cubicle house as the early ones go out and it would be a handy house for weanlings now and again.would also consider keeping a couple of pens for sick cows/calving bedded with woodchip but that would need a lip at the feeding passage side for a 1ft of bedding

Deepsouthwest

Timmaay wrote: »

The plan longterm is to contract rear all of them!

What width is the feed passage? Looks pretty wide. Would u consider narrowing that down a few feet and putting a row of cubicles along the silage pit wall and feeding passage in front of them. Ideally this would be a slatted passage to increase storage, which is always a good thing, or a scraped passage into a flow channel at one end and across into the existing slatted tank. You would probably get 18/19 extra cubicles, and double your feed passage face. A bit difficult to explain here, but just a thought!

blue5000

Straw bedding cows is going to take a lot of straw, it's not like bedding weanlings or fattening cattle on high meal diet. I've a straw bedded shed with finishing bulls, and 3 months is all we can get without cleaning it out.

Cows would need to be cleaned out every 6 weeks to avoid bug problems, mastitis etc. Have you got somewhere to store dung for the closed period?

Be careful on the pit side no matter how good somebody pushing in silage thinks they are gutters will eventually get hit unless they are below the wall, where they will clog up with silage. On the + side a roof would be a handy place to store tyres!

I think you will only have room for about 5 cows per bay with straw bedding. If you get caught with dung building up at the feed passage a temporary solution would be to put 4 inch blocks down on the flat under the silage so cows can reach it. 16 ft is too narrow for cubicles, but would be ok for slats, you'd need to knock the wall and use the existing feed passage.

Farmer Pudsey

Tim how much will straw cost you. You also have to factor in that with straw you need 8-9 sqM/cow so in a 16X70 area you will manage 12-15 cows. Allowing about 5 bales/cow/winter will it cost in the region of 100/cow over the winter. calving pen may be an option but you may not need 8-10 of them.

If the ground is sound a tank may be an option even if you only got a 6' deep tank in there. You should be able to get a 10' tank at least in there. Put slat mats on and you will keep 25-30 cows there.

Biggest issue with straw is when feeding to a high plane of nutrition cattle dung will be moist and straw will not last. I go with a tank and mats.