from pit to bales

greenpetrol

Anyone changed from self feed pit silage to bales? Or any ideas to how I would set up yard to house calves on straw where pit was and where to put feed barrier ? Round feeders is the most obvious but too much waste pulled out ! Self feed was fine but could do with the space where the pit was for housing ! If someone had changed over already and could give me advice ? Have a cubicle house adjacent also which is scraped every day into slurry pit

greenpetrol

Basic outlay of the yard !

visatorro

Can you put dimensions on that diagram? Can you enter the silage pit from the back?

greenpetrol

visatorro wrote: »

Can you put dimensions on that diagram? Can you enter the silage pit from the back?

No entry from the back all mass concrete walls ! Cubicle shed 4 bays long and roof of silage pit is 3 bays

TPF2012

This weeks Journal has two pages about upgrading a pit to calf accommodations.

9935452

greenpetrol wrote: »

Anyone changed from self feed pit silage to bales? Or any ideas to how I would set up yard to house calves on straw where pit was and where to put feed barrier ? Round feeders is the most obvious but too much waste pulled out ! Self feed was fine but could do with the space where the pit was for housing ! If someone had changed over already and could give me advice ? Have a cubicle house adjacent also which is scraped every day into slurry pit

If it was me id nearly put feed barriers on both sides of the open yard , left and right. If more head space is needed, bring the barrier on the RHS in 10/12 feet and continue it up into the roofed silage shed.
If you connverted the top half of the silage shed for calves the space for the barrier will give you access to the alves

White Clover

How many cubicles have you / how many cows are you looking to feed?
Distance from front of cubicle house to slurry pit?
Width of silage pit?

I'd allow the top bay of the silage pit for straw bedding the calves.
I'd then come out 15ft from cubicle house wall into the silage pit and run 4 barriers down from the calves, and finish off with a gate as far as the slurry pit.
This would minimise the dirty water that needs.to be collected.
It would allow you to lock the cows into cubicle house while you put in bales.

greenpetrol

9935452 wrote: »

If it was me id nearly put feed barriers on both sides of the open yard , left and right. If more head space is needed, bring the barrier on the RHS in 10/12 feet and continue it up into the roofed silage shed.
If you connverted the top half of the silage shed for calves the space for the barrier will give you access to the alves

A feed barrier all the way along the RHS and a creep area I was thinking but if someone had an idea of better usage of space?

White Clover

Like this

yellow50HX

greenpetrol wrote: »

A feed barrier all the way along the RHS and a creep area I was thinking but if someone had an idea of better usage of space?

Couple of quick questions, depending on the type of set up you have you have different options.

How many cows?
Suckler or dairy cows?
Any plans for building changes (slatted tanks, new sheds etc)?
Any plans for expanding numbers?
Other adjoining buildings (milking parlour, open yard or haybarn?
Can you or are you prepared to knock holes in the silage pit for access from the sides?
Are you currently scraping down the cubicles and yards with a tractor? If so where do the cows go when your doing this?
Any calving pens?

If it's dairy then I would put a feed passage at the bottom of the yard along the wall by the slurry tank. I would put a slurry sump in the yard and scrape in to that allowing the slurry to travel under the feed passage.

I would turn the side of shed closest to the cubicles in to a series of pens, 1st one with a calving gate and feed area for cows, then split the others into ones for calves. The opposite side in would use to store your straw bales.
Cows calving can be led into the pens from the front straight off the yard.

I would do something similar for suckler cows but would use the calf pens as a creep area and knock a hole into the cubicle house for them to have access to the cows. Calving cows would still have access in from the yard but I would add in another pen for keeping cows and young calves a few extra days together until calf was strong enough to use the creep area and the cow could go back with the herd.

Straw can be put in and stacked in pallets to stay dry in autumn, pens can be cleaned out with a tractor and loader.

greenpetrol

There are 35 suckler cows won't be expanding they go out to a holding yard opposite the cubicle house! There is one building out there could be used for calves but no roof and no real interest in vesting money ! One other house for calving ! Wouldn't like knocking any walls first year until we were sure bales suited us scraping yard with tractor and idea of a sump and slurry channel sounds very good but again costly until sure I'd stick with bales

yellow50HX

greenpetrol wrote: »

There are 35 suckler cows won't be expanding they go out to a holding yard opposite the cubicle house! There is one building out there could be used for calves but no roof and no real interest in vesting money ! One other house for calving ! Wouldn't like knocking any walls first year until we were sure bales suited us scraping yard with tractor and idea of a sump and slurry channel sounds very good but again costly until sure I'd stick with bales

Have a look around for some 2nd hand feed barriers, ideally the ones that can be hinged and can be opened like gates and use them to make a feed passage in the yard. You can get some H irons and hitli bolt them down to the concrete.

https://www.donedeal.ie/feedingequipment-for-sale/feed-barriers-and-gates/11077903

Put the passage up the yard and up the middle of the silage pit taking up the 1st bay of the shed. Use the remaining covered side of the shed above the feed passage as a creep area for calves. Divide it so that the side by the cub ole house has the calves and the other side for storing the straw bales. You can drop the bales into the creep area when you need to. If it doesn't work out you can un bolt the barriers and your back to where you were.

blue5000

I think it was you asking about putting slats on an existing tank? Problem with your set up is if you do that you will still have a lot of soiled water.
I think put the feed barrier parallel to the existing tank, keep it back about 30 feet from the tank. In time you could slat the tank and cover it, and you'd have the feed passage already half done.
Leave a gap in the feed passage at LHS of the map to scrape from the cubicles into the existing tank. You could either put stub pillars or approx 16ft pillars along the feed barrier. Higher ones are better, if you want a roof in future. The water on the wide feed passage can be diverted out of the tank if you keep the place clean.
Look at my photo in the machinery thread, there is cubicles on the right of the photo, and the silage pits were self feed.

What distance is there between the cubicle house and the tank? Could you fit a slatted tank (in future) and feed passage there? Do it in phases,
1. Feed passage
2. Cover the open tank with slats and roof it
3. Put a tank between the cubicles and feed passage
4 Roof the feed passage?