Mooooo wrote: » Do ye have to do that to as part of grant is it?
Water John wrote: » Personally think they should be banned on, animal welfare grounds. Now, I'm in for it.
Snowfire wrote: » Lovely weather for the cows on topless cubicles these days..��
K.G. wrote: » do you have them
Water John wrote: » The cow has an option, Yewtree and that's fine. I have outwintered cattle. She can find some shelter. would be my point.
yewtree wrote: » I cant see the any animal welfare issue though, once cows have plenty of feed and are lnot ying in wet muck. I have seen outdoor cubicles on a few bad days, i though it was perfectly acceptable way to winter cows.
Water John wrote: » Have slats. Should put mats on them. But you are right, wouldn't build one now. Would really look at bedding or cubicles and slurry separation.
Keepgrowing wrote: » We have both here. In 5 years since first OCs were installed, I've yet to take a sick or underperforming animal off them. I cannot say the same for indoor ones. We have one shed of cubicles, really lovely dry clean shed where cows eat outside in an open yard and self feed. I thought I'd find them all inside Tis afternoon with the sleet and rain falling. Not a bother in them with 70% outside and all grand
whelan2 wrote: » Are they milkers on the outdoor cubicles? Is dealing with the run off a problem?
Keepgrowing wrote: » Early calving portion of spring herd milked off them till last Monday when they were dried off. About 3-4 weeks. We also use to milk off if conditions get tricky in the spring during calving. 75 March/April calves milking off them at the moment. These will be dried off Christmas week. All autumn calves are in conventional indoor cubicles and the only mastitis cases so far this year has been among these cows. Regarding runoff, yes there's more dirty water to collect but a €1000 with an umbilical will take care of all that runoff. That's a small price as opposed to the capital cost of a roof for 3 weeks of wet weather. Just wondering if the people saying they're an animal welfare risk have any?
mahoney_j wrote: » Absolute zero ainmal welfare issues as long as feed is available and passages and beds are scraped regular .i have some and been milking off them for last 3 weeks beds ,scraped twice daily limed twice and scrapers going every 2 hours .no mastitis and cows milking very well Slurry storage for me is the big negative as u need a lot more ,forcing me to roof what I have next summer ,either that or dig another big tank and my personal preference would be the roof .a lagoon is probably a must have if u have a lot of oc
Snowfire wrote: » No don’t have and don’t have any intention of going down that road either. especially when building grant spec roof only adds extra 25% to overall build of slatted shed.Just because cows are not getting pneumonia on OC doesn’t mean they are content with no shelter and sleet and snow on their back. Sure 90% of the time they are fine, but think lads forget about the other 10%. Cows are animals not machinery, they have feelings and nerves. If cows didn’t need shelter they wouldn’t gather under hedges.
mahoney_j wrote: » Clueless
jaymla627 wrote: » Got this letter this morning, fair dues to progressive rep asked him to get us this bull for 2018 breeding and he went to fair rounds to do it
Mooooo wrote: » Pardon my ignorance but what's "special breeding purposes"
Keepgrowing wrote: » Regarding runoff, yes there's more dirty water to collect but a €1000 with an umbilical will take care of all that runoff. That's a small price as opposed to the capital cost of a roof for 3 weeks of wet weather.
Mooooo wrote: » Lagoons won't be so easy to get any more, neighbour was told couldn't use lagoon any more, currently digging out for a concrete tank
MF290 wrote: » Is the rain water diverted off or still collected in the lagoon when cows aren't on it?
