Author Topic: Housing design (Read 3223 times)

Rosemary · « **on:** February 23, 2015, 08:15:10 pm »

We're looking to redesign our cattle housing. The area we currently have is notionally divided into two - a straw bedded area of 31m2 and an unbedded area with some rubber mats (I had them anyway) on the concrete floor and home build feed barriers - thsi is the feeding area obviously. The front part is 20.25m2 and is mucked out every second day or so.

According to the Soil Association space standards, this is enough space for five x 500kg cows or 4 cows and two spring born calves - the latter being what we have in at the moment (or we did until Bonnie sprung her surprise and now she and Annie are oot in a field with said surprise. Horned cattle theoretically need more room but ours are we and horned, so I'm going with 5m2. Our 4+2 looked fine apart from the feeding issue below.

The feeding area is 4.5m x 4.5m; there are feed barriers down both sides but the cattle will only use one side ie they won't feed bum to bum; consequently, I've ended up feeding the subordinate group in the lying area, which is not satisfactory in terms of hygiene or wastage of hay.

So we're thinking about (and costing) an extension to the concreted area that would allow us to put in about 10m of tombstone feed barrier in a single run and a calving gate with yoke.

This would leave the whole 51m2 of the original area for lying - so up to 10 cows, for which we'd need 37m2 of "other area" ie feed space.

Thank you for persevering this far. Two questions - is 10m of feed barrier long enough for 10 cows to feed at the same time and if a cow is feeding, how much space needs to be behind her for other cows to move past her?

Any other thoughts welcome. I'll try and get some photos tomorrow.

HappyHippy · « **Reply #1 on:** February 24, 2015, 12:58:17 am »

Okay, going by the sizes of my dad's older style cattle shed...
1m per cow to feed will be fine - the feeding bars in ours are about 2ft wide and side by side, so plenty space, allowing for horns.
The depth of the bay behind the feed barrier is about 10ft, I remember the cows lining up and shuffling round at feed times and they were continental breeds so that should be plenty of space for the Shetlands IMHO but if you can spare another couple of feet it'll give them plenty of space I think.
Good luck with your project

SallyintNorth · « **Reply #2 on:** February 24, 2015, 09:32:35 am »

There are official recommendations somewhere but I couldn't find them. IAE or one of the other suppliers would be able to quote them and/or point you at them.

My recollection was that you need at least 2'6" per feeding cow for a diagonal bars feeder, so I would have thought that 1m per each will be plenty.

We skimped on the space per cow, squeezing 19 slots into the space recommended for 18. We shouldn't have done that, we can only put 18 in the space anyway

. (So the recommendations were spot on.)

In our shed it used to be 8' behind the barrier and that wasn't enough, so when we put in the new cubicles we shunted the feed barrier out another 2'. They now move around very comfortably with 10' behind the barrier, but as Karen says, if you have more then by all means give them a little more.

Our cattle are fairly large, being mostly Angus x dairy and Hereford x dairy.

Rosemary · « **Reply #3 on:** February 24, 2015, 10:56:59 am »

The calving gate, which we're planning to place in the feed area is 3m long so we will be leaving space for that so there shoudl be plenty room. Going to see it at the manufacturers this week; they're going to make the feed barrier to fit as well, which will be great. All I need now is the money to do it

farmvet · « **Reply #4 on:** February 24, 2015, 10:10:59 pm »

Is your calving gate going next to a wall? If so I would try and put it so the cows right side is against the wall. I know you have easy calvers but that way its much easier for the vet if you do need a caesar ( usually op on left flank)

Rosemary · « **Reply #5 on:** February 25, 2015, 08:20:30 am »

Quote from: farmvet on February 24, 2015, 10:10:59 pm

Is your calving gate going next to a wall? If so I would try and put it so the cows right side is against the wall. I know you have easy calvers but that way its much easier for the vet if you do need a caesar ( usually op on left flank)

That's what's planned - mainly because I'm right handed and would always work on the left side - so glad it's the right way round. Thanks.