Slatted house for Calves

Enda78

Hi,

Just looking to adapt a slatted shed as a calf house for new born calves.

Just wondering if anyone had come across any ideas for covering the slats before putting a straw bed down? Don’t want any legs getting caught.

Thinking if anyone had seen a solution that could be just lifted out and cleaned it would be handy.

Thanks
Enda

Base price

Enda78 wrote: »

Hi,

Just looking to adapt a slatted shed as a calf house for new born calves.

Just wondering if anyone had come across any ideas for covering the slats before putting a straw bed down? Don’t want any legs getting caught.

Thinking if anyone had seen a solution that could be just lifted out and cleaned it would be handy.

Thanks
Enda

Our slatted shed is used for rearing calves. We roll out bales of wbs on the slats but don't fluff them up. The straw is a thick layer and we never had a problem with calves legs getting caught. The liebacks are bedded as normal. We place a plastic pallet with holes in it at each drinker and it helps to keep the bedding dry.

mayota

Enda78 wrote: »

Hi,

Just looking to adapt a slatted shed as a calf house for new born calves.

Just wondering if anyone had come across any ideas for covering the slats before putting a straw bed down? Don’t want any legs getting caught.

Thinking if anyone had seen a solution that could be just lifted out and cleaned it would be handy.

Thanks
Enda

You could weld 10 or 12mm rebar onto strips of flat steel (40 x 6mm) with the rebar in the slat gaps. Make them up in manageable sizes , say 8x4.

Base price

One year we used bales of chopped rushes that we got for free as a base before covering with wbs, but they weren't good for drainage and were impossible to clean off the slats as they clogged up the gaps. Another year we tried pea straw but it was very dusty even after covering with wbs.

longgonesilver

On a farm walk I saw someone planning to use second-hand pig slate over cattle slats. He was planning on using them upside down as the top was worn. The discussion on the day was whether or not he would need straw at all. Draught from underneath was the main problem considered.I have no idea how it turned out.

1373

Plenty of straw to start off will be fine . Our calving pens are all on slats

49801

We used put 8x4 ply sheets down and straw on top. Worked ok. Not sure I’d bother with the ply again. Cleaning out at end of season was not fun at all with pitch forks!!! Mini digger able to drive on the slats would be ok I’d say though.

farawaygrass

Would straw go down through the slats? Making it hard to agitate, even in the future if cattle are put back in shed

Hard Knocks

farawaygrass wrote: »

Would straw go down through the slats? Making it hard to agitate, even in the future if cattle are put back in shed

If put down a good deep layer at the start it holds
Did it years ago, we rolled out a full round bale on a 15’9 pen

kollegeknight

What conditions do you need? No draft from underneath and a bit of free draining?

When I’m stuck for a calving unit, I put rubber cubicle mats on an area of the slats. We had spares. I find it very handy and easy enough to clean as fork won’t stick into them.

_Brian

kollegeknight wrote: »

What conditions do you need? No draft from underneath and a bit of free draining?

When I’m stuck for a calving unit, I put rubber cubicle mats on an area of the slats. We had spares. I find it very handy and easy enough to clean as fork won’t stick into them.

Rubber mats would be good idea.

farisfat

Calves are on slats here with no problems.
They have a straw lieback

Enda78

Base price wrote: »

Our slatted shed is used for rearing calves. We roll out bales of wbs on the slats but don't fluff them up. The straw is a thick layer and we never had a problem with calves legs getting caught. The liebacks are bedded as normal. We place a plastic pallet with holes in it at each drinker and it helps to keep the bedding dry.

Hi Base price and everyone else. Thanks for all the replies. Sorry for the ignorance but what is wbs?

Good to know that if we put enough straw down that no issues with animals getting caught.

JOAT

Similar to the mats but if you could get your hands on conveyer belting. The stuff used in quarries. Roll it out in long lengths and straw on top. It is good durable stuff so if you were planning on cleaning it out after with a tractor, just drop the loader On the straw and the straw would just slide off it

Base price

Enda78 wrote: »

Hi Base price and everyone else. Thanks for all the replies. Sorry for the ignorance but what is wbs?

Good to know that if we put enough straw down that no issues with animals getting caught.

Sorry, wbs - winter barley straw. Just make sure you don't leave any gaps. Add extra straw along the edge and any gaps, don't fluff the straw but leave it in a layer. It's easier if you have large squares 8x4x4 or 8x4x3 as they open in sheets, iykwim. We would use a round bale of straw to a pen to cover the slats to start with.

Base price

A pic of some calves in our shed. You can just see the edge of the concrete at the feed barriers where the slats start.
As I said earlier if you could get your hands on plastic pallets (with the holes in them) and place them under the drinkers it helps to keep the bedding dry.

Enda78

Thanks base price. Looks pretty cosy! Great stuff all round.

Base price

Enda78 wrote: »

Thanks base price. Looks pretty cosy! Great stuff all round.

Are you going to use teat feeders or an automatic feeder.

Enda78

Base price wrote: »

Are you going to use teat feeders or an automatic feeder.

Teat feeders. The automatic feeders seem like a great job but for now not an option.

Base price

Enda78 wrote: »

Teat feeders. The automatic feeders seem like a great job but for now not an option.

If you have cattle feed barriers in your shed (like we have) then the teat feeders are going to be too high and probably won't fit onto/over the top bar.

My brother welded up a simple mobile contraption that hooks onto the top rail of the feed barrier which drops down into the slatted area with a bar that holds the blue teat feeder. I will take a pic of them during the week if your feed barriers are like ours. We also had to add a removable small horizontal bar to the feed barriers to stop the calves jumping out as the got older.

orm0nd

mayota wrote: »

You could weld 10 or 12mm rebar onto strips of flat steel (40 x 6mm) with the rebar in the slat gaps. Make them up in manageable sizes , say 8x4.

saw that done for sheep and it worked well

farawaygrass wrote: »

Would straw go down through the slats? Making it hard to agitate, even in the future if cattle are put back in shed

nothing worth talking about

we put that black garden membrane for keep down weeds 1 year but didn't bother after that

1 thing to remember if the tank is empty and has external agitating points there could be draughts at ground level, which are one of the worst enemies of new borns

a good height of straw starting off will help unless the gaps are wide should be no need for further action

Bass Reeves

orm0nd wrote: »

saw that done for sheep and it worked well




nothing worth talking about

we put that black garden membrane for keep down weeds 1 year but didn't bother after that

1 thing to remember if the tank is empty and has external agitating points there could be draughts at ground level, which are one of the worst enemies of new borns

a good height of straw starting off will help unless the gaps are wide should be no need for further action

As above no need for anything under straw. It more important to prevent draught from underneath. Covering external agitation point would help with this as well.

If you stay with calves long-term another idea is to put rubber mats on pens you intended to use for calves. This will reduce slat openings.