[westcoastcroft]

Hi Folks

We are going to house our cows this winter as an experiment. We have 2 highlanders plus 2 of their offspring from 2018. Will be feeding hay/silage from the croft plus draff.

The main reason is to save the manure for our organic market garden (and possibly have a go at J Salatins pigaerator method), with cutting down on time spent chasing them round the common to being a good bonus.
I have divided off a section of shed slightly larger than the soil association standard for indoor housing of beef cattle. Based on a very generous 500kg per animal this gives them 35m2 in total.

Planning on a deep litter system, with the possibility of adding grains and pulses into the straw as per the pigaerator system.

Question for anyone who deep litters their cows - how deep does the pack get after 4 months? And what space/animal and bedding material is that based on?

another question - anybody used the compost method? - rotovating bedding each day to encourage aerobic decomposition?

Thanks,
H

[SallyintNorth]

A few comments...

A basic premise we use is that any nutrients we take off our ground need to go back on the ground.  So if we feed hay and or silage made from our own grass, the manure from that needs to go back on teh fields.

We can't produce straw here, so we basically decide on a proportion of the muck that derives from the homegrown hay / haylage input and a proportion that derives from the brought-in inputs, and the latter is allowed to make its way to the veg growing areas but the former must go back on the fields.

Another comment is to ask did you make sure you used the guidelines for horned beasts; they are necessarily very much more generous than the general beef cattle ones.  And there are specific guidelines about feeding areas for housed horned beasts too.

Another is to say that my experience is that beasts such as Galloways, Highlands, Blue Greys etc do not take well to housing.  If you are going to house them, you may find you need to shave along the spine to allow them to lose heat.  And you may need to ration their inputs strictly to prevent them becoming overfat, and potentially having calving issues.

In my experience, cattle will eat fresh clean straw from the top of their bed but will not rootle in soiled forage.

Our approach to deep littering cattle is to remove or cover all soiled straw twice a day, so that udders are always on clean, dry straw.  One year when this was not accomplished, we had an issue with mastitis the following summer, from bugs picked up during the winter from the strawed field shelter and plodging through the mud around it.

We kept two cows - similar sized animals to yours, maybe slightly larger - in a pen 20' x 10'.  They had a covered feed area and an uncovered loafing area outside this pen; they used this pen only for sleeping and would shelter in it when it was raining and they were not in the feeding area.  Surface soiled straw was removed twice a day, fresh straw added to generously cover all wet and soiled straw twice a day (sufficiently generous that they would eat some of the straw before it became compacted and or soiled).  We used less than one bale of straw a day but probably a bit more than 1/2 bale a day on average.  Litter depth grew by approx 1' per month - but that won't be linear, as the older stuff will compress more over time.

In short, we would expect that pen to need mucking out (whether fully or partially) once during a four-month winter, or they would be stepping out over the side walls by the end!  lol

[sheeponthebrain]

its worth noteing that a the larger the pen, the drier it will stay therefore u might find by doubleing the pen size you use a third less straw.  and vice versa

and i agree with sally hairy cattle always do better and sweat less with their backs clipped

[oor wullie]

I have to muck out once in mid winter when it gets about 60cm deep but it will depend on your shed (depends how high your water trough, feeding area, door etc is).

I would consider 6 months a short winter and budget for 7 (in terms of how long cattle need housed) so if you are only housing for 4 months then you will need to calculate accordingly.

[landroverroy]

35sq m is ample room for just 2 adult highlands + offspring. It's not like you've got a whole herd chasing each other round as they establish the pecking order and bully the one at the bottom.
I use deep litter for my Herefords, but do agree that highlands  are happy outside. If you are going to keep them in then make sure you have a very well ventilated shed.
As for the litter - with that size pen you won't need to muck them out till spring. I bed mine down every day so they've always got a clean place to lie down. As the bed builds up you should find the bottom layer starts to break down. I would most definitely not rotovate the bed every day. You will just be bringing up all the wet stuff that has drained to the bottom, for your animals to lie on. Wait till spring, then when the shed is clear you pile all the bedding into a heap and let it rot down, like a compost heap. The straw will break down to short lengths and you will have a nice friable compost that's easy to apply to the soil.

[PipKelpy]

We deep bedded with original herd years ago then one winter left all out as weren't able to do the work.

Now, with my new herd, we've gone full circle and the shippon has been set up properly. The stalls that my granddad and mum once milked are set with mats for the cattle.

Cleaned out minimum twice a day and watched on cameras and listening to smooth fm!!

[cloddopper]

Deep litter crew yards 3 x 15 foot bays square often had up to 15 full grown steers or cows in them over winter when I was a kid back in the1950's  Sometimes they had pigs in them instead .

 The initial 18 inch bed of straw was put in , the cattle feed  hay manger  stood on top in the middle . There was also a lage heavy cast iron  trough feeder  that got dried  sugarbeet pulp & molassas , rolled grains  , chopped hay an inch or so long  grated mangolds & sileage put in it almost every day .

 Every Saturday morning the garth man ( My uncle the cow handler ) would put another six inch layer of clean wheat straw on top of the litter . The open exposed part of the crew yard  needed more straw than the parts under the open roofs for it often got soaking wet . There was  drainage sump outside the crew yards where all the pee & rain drained off into .  The farmer   emptied it every few weeks to use as liquid manure once it had been diluted .

 In Napoleonic times it was put in barrels & sold or taken away by the government to make explosives using the high nitrogen content as part of the gunpowder making process.


 Come spring after the cattle had been turned out into the fields  a month or so later towards the end of April when time allowed the workers would hand fork out  a three foot or four foot  thick layer of compacted muck & pee soaked straw . Often using a stack cutting knife to cut it into  18 inch squares to make it easier to fork out the crew yard .  The advent of front loader tines was a real boon to the land workers but it also reduced their income for muck carting was usually paid for at piecework rates .

 Once loaded in the one & a half ton horse drawn muck cart & later on to the tractors & 2 ton trailers it was carted out to a big muck hill in a field , stacked pyramid style some 12 to 15 foot high  and left there to compost till after the school summer holidays .
Till the farmer was ready for muck spreading and ploughing the old wheat fields over for next years root crops …. usually potatoes 
 Sometimes the same field would have been left fallow a year having been thinly sown with clover for a hay crop and also finally fed with well light dressing of the well rotted rotted manure several weeks before ploughing to use the clover to fix the nitrogen in the soil for growing sugar beet , peas or beans &  mangolds the next year .