Best Cubicle House Setup?

[Scholsey]

Haven't got anyway of comparing it to the old manger set up so not sure but have cows giving 76kg of milk so guess their eating a fair bit

 

[Chips]

Our vet warned me about reduced dm untakes with yokes , but I went ahead anyway , he now says new research is out that shows increased dm intakes due to boss cows not pushing lower ranking cows out the way . Mine certainly seem to eat me out of house and home anyway !
Re robot location , just make sure you have your straw pack/calving pens within a few feet of robots so weak cows can be milked with minimal walking on concrete . Mine is now like this and makes training heifers easier as I can run them through robot to feed for a couple of days pre calving

 

[Ducati899]

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

We took ours out,had them either side of feed passage but only half the length of shed and cows much preferred to feed where there was just a rail

 

[Fergieman]

We took ours out,had them either side of feed passage but only half the length of shed and cows much preferred to feed where there was just a rail

Thats like a guy putting in Robots and keeping the parlour going. The robots never seem to work as well on a farm that has both running.

 

[Ducati899]

I never wanted them,but were already in when we moved here

 

[Boysground]

I dont know much about Robot setups or slats but do have a fair experience with sand and separation. We have deep sand cubicles, auto scrapers and a separation system. Sand is great for cows and rubbish for anything mechanical it touches. I found that sand does not settle from slurry unless there is water in with it. So I would be cautious of having a settlement system before the separator. Separate and settle after, I have a carrier type separator with a rotary screen which works best if it has a fair amount of water mixed with the slurry. A screw press separator will be destroyed by sand. The sand will then settle very quickly from the separated liquid. Ours goes into a fair sized lagoon which we dig out a couple of times a year.

The separator will wear, we probably go through a screen a year at £900. The first pump we had was supposed to be sand resistant and lasted 6 weeks, 2 re builds later we put a proper pump in and that has worked fine ever since but it wasnt cheap.

Bg

 

[upnortheast]

More about our shed. The pic was taken above the 2 robots. Behind the robots we have a 20 foot bay straw bedded for calving, fresh calved etc So total area 20ft x 92 ft The feed barrier at the end of this and the bay the robots are in are locking yokes,
Both robots can divert onto the straw area. They are nose to nose with a passage through to the straw.area. The night before a vet visit we set the pd etc cows to be put on the straw. When the vet comes next morning it is just a matter of catching them in the yokes.
Under the slats is 8ft deep. It comes up by 1 ft a month. The slurry is quite "wet" as the washings from the bottling plant go in, so stirrs easily. Only thing we did not get quite right. The access holes for the stirrer are in the corners. Would have been better 1/3 & 2/3 of the way.down the shedThe stirrer nozzle turns almost 360 so would work better.
Moore concrete beds with Wilson cubicles / mats are brilliant
Put 10 i/c heifers in last week and all used the cubicles (properly ) within 24 hours

 

[upnortheast]

Pic to illistrate the above post. Straw cows can use robot on left. They can push a swinging bar to get to the robot without getting mixed with cubicle cows. Locking yokes were fitted to 2 bays are on far left and off the pic
Diverter gates turn the straw cows through the "tunnel. It`s not as clean as that now !

 

[beefandsleep]

Would you mind telling us what the shed including slats and internal steelwork cost in total without the robots please?

 

[upnortheast]

Sorry we don`t discuss that in public

 

[beefandsleep]

Fair enough

 

[BKFarmer]

@Fergieman looking at the pic of the tank you have posted. have u poured walls within the tank to replace piers and lintels? if you have done this why? and how do you mix the tank?

 

[westwards]

There is a Lely robot system in Ayrshire that is worth a look, article in the Holstien Journal about it Vtech Holstiens but you would need the help of Wonga.com

 

[Fergieman]

@Fergieman looking at the pic of the tank you have posted. have u poured walls within the tank to replace piers and lintels? if you have done this why? and how do you mix the tank?

Its called a Slalom system. As in the picture above you place the mixer at the bottom left corner where there is a hole in the wall the size of the propeller, the slurry is forced through the hole and has no way to return to the propeller without going round the slalom system. Mixing from the bottom and the whole channel of slurry moves round the system at a slow pace. Simple but it works.

 

[Fergieman]

This more like ours with a PTO mixer.

 

[BKFarmer]

how often do you pump the slurry to stop it crusting up?

 

[Fergieman]

When installed they recommended every 3 weeks. This winter it was empty when the cows came in mid October and was mixed for the first time mid December and was all broken up in a couple of hours. The secret is to keep changing direction of mixing every 10 - 15 mins. The constant pulling and then pushing of the crust helps break it up.

The ideal situation would be electric mixers on a timer so you could just leave it to get on with it itself.

 

[Suckndiesel]

When installed they recommended every 3 weeks. This winter it was empty when the cows came in mid October and was mixed for the first time mid December and was all broken up in a couple of hours. The secret is to keep changing direction of mixing every 10 - 15 mins. The constant pulling and then pushing of the crust helps break it up.

The ideal situation would be electric mixers on a timer so you could just leave it to get on with it itself.

Have you any concerns with gas and cattle in the shed at the time as mixing or what way do you work it?

 

[Fraserb]

When installed they recommended every 3 weeks. This winter it was empty when the cows came in mid October and was mixed for the first time mid December and was all broken up in a couple of hours. The secret is to keep changing direction of mixing every 10 - 15 mins. The constant pulling and then pushing of the crust helps break it up.

The ideal situation would be electric mixers on a timer so you could just leave it to get on with it itself.

Our slalom system has an electric mixer and is set to run on a timer, we've had a bit of bother with the mixer being under the slurry, would be better with a mixer like yours but driven with an electric motor.

 

[HasthorpeGrange]

Would deep sand beds work on a slatted floor if the muck was left solid underneath and emptied with a loader lifting the slats out once a year?
Like in a herd home