David's going Dairying.

Say my name

davidk1394 wrote: »

A little update for everyone. It was a busy couple of weeks between taking slates of roofs and emptying the old dwelling house, putting in the tank for the collecting yard and getting sheds ready for winter.

The slowest part was emptying the house, I wanted to do it right and ensure nothing was left behind. I bought a container to store furniture, book and an old rocking horse. My aim is to get everything restored. Anything that I didn't want was sold or given away. I salvaged all the red bricks, kitchen flag stone and slates. Parts of the house have went all over the Ireland to play a part in a new home instead of being tipped into a hole and forgotten about forever. Parts of the house went to Cork, Donegal, Kilkenny, Kerry and Clare.

Knocking and cleaning out all the buildings probably added a month to everything but I'm glad I done it. I don't think I'd feel happy in my new parlor knowing all the history that went before it was bulldozed out of the way.

That was a nice house but you were being realistic on it about doing anything with it nowadays.

Can I ask how did you get the salvage material advertised?

davidk1394

Say my name wrote: »

That was a nice house but you were being realistic on it about doing anything with it nowadays.

Can I ask how did you get the salvage material advertised?

Mainly through Facebook. There is groups on Facebook where people buy and sell stuff from old houses and re use them. The cost of refurbishing the house would cost the same as all the building.

Green&Red

How’d the construction work going?

davidk1394

We're making good progress here with the build. The kerbing was put in this morning and ready for more concrete Monday morning. The tank is finished and the slats are on. The parlor is being assembled and the sheeting is in a shed ready to be put on the roof. I went with a new type clear sheeting over the parlor and the handling area. I will post more photos when it's on.

davidk1394

The floor for where the cows are standing was poured yesterday morning and luckily it had time to set before it rained on it. There is a 16 unit delaval parlor and 11,000 bulk tank going in. The parlor has ACRs, Feeders and an auto wash system. A clear roof is being installed over the parlor and crush. I came across the sheeting through Facebook and it's being sold by Green Hill farm systems.

The total length of the building is 28.8 meters long by 12.5 meters wide. The parlor is 5.65 meters wide. The pit is 2.4 meters wide and the cow standing area is 1.8 meters wide including the kerbing. The parlor walls are 12ft high. The walls dividing the dairy and plant room are 9ft high and the outside wall is 8ft high, I probably should have stuck with a 9ft wall.

There is 3 ways out of the parlor, directly left and right through two, 2 meter wide doors and back through the crush.

The crush area is 6.5 meters wide. I want to put in a walk way against the parlor wall roughly 4ft wide and a foot of a step so I'm up over the animals, the the cattle crush and then a cow walk way and a flow channel under neath them. Pens will run up along the outside wall. I'm looking for opinions/ ideas on the crush system. I don't want an AI crush.

The collecting yard will run parallel with the slurry tank. Originally the holding yard was going to run back up the yard, because of the amount of digging and cost it's cheaper to run parallel with tank. There will be 3/4 ways into the collecting yard.

davidk1394

More images

GrasstoMilk

Do you mind me asking why you went so wide with the pit and not the standard 6 ft with the cow stands?
Out pit is 7ft and its too wide imo, 6 ft would be ample

Job looks great so far!

I would recommend a herringbone crush though, super job for doing whole herd jobs like vaccinating, dosing, scanning, clipping and ai aswell

Tonynewholland

davidk1394 wrote: »

More images

Have you a drain or channel in by the wall where the cows stand

davidk1394

Tonynewholland wrote: »

Have you a drain or channel in by the wall where the cows stand

Yes I have. There's timbers in it at the moment

davidk1394

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Do you mind me asking why you went so wide with the pit and not the standard 6 ft with the cow stands?
Out pit is 7ft and its too wide imo, 6 ft would be ample

Job looks great so far!

I would recommend a herringbone crush though, super job for doing whole herd jobs like vaccinating, dosing, scanning, clipping and ai aswell

I preferred a wider pit over a narrow one. There is no dump line so there will be buckets in the pit and probably 2 people in the pit most days. I forgot to add that's at the floor. The kerbing takes 40 inches off it

White Clover

davidk1394 wrote: »

I preferred a wider pit over a narrow one. There is no dump line so there will be buckets in the pit and probably 2 people in the pit most days. I forgot to add that's at the floor. The kerbing takes 40 inches off it

I'd recommend incorporating a foot bath somewhere too, cast from concrete with solid high sides to avoid a cow throwing the sore leg up on the kerb while passing through the foot bath.
Also a place to set up a hoofcare crush with water and power laid on.

Siamsa Sessions

I was looking at the see thru sheets for the roof as well. I’d be very interested to see how they look in place when you get around to putting them up. Thanks

blue5000

Fair play D you're keeping me busy with the pics, they'll be nice to have to look back on in future. Why did you go so high with the walls? Having a view from the pit of the collecting yard is handy for spotting bulling cows. Are you putting a drafting system into the crush?

davidk1394

White Clover wrote: »

I'd recommend incorporating a foot bath somewhere too, cast from concrete with solid high sides to avoid a cow throwing the sore leg up on the kerb while passing through the foot bath.
Also a place to set up a hoofcare crush with water and power laid on.

I'm trying to figure out where to put it. I'll draw a tidy sketch of the layout later and post it up. At the end there will be an area for a loading pen and backing in a hoof pairing crate. Sockets will be readily available and a large inch and quarter wash down pump and hot washer will be fitted.

davidk1394

blue5000 wrote: »

Fair play D you're keeping me busy with the pics, they'll be nice to have to look back on in future. Why did you go so high with the walls? Having a view from the pit of the collecting yard is handy for spotting bulling cows. Are you putting a drafting system into the crush?

Thanks Blue. I took plenty of pictures before demolition, during it, while digging and building. I have them printed off and all.

Walls had to go up so high for feeders also I lost 2 foot by the time the parlor was raised up over the collecting tank, we hit hard rock while digging also the yard where the parlor is was 2 foot below the yard where the tank is. A drafting gate will be fitted into the cow walk way in a few years to come alright.

Omallep2

White Clover wrote: »

I'd recommend incorporating a foot bath somewhere too, cast from concrete with solid high sides to avoid a cow throwing the sore leg up on the kerb while passing through the foot bath.
Also a place to set up a hoofcare crush with water and power laid on.[/QUOTE
Pipe for draining also

blue5000

Have you a fall for the drain from the pit or does it have to be pumped out of the pit? Nothing worse than having to face into a flooded pit first thing on a Sunday morning with a hole in the welly. :mad:

davidk1394

Finished the roof today. Once the fellas got into the rythm of it they went well. Would have finished yesterday only for the morning was brutal

davidk1394

More images

Say my name

Not a decision for today or tomorrow but do you think you'll have to paint the walls white now with the lack of reflection of light from the underside of those sheets?

Normal sheets have a white underside to bounce the light back down. The clear will allow the light go straight through to the international space station.
You'll be in the pit on a dark winter/spring evening and looking up at a black hole where the roof is.

Maybe it mightnt be an issue?

cjpm

Say my name wrote: »

Not a decision for today or tomorrow but do you think you'll have to paint the walls white now with the lack of reflection of light from the underside of those sheets?

Normal sheets have a white underside to bounce the light back down. The clear will allow the light go straight through to the international space station.
You'll be in the pit on a dark winter/spring evening and looking up at a black hole where the roof is.

Maybe it mightnt be an issue?

He's going to paint the underside of the clear sheets with white gloss. So that they let in sunlight during the day and reflect in the artificial light at night

davidk1394

Say my name wrote: »

Not a decision for today or tomorrow but do you think you'll have to paint the walls white now with the lack of reflection of light from the underside of those sheets?

Normal sheets have a white underside to bounce the light back down. The clear will allow the light go straight through to the international space station.
You'll be in the pit on a dark winter/spring evening and looking up at a black hole where the roof is.

Maybe it mightnt be an issue?

I have paint to go on the walls, I'm painting them Saturday, not going with white either. I'll be putting the lights down in the pit. Not too worried about the reflection as theres the same issue with fibre cement.

Base price

I see that the new concrete has been christened

funkey_monkey

Is this a bespoke layout or are these mostly a copy of proven designs?

staples7

Nice work, will be watching closely as we have a similar job starting next year. First time hearing of the clear roof so very interested in seeing how that works out. Are they as rigid as a normal sheet or are they closer to the old clear sheet that would be in every shed. Was there much of a price difference?

davidk1394

funkey_monkey wrote: »

Is this a bespoke layout or are these mostly a copy of proven designs?

A bit of both. The pit depth and widths are to suit me. The lay out for cow flow, shed heights and widths are from proven designs that I have worked in over a number of years. The sheeting was a last minute decision.

davidk1394

staples7 wrote: »

Nice work, will be watching closely as we have a similar job starting next year. First time hearing of the clear roof so very interested in seeing how that works out. Are they as rigid as a normal sheet or are they closer to the old clear sheet that would be in every shed. Was there much of a price difference?

Its rigid. It's 6 mm in thickness with 3 layers in it, it's heat sealed and UV resistant. There is a lighter and darker colour options I went with the middle ground. Cost about 1,500 more. The sheets were made to suit the shed.

Odelay

davidk1394 wrote: »

Its rigid. It's 6 mm in thickness with 3 layers in it, it's heat sealed and UV resistant. There is a lighter and darker colour options I went with the middle ground. Cost about 1,500 more. The sheets were made to suit the shed.

1500 more than normal clear sheeting or than 0.6mm corrugated steel cladding? If so it was a no brainier, something for me to think about. Is it resistant to condensation?

Lovely progress, well done to you.

davidk1394

Odelay wrote: »

1500 more than normal clear sheeting or than 0.6mm corrugated steel cladding? If so it was a no brainier, something for me to think about. Is it resistant to condensation?

Lovely progress, well done to you.

1500 more than the 0.6 mm. They say it is, but I'll let ye know after a few months what it's like.

Great progress being made and the weather has been good so far. I went with the people I know to get the job done well and so far that has been the case.

tanko

What will be going in the other half of the shed from the milking parlour?