Converting (updating) cubicle shed

billy100

Well all
I acquired my farm from my Dad 4 years ago and I am considering upgrading my wintering facitities. I have 30 suckler spring calving suckler cows.

The sheds are roughly 40 years old and were modering for that time, I start calving on last week of Janurary and finish up early to mid April. Sell weanlings in Autumn. My facilities can be seen in the attachment.

I keep the cows in the 2 cubicle (26 spaces each shed) shedsajoining each other and feed each side of the feed barrier. I scrape the slurry out the sheds in to the open tanks with the yard tractor. As cows calf depending on weather I am able to let them out as I have some dry hilly land where both cow and calf dont have much problems. Earlier calves are left in 3 rd cubicle shed where I let cows to them twice a day.

I would be willing to spent a few pound to improve facililities and make it more labour efficient as I am part time farming .i.e. slatted tank, creep areas if possible etc.

Just looking for peoples ideas into how this can be done

Cheers

dh1985

billy100 wrote: »

Well all
I acquired my farm from my Dad 4 years ago and I am considering upgrading my wintering facitities. I have 30 suckler spring calving suckler cows.

The sheds are roughly 40 years old and were modering for that time, I start calving on last week of Janurary and finish up early to mid April. Sell weanlings in Autumn. My facilities can be seen in the attachment.

I keep the cows in the 2 cubicle (26 spaces each shed) shedsajoining each other and feed each side of the feed barrier. I scrape the slurry out the sheds in to the open tanks with the yard tractor. As cows calf depending on weather I am able to let them out as I have some dry hilly land where both cow and calf dont have much problems. Earlier calves are left in 3 rd cubicle shed where I let cows to them twice a day.

I would be willing to spent a few pound to improve facililities and make it more labour efficient as I am part time farming .i.e. slatted tank, creep areas if possible etc.

Just looking for peoples ideas into how this can be done

Cheers

We had something similar until the nineties when the grants for a slatted tank was intorduced. We put a slatted tank up at 90 degrees to a cubicle house we have. Got the shed as close as possible to it. Allowing for space to shutter a tank and other things we got the tank to within four foot of the external side wall of the cubicle house. We left one end of the slatted shed open and now the cattle can walk in and out betweem the two sheds. I since covered the gap between the two sheds with a little canopy. The cows can eat at the barrier and when done head off back in and lie on the cubicles. Never have anything lying on slats as they prefer the cubicles. Also set up a little creep area in the cubicle shed as the calves can go in and lie on straw.
Clean the manure out of the cubicle house everyday. Scrape it by hand out onto the slats. Cows walk it down from here. Only takes fives minutes each day. I hope you follow my explanation. If not let me know

billy100

Sound dh1985

How old were the calves when they went back into the cubicle shed after calving. Did you have any problems with the calves feet and the slats?....... Did ye ever seperate cows into groups?.......
Sorry now to sound stupid, when you mention that ye put the tank in at 90 degrees to the cubicle shed, do you mean right beside the length of the shed or straight across the front(or back) of the cubicle shed. Thanks

dh1985

billy100 wrote: »

Sound dh1985

How old were the calves when they went back into the cubicle shed after calving. Did you have any problems with the calves feet and the slats?....... Did ye ever seperate cows into groups?.......
Sorry now to sound stupid, when you mention that ye put the tank in at 90 degrees to the cubicle shed, do you mean right beside the length of the shed or straight across the front(or back) of the cubicle shed. Thanks

No worries at all. It runs perpendicular to the cubicles. Cut a door in the side wall of the cubicle shed and removed to cubicles two allow access between both. We do calve then in another leanto and leave them there for maybe a week or two. Depending on strength of calf, liveliness and whether we need the shed for other cows calving. When there strong enough ship them back to the slatted shed. They dont stray out to much to the slats to often. Really just run around the creep area. Its fairly well ventilated but no drafts. Give them a good depth bed of straw. Have no problems with scour or pnemonia as a general rule. Never had problems with thw calves feet and the slats. Eventhough I seen someone post here recently saying they did have that very problem so maybe we have been just lucky. No never we give then full run of the slats to all the cows as its the only way we can have them all able to have access to the cubicles. Its not anthing fancy but it does work well for us. I will see can I dig out a photo from last year as I am away from home at the minute.

billy100

dh1985 wrote: »

No worries at all. It runs perpendicular to the cubicles. Cut a door in the side wall of the cubicle shed and removed to cubicles two allow access between both. We do calve then in another leanto and leave them there for maybe a week or two. Depending on strength of calf, liveliness and whether we need the shed for other cows calving. When there strong enough ship them back to the slatted shed. They dont stray out to much to the slats to often. Really just run around the creep area. Its fairly well ventilated but no drafts. Give them a good depth bed of straw. Have no problems with scour or pnemonia as a general rule. Never had problems with thw calves feet and the slats. Eventhough I seen someone post here recently saying they did have that very problem so maybe we have been just lucky. No never we give then full run of the slats to all the cows as its the only way we can have them all able to have access to the cubicles. Its not anthing fancy but it does work well for us. I will see can I dig out a photo from last year as I am away from home at the minute.

No panic cheers

dh1985

billy100 wrote: »

No panic cheers

This is how I am mean perpindicular. Thereason we joined in the middle of the cubicle shed is that there is a shed opposite the slatted shed and we wanted to be a suitable distance from it for turning purposes and the like

billy100

dh1985 wrote: »

This is how I am mean perpindicular. Thereason we joined in the middle of the cubicle shed is that there is a shed opposite the slatted shed and we wanted to be a suitable distance from it for turning purposes and the like

Cheers
Ever any bother with in calf cows puking or knocking calves or anything like

dh1985

billy100 wrote: »

Cheers
Ever any bother with in calf cows puking or knocking calves or anything like

No no more than if they were in a normal dry shed. But it is a fair point as I could see it been an issue. Our cows are all quiet. The auld lad has pets made of them so they tend to get along with each other fairly well. And they dont get flusterred around human contact. The only issue we have is that some of the cows are so quiet that some of the cleverer calves do be sucking a few of them. I noticed which cows were prone to letting extra calves suck so keep them in a leanto until the calves are a bit older and cows tend to kop on to other calves after the first few weeks. I am not saying this set up is ideal but I was tryong to point out the usefulness of the cubicles. When we were putting up the slatted shed we had a few so called experts look at it and they were mainly in favour of knocking the cubicles and putting the slats up in there footprint. It was actually a local suckler farmer who gave us this idea and to be fair we are glad he did.

billy100

dh1985 wrote: »

No no more than if they were in a normal dry shed. But it is a fair point as I could see it been an issue. Our cows are all quiet. The auld lad has pets made of them so they tend to get along with each other fairly well. And they dont get flusterred around human contact. The only issue we have is that some of the cows are so quiet that some of the cleverer calves do be sucking a few of them. I noticed which cows were prone to letting extra calves suck so keep them in a leanto until the calves are a bit older and cows tend to kop on to other calves after the first few weeks. I am not saying this set up is ideal but I was tryong to point out the usefulness of the cubicles. When we were putting up the slatted shed we had a few so called experts look at it and they were mainly in favour of knocking the cubicles and putting the slats up in there footprint. It was actually a local suckler farmer who gave us this idea and to be fair we are glad he did.

Thanks a mill for your opinion, it pays to talk

dh1985

billy100 wrote: »

Thanks a mill for your opinion, it pays to talk

Yeah it definitely does. I would get as many opinions from people as possible as when theres a big investment you need to get it right first time. Even the daftest of people may see something that others may overlook