Cheap options for milking cow cubicles

frazzledhome

We are planning on adding more cubicles and slurry storage for milking cows. Due to factors outside of our control Ocs with lagoon isn't possible in this case. Do any of you have or seen any low cost options for cow cubicle shed design that won't break the bank?

visatorro

kennels are probably the cheapest option , is stand off pad an option?

sorry didn't see milking cow, rules out pad.

is this short or long term accommodation ?

Midfield9

Polytunnel? No idea if there worth a look just happened to see on twitter a tunnel going up for 300 cubicles. It was @cowplan that shared it.

kowtow

I'm putting in a traditional timber kennel building at the moment.

24 cubicles + feed passage + tractor passage in 3 steps up a complex sloping site.

Own labour, but materials will be less than €400 / cow.... with a simple site it would be a lot less.

Edit : will also be beautiful and tuck into the landscape.

kevthegaff

frazzledhome wrote: »

We are planning on adding more cubicles and slurry storage for milking cows. Due to factors outside of our control Ocs with lagoon isn't possible in this case. Do any of you have or seen any low cost options for cow cubicle shed design that won't break the bank?

Maybe the timber option frazz like kt says, put feed passage on outside will save some

kevthegaff

frazzledhome wrote: »

We are planning on adding more cubicles and slurry storage for milking cows. Due to factors outside of our control Ocs with lagoon isn't possible in this case. Do any of you have or seen any low cost options for cow cubicle shed design that won't break the bank?

Maybe the timber option frazz like kt says, put feed passage on outside will save some

jaymla627

What are lads been charged per cow space for the roof over a cubicle shed with say feed passage outside, using our own labour here we can do it for 150 a space, what would a kennel come into per space, wouldn't say their would be a whole lot in it.....

Timmaay

Midfield9 wrote: »

Polytunnel? No idea if there worth a look just happened to see on twitter a tunnel going up for 300 cubicles. It was @cowplan that shared it.

Neighbour has ploy tunnels, the big storm 3yrs ago took the roof off them, I think insurance covered fixing them, but anyways one of the storms back earlier in the winter too it off again, he hasn't bother replacing yet ha. Unless the design has improved hugely since I wouldn't bother with them. They weren't coming in hugely cheaper than a traditional roof either if I remember correctly.

kowtow

jaymla627 wrote:

What are lads been charged per cow space for the roof over a cubicle shed with say feed passage outside, using our own labour here we can do it for 150 a space, what would a kennel come into per space, wouldn't say their would be a whole lot in it.....

We would be budgeting about the same including monospan over feed face and into tractor passage.

Add about 200 eur high quality timber and fixings per cow space... assuming sides are 50% Yorkshire board.

A lot of the timber cost is over the feed passage where bigger spans / members are needed.

Timmaay

frazzledhome wrote: »

We are planning on adding more cubicles and slurry storage for milking cows. Due to factors outside of our control Ocs with lagoon isn't possible in this case. Do any of you have or seen any low cost options for cow cubicle shed design that won't break the bank?

What number of cubicles? There was a really good article in the ifj roughly a year ago about some chap down West who had put in a huge portal shed for like 300 cubicle spaces, it was coming in surprisingly cheap per cow space! Are you looking at grant spec or not?

kevthegaff

My shed cost 70 ex vat long spans 70ft tank with 64 cubicles, but I can put in another 42, that's with feed passage under roof and my own filling. Have you your own filling?

frazzledhome

Feed passage is in place and I don't need to cover it. 250 cow spaces are what we are thinking.

Could it be done with a series of back to back lean to's?

The slatts are going to be the standard cost as we wouldn't be doing that ourselves. All other works wouldn't competed in house. Another complication is the power line for parlour and neighbours house pass directly over site. I'll have to look to get that removed immediately.

Kowtow, where are you sourcing the timber for your kennels?

kowtow

frazzledhome wrote: »

Feed passage is in place and I don't need to cover it. 250 cow spaces are what we are thinking.

Could it be done with a series of back to back lean to's?

The slatts are going to be the standard cost as we wouldn't be doing that ourselves. All other works wouldn't competed in house. Another complication is the power line for parlour and neighbours house pass directly over site. I'll have to look to get that removed immediately.

Kowtow, where are you sourcing the timber for your kennels?

Guy in Limerick, comes in from Germany. Very straight slow grown and some very long lengths available - not treated apart from a yellow stain and anyway we prefer to treat ourselves after bits of milling etc.

The secret to keeping the cost down is to use the kennel structure as the fabric of the building, so certain layouts suggest themselves.

If you used our structure you'd get 8 x 1.2 x 2.7m cubicles in each 4.8m x 8.3m bay. You can stack the buildings up and leave cross passages. Without the feed passage (which is included in my costs) I suspect you'd be nearer €200 / cow place than my €400 especially if the site is level. The beauty of the design is that when you exclude the feed passage there is nothing bigger than 6x3 in it and even that is me being generous on an exposed site.

td5man

frazzledhome wrote: »

We are planning on adding more cubicles and slurry storage for milking cows. Due to factors outside of our control Ocs with lagoon isn't possible in this case. Do any of you have or seen any low cost options for cow cubicle shed design that won't break the bank?

DK's covered outdoor cubicles are nice job but you still have a large volume of water /slurry.

case885

kevthegaff wrote:

My shed cost 70 ex vat long spans 70ft tank with 64 cubicles, but I can put in another 42, that's with feed passage under roof and my own filling. Have you your own filling?

Is that dept spec or was it built without grant?

kevthegaff

case885 wrote: »

Is that dept spec or was it built without grant?

Without grant and hassle..

kevthegaff

How long do the timber sheds last? And are they sturdy in rough weather?

kowtow

kevthegaff wrote:

How long do the timber sheds last? And are they sturdy in rough weather?

Expect it to be as sturdy as steel.

As for lifespan, more maintenance certainly but I expect them to outlast me. 20-30 years plus.

And since the boy would prefer steel and concrete they'll outlast him too, because maintaining them in perfect condition will be a term of his inheritance.

RightTurnClyde

kowtow wrote: »

Expect it to be as sturdy as steel.

As for lifespan, more maintenance certainly but I expect them to outlast me. 20-30 years plus.

And since the boy would prefer steel and concrete they'll outlast him too, because maintaining them in perfect condition will be a term of his inheritance.

Know, any photos of your development. Sounds interesting

st1979

Do you need slurry storage or will your lagoon do. The chap out west that built the shed in the journal was 270 cubicles for 250k. But he already had some slurry storage available in other existing tanks. Was serious good looking job.
I would not even remotely entertain timber. Steel is on the floor. And is a lifetime solution

kowtow

I should say that in our case - milking to produce finished premium products direct from the farm - the use of traditional building in timber, provided that there is no compromise on cow comfort & hygiene, has a certain additional value in terms of the public perception of the farm and the product.

This makes up for the additional hassle in terms of design and construction which really has to be done on farm.

I'll be at the site later this afternoon so will try and remember to take a few photos of the early construction.

keep going

Hard to beat railscand timber for livestock sheds and dosent work out that much dearer.ifcyou want to spare money simplify the design rather than skimp on materials and if money is an issue try and stage it.avoid vented sheeting, cutting sheeting, silage barriers,flashing and sliding doors .if you can postion the building with the feed barrier facing east or north you dont have to sheet that side.run one roof a ft over the other at the apex is a great way of getting air flow and avoids fancy vent structures.last thing if you want a cheap shed , you got to work yourself11

freedominacup

st1979 wrote: »

Do you need slurry storage or will your lagoon do. The chap out west that built the shed in the journal was 270 cubicles for 250k. But he already had some slurry storage available in other existing tanks. Was serious good looking job.
I would not even remotely entertain timber. Steel is on the floor. And is a lifetime solution

Steels lifetime depends on the site. Spent a couple of grand here last year replacing wall mounted pillars in a shed built in 1989. Internal ones too as it happened. I think the ones exposed to rain were washed clean of the salt by regular dowsings. The ones inside were just slow coated by misty days and never flushed clean. Can't see dinner being any shorter lived.

kowtow

Was a bit late when I got out there today - with the weather at the moment I spend a lot more time bracing what is there against the wind than adding to it, still the below might give some idea of what we are at:



Basically what you are looking at is the lowest of three passages stepped up a hill, the passage above to the left is a feed stance which is to be covered by a monopitch roof over timber, with an overhang covering the third uppermost passage (actually our old cubicle shed dung passage) which will be the tractor passage. The collecting yard & parlour are directly above that.

You can see the final shape of the first cubicle dividers taking shape, I put two timbers lying out in front of them to indicate the approximate kerb of the bed - we will pour that once all the dividers are in. The passage is 10ft.

A Simple A roof goes over this passage with the rafters bolting at right angles to the raked struts which divide each cubicle, if that makes any sense.

This site slopes quite hard both up the hill right to left (hence the stepped passages) and down towards the camera (hence the stepped sole plates) and the intention is to send the scrapers directly towards our existing uncovered tank which is about 40 ft directly behind the camera. We kept the structures to three 4.8 bays at the moment as we might dig a tank just behind the camera later in the year and add a bay or two over that which would give us 36 beds after allowing for crossovers, more than enough for what we want.

Greengrass1

kowtow wrote: »

Was a bit late when I got out there today - with the weather at the moment I spend a lot more time bracing what is there against the wind than adding to it, still the below might give some idea of what we are at:



Basically what you are looking at is the lowest of three passages stepped up a hill, the passage above to the left is a feed stance which is to be covered by a monopitch roof over timber, with an overhang covering the third uppermost passage (actually our old cubicle shed dung passage) which will be the tractor passage. The collecting yard & parlour are directly above that.

You can see the final shape of the first cubicle dividers taking shape, I put two timbers lying out in front of them to indicate the approximate kerb of the bed - we will pour that once all the dividers are in. The passage is 10ft.

A Simple A roof goes over this passage with the rafters bolting at right angles to the raked struts which divide each cubicle, if that makes any sense.

This site slopes quite hard both up the hill right to left (hence the stepped passages) and down towards the camera (hence the stepped sole plates) and the intention is to send the scrapers directly towards our existing uncovered tank which is about 40 ft directly behind the camera. We kept the structures to three 4.8 bays at the moment as we might dig a tank just behind the camera later in the year and add a bay or two over that which would give us 36 beds after allowing for crossovers, more than enough for what we want.

Why not just put in cubicles kow?
You can get new types for 100 per space and 10e for concrete. Those old kennels from what I've see are very dark if your building them the traditional way

kowtow

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Why not just put in cubicles kow?
You can get new types for 100 per space and 10e for concrete. Those old kennels from what I've see are very dark if your building them the traditional way

I think the old ones tended to have a very narrow passage and a low roof - this one has a fairly wide passage with 3.25m of clearance height in case we need to scrape with the loader. Also open / raised ridge, plenty of roof lights & Yorkshire boarding to the top part of the walls so hopefully will be well ventilated. It will be interesting to see though, I've been in some pretty dark old kennels as well and the old ones would put you off alright.

In the end I think it's just personal preference - I prefer working with timber and I hate looking at steel span buildings. Provided that the design works for the cows (and this one is quite well tested, have friends with same in the UK) timber just about tips the scales. Certainly it's a low cost approach but that wasn't really the motivation in my case, when you are only trying to house a couple of dozen milkers whatever you end up with should be pretty low cost!

yosemitesam1

What will you treat the timber with kowtow?

visatorro

kowtow wrote: »

I should say that in our case - milking to produce finished premium products direct from the farm - the use of traditional building in timber, provided that there is no compromise on cow comfort & hygiene, has a certain additional value in terms of the public perception of the farm and the product.

This makes up for the additional hassle in terms of design and construction which really has to be done on farm.

I'll be at the site later this afternoon so will try and remember to take a few photos of the early construction.

id imagine public perception is the most important detail of the venture your going into.
you can have a super product but if you have sh**e on the walls your facing on upward battle straight away.

best of luck btw

kowtow

yosemitesam1 wrote: »

What will you treat the timber with kowtow?

anything going near concrete either has a DPC or well dipped in protim.

I imagine we'll spray protim when it's up and see how it goes from there, would be interested to hear other suggestions...

The timber is pretty close grained and reasonably free of knots, certainly much better than local timber, and often with rotting that (plus good ventilation) is half the battle.

keep going

Two questions what sizes are the timber we are looking at, looks 4x3 and 2x3.which way is west

kowtow

keep going wrote:

Two questions what sizes are the timber we are looking at, looks 4x3 and 2x3.which way is west

6x3 and 4x3.

Picture looking to the south, West downhill on the right.

Feed passage sheltered by shed and indeed bounded by the parlour above.

keep going

kowtow wrote: »

6x3 and 4x3.

Picture looking to the south, West downhill on the right.

Feed passage sheltered by shed and indeed bounded by the parlour above.

Will the left cubicles be wet from the prevailing wind.scap that I see now thepassage way is covered

keep going

Something I cant figure out, every week you see in the journal drystock farmers with the finest buildings and set ups in the country yet dairy farmers cant afford to put a roof over a milking cows head.

frazzledhome

keep going wrote: »

Something I cant figure out, every week you see in the journal drystock farmers with the finest buildings and set ups in the country yet dairy farmers cant afford to put a roof over a milking cows head.

:) Can't afford or can't see return, big difference

Dawggone

keep going wrote: »

Something I cant figure out, every week you see in the journal drystock farmers with the finest buildings and set ups in the country yet dairy farmers cant afford to put a roof over a milking cows head.

Lmao!!
So, so true!


That might make an interesting thread...:)

frazzledhome

keep going wrote: »

Something I cant figure out, every week you see in the journal drystock farmers with the finest buildings and set ups in the country yet dairy farmers cant afford to put a roof over a milking cows head.

In most cases it's a dry cow area

keep going

I cant understad how a suckler with 25 cows can spend 60 or 70 k on a house, most can only bejustified by higher rate tax and grants

frazzledhome

keep going wrote: »

I cant understad how a suckler with 25 cows can spend 60 or 70 k on a house, most can only bejustified by higher rate tax and grants

+1 but I suspect you may be on the wrong thread

kowtow

frazzledhome wrote:

In most cases it's a dry cow area

Not without a roof it isn't.

frazzledhome

kowtow wrote: »

Not without a roof it isn't.

Lol

patsy_mccabe

keep going wrote: »

Something I cant figure out, every week you see in the journal drystock farmers with the finest buildings and set ups in the country yet dairy farmers cant afford to put a roof over a milking cows head.

Part-time farmer with a full-time off farm job. Simple as that. if he's already on the higher rate of tax from the day job then half the cost of the shed is written off from lower tax payments. Good sheds take the drudgery out of the job of foddering twice a day in the dark and rain. A good quality build with last a long time and may not be that expensive in the long run.

blue5000

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

Part-time farmer with a full-time off farm job. Simple as that. if he's already on the higher rate of tax from the day job then half the cost of the shed is written off from lower tax payments. Good sheds take the drudgery out of the job of foddering twice a day in the dark and rain. A good quality build with last a long time and may not be that expensive in the long run.

Agreed, and there's a fairly fresh tractor and loader for shoving silage in front of the cattle. You forgot to mention the grants.
Joining a suckler beef discussion group would open your eyes, I am almost embarrassed when they come here. It's like as if the priorities are poles apart on suckler vs dairy farms. On dairy farms it is all about production off grass, on a lot of suckler farms it's all about making life as simple as possible so that the day job doesn't suffer.

mf240

Topless cubicles are fashionable at the moment.

It used to be woodchip pads .

Before that it was ditches and ring feeders.

keep going

mf240 wrote: »

Topless cubicles are fashionable at the moment.

It used to be woodchip pads .

Before that it was ditches and ring feeders.

Id say the way things are going it might be back to it

Dickie10

i have 25 cubicles for sale at €5 each , took them out of a shed i converted to straw bed

kevthegaff

Saw a guy yesterday with a polythene previously used for mushrooms, deceptively big when your in one. He had 40 weanlings in one!

MFdaveIreland

mf240 wrote: »

Topless cubicles are fashionable at the moment.

It used to be woodchip pads .

Before that it was ditches and ring feeders.

topless cubicles, unless you live where there's no rain, look to be a balls

woodchip pads, again with rain, you would be as well standing in the midden

penny wise...

kowtow

See how flexible I am? this is the only cubicle shed in Munster which can be converted to a to a woodchip pad.

frazzledhome

MFdaveIreland wrote: »

topless cubicles, unless you live where there's no rain, look to be a balls

woodchip pads, again with rain, you would be as well standing in the midden

penny wise...

Really,
Outline your experience with either or both.

case885

frazzledhome wrote:

Really, Outline your experience with either or both.

What do you do when you get rainfall like this winter and the tank is half full of water?

frazzledhome

case885 wrote: »

What do you do when you get rainfall like this winter and the tank is half full of water?

Half full is ok
Full would be a problem