Slatted Shed - Advice Required

19driver83

Advice needed on this shed design.

Option 1:
5 bay slated shed.
Double tank with 10ft 6” slats.
7.6m Span.
Stanchion IPE200 (Steel Columns).

Option 2:
5 bay slated shed.
Double tank with 12ft 6” slats.
9.15m Span.
Stanchion IPE220 (Steel Columns).
Extra Cross bracing required.

What is the cost difference with going for a shed with a longer span, thus requiring more steel, extra cross bracing, larger slats etc. And more importantly do people think it is worth it and is there any pitfalls. Is a 10ft 6” slat more standard and am I putting a lot of extra cost on myself for minimum gain?

tanko

Why would you use 10 foot 6 slats? Small pens if you do and less slurry storage. 12 foot 6 would be standard and some lads put in 14 foot 6 slats.

19driver83

tanko wrote: »

Why would you use 10 foot 6 slats? Small pens if you do and less slurry storage. 12 foot 6 would be standard and some lads put in 14 foot 6 slats.

thanks tanko. thats the advice I am looking for.
I thought 10ft 6" was a more standard slat.
I leveraged too much off the shed design on the teaasc website.
http://www.teagasc.ie/advisory/farm_management/buildings/animal_housing/estimating_farm_building_costs.asp

vanderbadger

19driver83 wrote: »

thanks tanko. thats the advice I am looking for.
I thought 10ft 6" was a more standard slat.
I leveraged too much off the shed design on the teaasc website.
http://www.teagasc.ie/advisory/farm_management/buildings/animal_housing/estimating_farm_building_costs.asp

i think 10ft6 is rare these days, could be wrong

larthehar

What are you building the slatted shed for?

Most important piece of info IMO....

Farmer Pudsey

Option No3

6 bay shed with 16' slats 2' toe area both sides 9' deep tank with a run back area if necessary. I have heard that there is some crowd doing a 20' slat. Most are going at 14' slats at present minimum.

ellewood

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

Option No3

6 bay shed with 16' slats 2' toe area both sides 9' deep tank with a run back area if necessary. I have heard that there is some crowd doing a 20' slat. Most are going at 14' slats at present minimum.

How many cattle would that shed hold and roughly cost??

19driver83

She'd is for beef cattle.
So what's the best option for a double tank, is it 12ft 6" slats or 14?

Farmer Pudsey

19driver83 wrote: »

She'd is for beef cattle.
So what's the best option for a double tank, is it 12ft 6" slats or 14?

Why do you need a double tank for beef cattle.??? Tanks cost money the wider the longer and deeper the less they cost in area. The most important thing with beef cattle is head space, as ideally they need all to be access ration at same time. I can feed ration botjbsides of 16' slats.

larthehar

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

Why do you need a double tank for beef cattle.??? Tanks cost money the wider the longer and deeper the less they cost in area. The most important thing with beef cattle is head space, as ideally they need all to be access ration at same time. I can feed ration botjbsides of 16' slats.

I would agree with Pudsey on this one, that's why I asked what you were using it for. Long narrow tanks give you far more head space than double tanks.
Regarding the width you need to look at capacity requirements, I think a rule of thumb for drystock is 0.3m^3/head/day (don't quote me on that!). The number of days is driven by closed period length, can the land be travelled on with a tanker both ends of the closed period

19driver83

On that basis what size slats would ye put in? and what span of shed?
I plan to put meal bin at back of shed aswel, is this what ye would do?

locha

With the double are you not saving on the cost of a tank and roof? 3 walls as opposed to 4 or 2 walls and columns in the middle? 19Driver, have you done the sums on the cost of this shed?

19driver83

I haven’t done the sums but I still think a double tank is the best and cheaper.

12ft 6” slats x2
9.15m span with meal trough at back.
I think that’s plenty of head space to feed meal at both ends.

However, im waiting for someone to convince me otherwise.

larthehar

19driver83 wrote: »

On that basis what size slats would ye put in? and what span of shed?
I plan to put meal bin at back of shed aswel, is this what ye would do?

Few more questions;
how many cattle?
what ages?
have you a diet feeder or feeding with buckets/wheelbarrow?

locha, depends what your driving forces are, personally, my best shed is a three span shed,has a centre feeding passage troughs withflaps on the back. This allows me to feed silage adlib in the centre passage and meal at the back whenever I want. The advantages towards other sheds I have are less silage spoiled due to rain and ration spoilage. Flexibility as I can feed at the back with a beet chooper and meal feeder without driving on the silage.

19driver83

Hope to house upto 80 cattle
Ranging from 8 months to finishing cattle
Feeding with tractor & loader – 90% Pit Silage /10% Bales

Sounds like you have a good set-up to be fair, sounds very flexible.

Farmer Pudsey

Your double tank will take 3-4 runs of pans, also you will need concrete evelator to fill middle wall. 16'/6 bay tank can be done in two rus of pan by shuttering crew and no concrete evelator. Saving 3K+ I reckon.

You can put a concrete trought along the back of the pens. However in general you will only need about 2/3 of rear feeding area for head space for each pen with exception of weanlings/very light stores.You could use barrier at back of pens and trough outsidebarrier to feed ration. This would allow you to have are at rea for crush and a few pens for a sick or injured animals. Also you could slope into one pen for weanlings light store and put 30+ weanlings in this pen and feed silage only if it quality was good enough

onyerbikepat

Lads, I'd be careful going to these extra wide slats. A 20 ft slat at twice the width of a 10 ft, will be carrying twice the load at the end pts, not to mention the bending that goes on under the slat in the middle.
As below, when you double the width of a slat the stresse due to bending are increased 4 fold, not twice. So effectively the strength of the slat at 20 ft needs to be 4 times stronger than at 10 feet.




This would be typical of the stresses under a slat.

larrymiller

Would you consider waiting to see if the grants come back?
I've posted a few places here about this but no one saying much?

19driver83

larrymiller wrote: »

Would you consider waiting to see if the grants come back?
I've posted a few places here about this but no one saying much?

Whens the new grants being announced?

GrandSoftDay

Google is your friend! http://www.farmersjournal.ie/glas-scheme-to-be-the-new-reps-for-50-000-irish-farmers-153612/

larrymiller

GrandSoftDay wrote: »

Google is your friend! http://www.farmersjournal.ie/glas-scheme-to-be-the-new-reps-for-50-000-irish-farmers-153612/

For young farmers is the problem, everything still in the fathers name here

GrandSoftDay

larrymiller wrote: »

For young farmers is the problem, everything still in the fathers name here

40% proposed for older farmers

larrymiller

GrandSoftDay wrote: »

40% proposed for older farmers

Not bad i suppose.
What would have to be done say for me (in the middle of being trained) becoming a official young farmer and getting full grant?

19driver83

GrandSoftDay wrote: »

40% proposed for older farmers

When is this being confirmed?

GrandSoftDay

19driver83 wrote: »

When is this being confirmed?

It was announced at the start of the year that it was to be introduced in 2015. I don't know any more after that.

Farmer Pudsey

19driver83 wrote: »

When is this being confirmed?

It will be next year I imagine that it will be announced in the budget. There will be spending limits and it is 40% of that. I think I read about 80K somewhere and it will be across all grant schemes. So if you applied for under dairying, sheep fencing, shed, grain storage there will be an overall limit. It also will have limited funding so it will be an advantage if you have planing etc got I imagine.

larrymiller

19driver83 wrote: »

I haven’t done the sums but I still think a double tank is the best and cheaper.

12ft 6” slats x2
9.15m span with meal trough at back.
I think that’s plenty of head space to feed meal at both ends.

However, im waiting for someone to convince me otherwise.

Have you a rough idea of a price for a shed of this size for 80 odd cattle

onyerbikepat

19driver83 wrote: »

I haven’t done the sums but I still think a double tank is the best and cheaper....
However, im waiting for someone to convince me otherwise.

Ventilation would be a concern, pneumonia etc.

dminor123

Hi , I don't want to hijack this thread but I'm going at a 3 bay open sided shed , was wondering should I go 14 ft slat 9 foot deep or 16 foot slat 8 foot deep tank ?

sandydan

onyerbikepat wrote: »

Ventilation would be a concern, pneumonia etc.

how about using those green screens Forde i think supplies some , a lot of unit 130+ have them. wouldn't put weak weanlings in with older cattle though .coughs .or on slats either seen fellas putting straw beds on coarse gravel, for drainage,avoid draughts in slats to prevent pneumonia seem to work well.