Could You Go Dairying Without A Slurry Tank?

mikefoxo

Toying with the idea of going milking and I hear tanks are quite expensive:pac: Anyone got any input/comments?

Markcheese

I'd say a tank'd be the least of your expenses - !!
Just curious - do you mean a slurry tanker or a holding tank for wash water , holding yard ect - ?

sh1tstirrer

Maybe, if you could lease a herd of cows in March and send them back in November after drying off. Trying to find a suitable herd would be the problem.

mikefoxo

Markcheese wrote: »

I'd say a tank'd be the least of your expenses - !!
Just curious - do you mean a slurry tanker or a holding tank for wash water , holding yard ect - ?

To be embarrassingly honest I thought it was all just the one tank:o But, going on from what you're saying, could you have just a dungstead for animal waste and a small holding tank for wash water etc.?

C0N0R

mikefoxo wrote: »

To be embarrassingly honest I thought it was all just the one tank:o But, going on from what you're saying, could you have just a dungstead for animal waste and a small holding tank for wash water etc.?

Yes. But you will have one hell of a dungsted and straw bill!

Miname

i dont think dairying is for you just yet. give it a few years and see how you feel.

Timmaay

C0N0R wrote: »

Yes. But you will have one hell of a dungsted and straw bill!

If your from Wexford where straw is unlimited and regularly 7euros a bale, and on hungry ex tillage land it might not be too bad an idea. Hmmm who do I know doing just that...

Greengrass1

Timmaay wrote: »

If your from Wexford where straw is unlimited and regularly 7euros a bale, and on hungry ex tillage land it might not be too bad an idea. Hmmm who do I know doing just that...

Ten yrs later and its still feckin hungry. At least were growing grass now though

Farmer Pudsey

mikefoxo wrote: »

Toying with the idea of going milking and I hear tanks are quite expensive:pac: Anyone got any input/comments?

Not really Dairy cows cannot be out wintered. You must have nutrient storage in place. Effectively this means either a tank, lagoon or dungstead with what ever sort of housing standoff area you consider appropiate to the storage. Also I think for BB milk you need one cubicle/cow.

In effect a shed and tank is more than likly the most effective way at present. Also with a new TAMS expected it means that this is fairly feasible

sh1tstirrer

C0N0R wrote: »

Yes. But you will have one hell of a dungsted and straw bill!

A dungstead doesn't use straw it has weeping walls and water is diverted to a separate tank. It's semi solid and can be spread with a rotary spreader.

Buford T. Justice XIX

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

Not really Dairy cows cannot be out wintered. You must have nutrient storage in place. Effectively this means either a tank, lagoon or dungstead with what ever sort of housing standoff area you consider appropiate to the storage. Also I think for BB milk you need one cubicle/cow.

In effect a shed and tank is more than likly the most effective way at present. Also with a new TAMS expected it means that this is fairly feasible

There is leeway there to use straw bedded housing and/or slats to increase the available area, from what i hear anyway.

Mikefoxo, if you are going dairying and intend overwintering them, you will need tanks of some description. The size will depend on where you are in the country an there are 3 different areas with different storage needs.

Storage can be anything from straw bedding, fully slatted housing, scrapers and a holding tank that is emptied every few days/weeks into an overground store or scrapers emptied into a slurry lagoon.

Dairy washings can be kept in their own tank and spread through the year i think but they can be left into the slurry tank also.

The cheapest is the lagoon but you will be spreading a lot of rainwater.
An overground store is slightly dearer but you have the problems of agitating and also the pumping in every so often.
Fully slatted is the easiest to manage but is also the dearest.
Straw bedding is an option if you can get large quantities of straw and are in or near tillage land.

There is a huge amount of money needed to start from scratch even if you have slurry storage and if you haven't i would be very wary of doing it. I did it from scratch 15 years ago but i am still paying off the loans:(

mikefoxo

Miname wrote: »

i dont think dairying is for you just yet. give it a few years and see how you feel.

I don't plan on jumping in just yet, don't worry:D And I will admit I have an awful lot to learn.

My thinking was you have cubicles that the cows mooch around in all day; you clean out the passage with a scraper; you put that waste into a slurry tank. What I'm asking is could you not just put it into a dungstead instead?

And would there be a need for straw in this system? Aside from calving pens, calf hutches etc.?

Pacoa

You can put it in a weeping wall type dung stead but you'll have to store the runoff and rainwater during the closed period so you'll need a tank as well so thats probably why most dairy farmers just go for slurry and avoid having to buy straw.

kowtow

sh1tstirrer wrote: »

A dungstead doesn't use straw it has weeping walls

We had a tank like that....

Fingers xxd we've fixed it now though.

Timmaay

Back in the day you just had a big ramp which you pushed the dung off with the tractor and let it flow on down the field! Not a hope you'd get away with doing this now, we had a statted tank put in here over 15 yrs ago, the pressure was on back then to do away with the dungsted. Straw bedded housing is a different story, the straw will soak up alot of the effluent, resulting in much smaller tank needed just for run off.

mf240

Couple of these is all you need.

kowtow

mf240 wrote: »

Couple of these is all you need.

Two?? Ah ok... I get it.

one for silage, one for nuts.

mf240

kowtow wrote: »

Two?? Ah ok... I get it.

one for silage, one for nuts.

Second one is for the inspector. Put him in it while he reconsiders things:D

Greengrass1

If I had no winter milkers I'd be more than happy to keep cows on straw.
Cows here are in the lap of luxury on it.
And only takes 15 min evert second day to bed 60 dry cows.
Having bullinh cows on straw is a real pain though.
Had 5 one day and had no milk because bed was in ****e and no cow could lye down with all the activity

kowtow

Greengrass1 wrote: »

If I had no winter milkers I'd be more than happy to keep cows on straw.
Cows here are in the lap of luxury on it.
And only takes 15 min evert second day to bed 60 dry cows.
Having bullinh cows on straw is a real pain though.
Had 5 one day and had no milk because bed was in ****e and no cow could lye down with all the activity

Tell me about it.

We're stuck on straw now for another few weeks since the cubicle shed decided to go topless... bed twice a day and they still look like they are on the Somme.

Timmaay

kowtow wrote: »

Two?? Ah ok... I get it.

one for silage, one for nuts.

In all seriousness the one thing I'd never skimp on are parlour feeders, 6 or 7 k will get you a meal bin and set of pig feeders for almost any size parlour, very controlled and simple method to buffer feed cows or even incalf heifers during times of grass shortage.

Timmaay

kowtow wrote: »

Tell me about it.

We're stuck on straw now for another few weeks since the cubicle shed decided to go topless... bed twice a day and they still look like they are on the Somme.

You not on dry ground? Let them on out!! I love having to spend only 1/2 the time now cleaning /liming cubicles, and no need to clean off the cows in the evening milking.

Buford T. Justice XIX

kowtow wrote: »

Tell me about it.

We're stuck on straw now for another few weeks since the cubicle shed decided to go topless... bed twice a day and they still look like they are on the Somme.

Was that last February's storm? Did you lose much?

I'm just waiting for the evechutes to be connected now but have heifers thin cows and springers on straw. Easier once milkers are out though.

sh1tstirrer

Timmaay wrote: »

Back in the day you just had a big ramp which you pushed the dung off with the tractor and let it flow on down the field! Not a hope you'd get away with doing this now, we had a statted tank put in here over 15 yrs ago, the pressure was on back then to do away with the dungsted. Straw bedded housing is a different story, the straw will soak up alot of the effluent, resulting in much smaller tank needed just for run off.

I saw a few farms that had earth silos dug into a hill and the silage was filled from the back with a stream in front. They were used in the 70's, the idea was to let the cows self feed and the slurry run into the stream :eek: advisors at the time were promoting this system.

kowtow

Timmaay wrote: »

You not on dry ground? Let them on out!! I love having to spend only 1/2 the time now cleaning /liming cubicles, and no need to clean off the cows in the evening milking.

I think that is what we will be doing, have a fair bit of fencing to do outside first though - everything a bit torn up especially behind the collecting yard.

Next on my to-do list and I think I'll leave fixing the cubicle shed and the feed passage for later in the spring.

Also carrying quite a bit of old grass growth from last year as only had dries here through the grazing season, mostly near calving. Really wants scalping before we get started on the year so we could do with having them out.

Bullocks

Greengrass1 wrote: »

If I had no winter milkers I'd be more than happy to keep cows on straw.
Cows here are in the lap of luxury on it.
And only takes 15 min evert second day to bed 60 dry cows.
Having bullinh cows on straw is a real pain though.
Had 5 one day and had no milk because bed was in ****e and no cow could lye down with all the activity

How big would your dung pit be by the time the winter is over and do you have it covered ?
For the same amount of cows would the dung be much better over slurry for land do you know ?

Greengrass1

Bullocks wrote: »

How big would your dung pit be by the time the winter is over and do you have it covered ?
For the same amount of cows would the dung be much better over slurry for land do you know ?

Passage cleaned out daily into a silage pit shed never emptied just let build up.
Works well
We have around 1000t of dung this yr.
If its well rotted its gold
Way better than any slurry

Pacoa

I'm thinking about doing something like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln717XVDdyg