[Rosemary]

We have three cows and a bull at the moment. It might be up next winter depending on what we get calf wise this summer. Because we have limited grazing and it's prone to being wet, we house the cattle from 1st November to 1st May or thereabouts.

Previously (and this year) we've loose housed them on straw. About 1/3 of the total concrete area is bedded, and the remaining 2/3 has the water tough, the ring feeder, the licky bucket and loafing space and this is where they get tied up to be fed everyday.

The concrete area is scraped clean every day and the bed area topped up.

But the cows are still dirty and I hate it. I bathed one side of Annie today; I'll do the other half tomorrow.

I'm considering building cubicles for them next year. I've sort of got a a plan in my head of a 4" x 4" framed base filled with sand and topped with rubber mats. That would give a 4" high kerb, which isn't too high for them to step up. I'd put either sawdust or chopped straw as a wee bed topping.

I guess the cubicles have to be as deep as the cattle are long so that they can stand comfortabley but dung off the cubicle. How wide though? It has to be comfy but not wide enough to allow them to turn round.

Dividers made from 4" x 4" timber?

Thoughts and advice welcome.

[SallyintNorth]

Have a read of the materials on the IAE site.  Linky.  When we upgraded the cubicles at ex-BH's, the IAE materials had loads of info about the distances you need according to the size of your beasts.

Well-designed cubicles are wonderful.  Badly-designed or -installed cubicles can be extremely dangerous.

[Rosemary]

Badly-designed or -installed cubicles can be extremely dangerous.

Yes, that's my concern

[landroverroy]

Why don't you just deep litter them and just straw down the dung pats each day, so they always have a clean area to lie on? That way they keep much cleaner, and less work as you just muck out once a year.

[SallyintNorth]

Why don't you just deep litter them and just straw down the dung pats each day, so they always have a clean area to lie on? That way they keep much cleaner, and less work as you just muck out once a year.

Very interested in the responses to this, as this is our plan for our new barn!

[Bionic]

OH has a mentor, a lifelong farmer, and he has suggested  that our cattle (which we don't yet have) are deep littered.
It didn't sound very healthy to us but apparently is the preferred method for health and wellbeing.

[Rosemary]

Why don't you just deep litter them and just straw down the dung pats each day, so they always have a clean area to lie on? That way they keep much cleaner, and less work as you just muck out once a year.

That's what we currently do. And mucking out by hand once  a year is a mammoth task.

[Rosemary]

OH has a mentor, a lifelong farmer, and he has suggested  that our cattle (which we don't yet have) are deep littered.
It didn't sound very healthy to us but apparently is the preferred method for health and wellbeing.

I can't keep ours clean. The straw area is bedded every day; the concrete area (loafing and feeding) is scraped every day. The cows are dirty. The dairy sector uses cubicles as it keeps the cows cleaner.

The good thing about deep straw is that you get amazing manure - but mucking it out is very hard work unless you have or hire machinery.

[SallyintNorth]

The dairy sector uses cubicles as it keeps the cows cleaner.

Although it does, I think the major driver for cubicles in dairying is to make sure that every cow has a comfortable place to lie down and cud and sleep, because in an open strawed area, the bully cows will dominate the space and the weaker cows will be pushed to the edge.  Cows need to spend 8 hours a day sleeping and 8 hours a day cuddling (I think those are the right figures) for optimum milk production, so anything which interferes with a cow's resting will cost milk.

[SallyintNorth]

I can't keep ours clean. The straw area is bedded every day; the concrete area (loafing and feeding) is scraped every day. The cows are dirty.

I know you will have spent time watching them; we all love to watch our cattle!   Have you been able to determine why / where they are getting dirty?  I'm asking because we are going to build our new barn this year, and do want to use loose housing, so if there are lessons to be learned...!  Having been back to Monkton Wyld to chat with Simon about their setup there, we're planning something similar.  So the indoors areas will be fully strawed and they'll have access to a loafing yard which will be scraped every day.  Simon's cows were spotless...

[Bionic]

OH has a mentor, a lifelong farmer, and he has suggested  that our cattle (which we don't yet have) are deep littered.
It didn't sound very healthy to us but apparently is the preferred method for health and wellbeing.

I can't keep ours clean. The straw area is bedded every day; the concrete area (loafing and feeding) is scraped every day. The cows are dirty. The dairy sector uses cubicles as it keeps the cows cleaner.

The good thing about deep straw is that you get amazing manure - but mucking it out is very hard work unless you have or hire machinery.

It seems that round this way they hire a man with machine once a year to do the dirty work.

[SallyintNorth]

Yup, that’s our plan Sally. We’d need him to do the muck spreading anyway

[shep53]

No one considered  deep litter using sawdust , often you don't need to clean out   after one winter  .   Straw beds  are easier to keep clean if the cows are on hay/straw as opposed to silage /haylage  ,also a hardcore base allows for better drainage than concrete but can be harder to empty come spring .   Cubicles took over from loose housing for dairy , because   you can get more cows in less space + no straw to buy +  less damage to teats from other cows standing on them . Rosemary if you are bedding every day you cows should be spotless ,are  some of them lying down not on the straw area ?

[Rosemary]

For the avoidance of doubt, I bed them every day and scrape the concrete and yes, they are filthy. They obvioulsy dung a lot more frequently than I can cover up - if I did, the bed would be to the ceiling and I wouldn't have time to do anything else than cover up cow dung.

Maybe they're just particularly mucky buggers. Seriously considering putting the pressure washer on them.

[Rosemary]

No one considered  deep litter using sawdust , often you don't need to clean out   after one winter  .   

I use teh shed for other things when the cattle go out.