Straw House....to clean out or not

alps

Can't decide on what's best....clean out say once a week or let it pile up?

Just reckon it's better to let the bed build up, but colleagues here convinced that you would use less straw by cleaning out between straw applications. We only have weanlings bedded at the moment and they go outside the house to slats to eat. Would love to know what people do, and for say 50 wean lings, how much straw per week would you use?

Mooooo

Don't straw bed often but when we did we cleaned it out. I reckon we should have let it build up found we went thru an awful amount of straw and the fresh stuff going in was straight on top of concrete so would be soaking up more each time I think.

Grueller

Depends on type of stock imo. Calves I clean out every time. Everything else builds up to give a bulk for soakage.

_Brian

We let it build up, seems dryer and warmer.

Bass Reeves

Really hate straw bedding. You need an awful lot. Had a few straw bedded pens but put slats under them. You may use less straw especially if cattle are on a good diet and gaining over 1/2 a kg/ day. They should be found a good bit of the dung in the slats and I presume that the pens can drain into the slats. Biggest issue is storing the dung incase you get a visit from sept some lads stack it on the cover of the slatted tank.

I imagine that you will go through 2-3 bales / week with weanlings alone maybe a bit more buy slats will help you. You have to factor in time spend cleaning as well as bit of diesel. I am not sure if at the end of the day there is that much saving s.

alps

It's looking like 3 bales per week....This house kind of "evolved" as it was originally a woodchip pad with a tanked feeding area. That was a disaster..woodchip too expensive, chips finding their way yo the tank...altogether a bad experience. We've now concreted and roofed the chip area and are straw bedding it. Would have gone for small cubicles but weanlngs only housed for 10 weeks, and felt the house would come to more use for the rest of the year. It certainly isn't make or break sort of figures, but hate wasting all the same..

greysides

I like a straw bedded house compared to slats. The softy in me thinks that cattle are just more comfortable and cleaner on them. The down side is that fresh straw walked down into older,wet, dirty straw is going to lose the 'clean' effect quickly as well as bring up all sorts of bugs that have been happily breeding in the damp and heat. Maybe once the straw has built up and the wet is confined to the deep layers that can't be reached it might be better. Consequently I think a deep straw bed while it might be great for a downer cow isn't suitable for cows around calving. It may suit dry stock a lot better. Some of those bugs may be mastitic too so not great for dry cows.
For calving pens I like the idea of concrete covered by a small amount of straw. Replace often and if still quite clean reuse it elsewhere (give that some though re-disease spread).
I'm lucky to work in an area where there's a good amount of tillage and straw is available and not too expensive. I imagine if it must be transported there's a lot of incentive to go easy with the amount of it being used.

Timmaay

Grey I find concrete with a small amount of straw an utter disaster for calving cows, any sort of stress when getting up and she will quickly dig through to the concrete and have an awful time getting up. I try to have some sort of reasonable base in the calving pens always, this year it probably will be woodchip with plenty of fresh straw. I don't hold back with the lime which seems to help with mastitis. The cubicles are a much worse spreader of mastitis I think anyways, any sort of leaky milking cow with an infection will do wayy more damage than most springers in my view.

I can get woodchip easy enough here, and find it great as a base, I want to play around abit with sleepers to prevent the cows mucking it up as much, and letting it go anywhere near the slatts. I've an indoor silage pit which I even think I could make temporary cubicles using woodchip and a sleeper the back. Project for another winter though ha.

teddy 1223

Lot of work with bedded sheds, a bale every 2 days then u have clean out the shed a few weeks later and put it either in a dungstead or out in the field, and then reload it into a dung spreader. But it is really good for the land

FeelTheBern

Had two cull cows in a straw bedded shed for few weeks trying to fatten them up. Nearly broke me trying to keep straw under them and they were still fierce dirty. Cut my losses and sold them in mart in end - nearly costing more than was gaining!

larthehar

I let it build up..

What i did see and was very impressed with was a shed that had seconds and old tractor slats sitting on the ground.. straw bed on top.. the bed stays dryer for an awful lot longer.. the man in question got the slats for nothing...so cheap solution!

alps

Lots of deep litter type housing on the continent. I've seen some 6ft deep with steps or ramps coming up out of them to a feed race. They keep piling straw in for the whole winter, and have a side entrance to clean out during the summer. Lots of cheap straw available of course, but simple and comfortable..

kowtow

alps wrote:

Lots of deep litter type housing on the continent. I've seen some 6ft deep with steps or ramps coming up out of them to a feed race. They keep piling straw in for the whole winter, and have a side entrance to clean out during the summer. Lots of cheap straw available of course, but simple and comfortable..

The resulting manure is also better for keeping under c9vwr and repeated treading.

GrasstoMilk

greysides wrote: »

I like a straw bedded house compared to slats. The softy in me thinks that cattle are just more comfortable and cleaner on them. The down side is that fresh straw walked down into older,wet, dirty straw is going to lose the 'clean' effect quickly as well as bring up all sorts of bugs that have been happily breeding in the damp and heat. Maybe once the straw has built up and the wet is confined to the deep layers that can't be reached it might be better. Consequently I think a deep straw bed while it might be great for a downer cow isn't suitable for cows around calving. It may suit dry stock a lot better. Some of those bugs may be mastitic too so not great for dry cows.
For calving pens I like the idea of concrete covered by a small amount of straw. Replace often and if still quite clean reuse it elsewhere (give that some though re-disease spread).
I'm lucky to work in an area where there's a good amount of tillage and straw is available and not too expensive. I imagine if it must be transported there's a lot of incentive to go easy with the amount of it being used.

All straw bed here. Find the best way is to clean out about half way through the winter (15th Jan) to an empty silage pit.
It gets too high other wise and a disaster if you've to keep milkers in on mid Feb of a wet day or night. With the bed low in mid Feb you can really over stock the shed for a few hours to house cows. Most will be eating any way.

For calving pens. We've a big group one that holds up to 15 with a calving gate in it. Clean it out every week and use lots of lime and heaps of straw

Bass Reeves

There are a few issue's with straw bedded houses in Ireland. In some other countries you are allowed to strawbed on top of clay or hardcore bases floors. In Ireland all strawbedded housing has to be on concrete floors. Straw is a way cheaper and is often grown in the same farm it is used on so is considered a byproduct. In warmer countries straw bedding will breakdown faster so will be available for use faster than in Ireland.

yosemitesam1

Bass Reeves wrote: »

There are a few issue's with straw bedded houses in Ireland. In some other countries you are allowed to strawbed on top of clay or hardcore bases floors. In Ireland all strawbedded housing has to be on concrete floors. Straw is a way cheaper and is often grown in the same farm it is used on so is considered a byproduct. In warmer countries straw bedding will breakdown faster so will be available for use faster than in Ireland.

Don't forget that dung from straw bedding will benefit the ground in a way that slurry never will

davidk1394

All straw bedded sheds for both the cattle and sheep. With the sheep its a great job because it will last a week or so under the stores. The beef cattle have to be bedded twice a week 4 bales each time, they are on an ad lib meal diet so there isn't much run off. The sheds are cleaned out when the bed builds up to about a foot and a half deep. All the straw is chopped which means its easier to spread, clean out and it breaks down a lot quicker. A mixture of wheat and pea straw is used. The reason we went for pea straw is because it's so cheap and is every bit as good under the sheep but will only last 3 days under the cattle instead of 4. When it comes to the nutrient value of the dung it is great for ground that is worn out. We leave it wrong for as long as possible but when we spread it in October the fields that are covered have a nice cover of grass on them now.

Waffletraktor

davidk1394 wrote: »

All straw bedded sheds for both the cattle and sheep. With the sheep its a great job because it will last a week or so under the stores. The beef cattle have to be bedded twice a week 4 bales each time, they are on an ad lib meal diet so there isn't much run off. The sheds are cleaned out when the bed builds up to about a foot and a half deep. All the straw is chopped which means its easier to spread, clean out and it breaks down a lot quicker. A mixture of wheat and pea straw is used. The reason we went for pea straw is because it's so cheap and is every bit as good under the sheep but will only last 3 days under the cattle instead of 4. When it comes to the nutrient value of the dung it is great for ground that is worn out. We leave it wrong for as long as possible but when we spread it in October the fields that are covered have a nice cover of grass on them now.

Would that be combinable peas?
Vining pea straw is good feeding.

davidk1394

Waffletraktor wrote: »

Would that be combinable peas?
Vining pea straw is good feeding.

Combinable peas. Good roufhage alright for the cattle but it can be pretty dusty

Waffletraktor

davidk1394 wrote: »

Combinable peas. Good roufhage alright for the cattle but it can be pretty dusty

Peas are evil stuff to combine if its not mid 20's degrees and windy, dust is like a glue and then the actual peas are like ball bearings.

davidk1394

Waffletraktor wrote: »

Peas are evil stuff to combine if its not mid 20's degrees and windy, dust is like a glue and then the actual peas are like ball bearings.

It took 2 days for them to cut the 15 acres I baled in 3 hours. Blocked up the combine with clay twice and the peas were stuck to the ground. Came out very lumpy in the swaths

CloughCasey1

4 bay straw shed here open at front. All drystock here. All bays approx 18ft wide and 33ft long. Lay back area is 23x18 and let build up with straw all winter with a 6x3 between the girders to keep the straw back. The 10ft between barriers and lay back is inclined 6" to a dungsted at the side and scraped every sat morning. Pull across electric fence wire and cattle keep back from it in layback area. Will have to empty dungsted end of jan and after first grazing. The layback is spread after silage/hay. From visiting a few straw sheds without the feeding passage i saw most with a big mound behind where they were eating as most crap produced at barriers. They thrive better in the straw. Passage makes it a cleaner job for the winter as most loose ****e pushed out every week.

selectamatic

@cloughcasey

That sounds like a lovely setup.

Muckit

How often are you bedding down clough? The stuff you scrape, is that agitated and spread by tanker?

Hagimalone

Any chance of a pic Clough, seems like a nice set up

CloughCasey1

Muckit wrote: »

How often are you bedding down clough? The stuff you scrape, is that agitated and spread by tanker?

Once a week so 4 bales the more the bed they have later on in winter the less the need for fresh straw. No, the one mistake i made is not making a sump in dungsted to agitate. Front loader into dungspreader and spread that way.

CloughCasey1

Hagimalone wrote: »

Any chance of a pic Clough, seems like a nice set up

Something like attached. Takes 5mins with scraper to push out the 4 bays as its mainly loose with a little silage dragged in.

cute geoge

Nice set up cloughcasey ,a question is there many cattle in this shed and how long does the winter last for them inside ,

CloughCasey1

cute geoge wrote: »

Nice set up cloughcasey ,a question is there many cattle in this shed and how long does the winter last for them inside ,

At minute 33. Winter from start Dec to hopefully end Feb depending on weather. Lighter stock will be in up to mid April as like to get anything that is going to mart or factory out early.

candor

Anymore pics of the shed @CloughCasey1?

Looks like a good design.

Hagimalone

Looks like a nice set up, thanks for pic

Sleeper12

You'll laugh at my city slicker comment here but read the thread title straw house I actually thought you must mean from the 3 little pigs story. How little I know about my country cousins. 

J.O. Farmer

Sleeper12 wrote: »

You'll laugh at my city slicker comment here but read the thread title straw house I actually thought you must mean from the 3 little pigs story. How little I know about my country cousins. 

Maybe not such a silly thought. Straw bale houses for people like 3 little pigs have been done in this country. Google will find you more examples but here's one.
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/huff-puff-and-build-your-house-1.729217?mode=amp