The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Cattle => Topic started by: StephB on May 03, 2020, 08:19:23 pm
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Hi,
We have three 2 year old heifers (2 Angus / 1 Jersey) and are currently running with the neighbouring farmers angus bull.
We always house them November - April every winter in a well ventilated back end of a steel barn. With the possibility of calves being born in the new year while they are still housed we are contemplating concreting an area outside the barn and gating it off so they have an inside/outside area to get more space.
The husband is worrying about the slurry that will be created on the yard area. We usually deep litter on straw each year and the neighbouring farmer clears it out for us. But on an outside concrete area we will have slurry to dispose of.
Is it mad to be considering an outside concreted area without proper drainage or a slurry pit etc or do all of you smallholders with cows just wheelbarrow it onto a muck heap somewhere?.
Would be interested to hear how you manage this. I would love them to have the outside area to prevent any sweating on milder days but don't want to create another problem with slurry issues.
Thanks in advance
Steph
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Our cattle (commercial beef herd) have an outdoor concrete area with rings for feeding silage but it is scraped every other day with tractor and yard scraper. You could do it by hand with a manual scraper but would need somewhere to push it into or a muck heap. Ours is mixed with straw from the shed to make farmyard manure rather than liquid slurry, then stored in a heap before spreading. It’s doable and probably better for the cattle to have some outdoor space but a bit more labour intensive.