Best Cubicle House Setup?

[BKFarmer]

Hi, have been trying to plan a greenfield 2 robot shed. Many options have been drawn. Thinking of delaval robots with milk first setup. Siting robots in the middle of the shed with cubicles at either end to run as 2 groups fresh and stale.

The question is do i put a central tank under the robots and separation pens for slurry (20mx25mx3m). Then using robotic scraper to scrape slurry from feed and cubicle passages to central tank (max distance to scrape would be 30m). Is solid concrete floors adequate or slats over a channel?
Or try sand cubicles as cows will be housed all year round but worried about slurry system to use and the expense of setting up and maintaining. Would scrape (with robotic scraper) sand ladened slurry to a channel which would drain to a sloped reception settling tank with a weir to a second tank with a weir into a third tank to supply a separator. Liquid fraction would go to tank under robots.

Would the sand system work with settling tanks being scraped out when sedimented up. Or would sand fill tank under robot or destroy pumps and tankers?

Would maintaing sand cubicles be a lot more time consuming compared to mattresses and sawdust/lime mix.
Any advantage of the sand mattress setups over deep sand cubicles?

Sorry for the multiple questions!

 

[zyklon]

The Delaval robots are better worked with the feed passage and robots separated from the cubicles. What I mean is the cows have to enter the feeding area before they can enter the robots. If they want back out to the cubicles to lay down, the cows are read and those that need to be milked are diverted to a pen for milking or turned back out to the cubicles. Stops smart greedy cows from entering the robot wasting milking time for others.

This also sorts the problem of cows being lazy whatever and not going to the robot to be milked. They can't sleep, eat and go back and sleep. It's sleep, eat, milk if required and sleep again.

For your shed, everyone is different. I am a slatted tank only farmer. I hate the sight of solid floors. Been there done that and it doesn't matter if you have scrapers, an all slated tank with scrapers is the best. Cows are cleaner and why waste ground when you can put it under the shed. Not a fan of sand even though it's a great job but I stick to sawdust on a Wilson mattress. No hassle with wrecking the pumps on tankers and with all the water from robots entering the slatted tank, mixing is easy.

Slatted tanks are costly but for me, You wouldn't pay me to do a shed without a slatted tank.

Most robotic systems around me have the robots on a slated tank.

 

[upnortheast]

Not sure where you are but you are welcome to have a visit to see ours. Been copied by other folk.
I think sand and under slat tanks are no good unless you have a means of driving under with a bobcat or something.

 

[BKFarmer]

yeah meant to say will be four row of cubicles with feed passage on one side and along the gables to provide enough space for all cows to feed at once. open fronted single cubicle will run along feed passage to close it off and then non return gates.
To tank the whole shed would give me over two years slurry storage. May be cheaper to tank passages only or a shallower tank? like the idea of avoiding piers and precast cubicle beds!

 

[bigw]

Not sure where you are but you are welcome to have a visit to see ours. Been copied by other folk.
I think sand and under slat tanks are no good unless you have a means of driving under with a bobcat or something.

View attachment 445486

Lovely shed. Whats the width?

 

[Headless chicken]

Sand and slats is a disaster. I'm no robot expert but I assume the idea is to leave them as undisturbed as possible. So to bed down you don't want to get them up so sawdust either via bag or little ride on machine. Sand would mean pushing cows out of a set of cubicles in order to get a handler in

 

[pappuller]

@upnortheast great photo but just one question and a general question for farmers milking cows on robots, you seem to have a larger % of your cows standing in a cubicle than the so called experts preach you should have, we have the same issue but with no great foot issues, do you think that it is because they are not having to stand for 4 or 5 hours a day for the pre post milking routine ? speaking to other robot farmers locally they all say cows do appear to spend more time standing than a parlour milked cow. in answer to the op I think a slatted shed would be bob on if the budget would allow, you will also increase your storage capacity due to no rainwater entering the tank.

 

[Scholsey]

Not a great picture but have a 4 robot shed with central passage as wanted locking yokes. Could be 2 robots each side but only have 3 as have a dry cow yard in the 4th corner at the mo.

Have eco slats under the robots and where the cows enter/exit and saves me hours a week. Can wash down in 5 mins a day, auto scrapers go within 6 inches of the robots.

Not on sand have waterbeds with sawdust, use £15 worth of sawdust a day to do 210 cubicles with a wheelbarrow and shovel.

 

[farmerste]

Not sure where you are but you are welcome to have a visit to see ours. Been copied by other folk.
I think sand and under slat tanks are no good unless you have a means of driving under with a bobcat or something.

View attachment 445486

like the shed but is there a reason why you didn't go for 2 rows of head to head cubicles instead of what you have. must say that i prefer your idea as i never like having cows backing onto feed passage

 

[Fergieman]

Not got robots, but got to be slatted passages. Feet are always dry and cleaner. Slurry is little hassle and apart from mixing it once a month, mechanicaly free.

 

[Fergieman]

like the shed but is there a reason why you didn't go for 2 rows of head to head cubicles instead of what you have. must say that i prefer your idea as i never like having cows backing onto feed passage

In that design you can shut the cows in the feed passage to sawdust up. Two rows of head to head are not so easy to bed up.

 

[Headless chicken]

I always get a little jelouse when I see your shed @Fergieman very nice setup.

@Scholsey were the locking yokes worth it? Would you put them in again?

 

[Fergieman]

Locking Yokes, well worth it. Vet visits, vaccinations, clipping, worming all done in the yokes. Shut them in the feed passage, feed them, pull the levers, and go away for 10 mins and you a row of cows all locked up.

 

[Headless chicken]

Locking Yokes, well worth it. Vet visits, vaccinations, clipping, worming all done in the yokes. Shut them in the feed passage, feed them, pull the levers, and go away for 10 mins and you a row of cows all locked up.

What make do you have??

We're due to finish the shed this year and they're on the list but it is an extra cost

 

[Fergieman]

De Boer.

They are an extra cost and I did think long and hard about it when we built our shed compared to just putting up a single feed rail but pleased I went with the yokes. Not sure if they are the answer for TB testing mind, for regular TB testing a herringbone race will be better.

 

[upnortheast]

like the shed but is there a reason why you didn't go for 2 rows of head to head cubicles instead of what you have. must say that i prefer your idea as i never like having cows backing onto feed passage

For the reason you say.

 

[upnortheast]

Lovely shed. Whats the width?

92 foot internal with a 1 metre cantilever on each side to shelter the feed

 

[upnortheast]

@upnortheast great photo but just one question and a general question for farmers milking cows on robots, you seem to have a larger % of your cows standing in a cubicle than the so called experts preach.

Must say I`ve never noticed that. Maybe in a conventional set up the cows are all doing the same thing at the same time. With a robot system each cow is doing her own thing, so at any moment some will be eating, a couple getting milked,a few waiting to be milked some drinking, some sleeping and some just dossing about

 

[Scholsey]

We TB tested in 45 minutes for the jabbing and 5 minutes for the reading, 140 animals, cows didn't even know they were being done, Brilliant, vet visits doesn't effect milkings at all.

 

[BKFarmer]

you haven't found self locking yokes reduce forage DM intakes?