Calf shed ideas

[Headless chicken]

With calving 19 drawing to a close for us im turning my attention to getting things ready for next autumn as it will be on us before we know it.

we have some changes that I know we need to make that will make life a fair bit easier and speed the job up.

things I’m stuck on is how are others bedding down? Currently we group house pens of 10 and it works well. No straw chopper here and no plan to have one so it’s by hand currently and distance is going to be add up going back and forth especially with more calves next year. Looking for an inventive way of making it less labour intensive and to loose less straw by carrying it. Has anyone fitted a monorail like metcalf for anywhere near sensible money?

cake troughs - has anyone made any big enough to feed 10 calves and it actually been worth while compared to buying them?

weighing powder - this year we used a milk cart mixer and then gun dispenser How do others weigh powder accurately?

water - how are others getting consistent temps and metering correctly?

hygiene - do some people have a feeder per pen in order to reduce risk of spreading disease? Any recommendations for feeders as we bought another kiwikit 10 teat and really not that impressed compared to the old one.
Are sheeted gates worth it between pens? Thinking out load a couple
Hundred quick on stockboard might be money well spent?

 

[Blue.]

Gave up on the idea of a monorail,was thinking a trolley that held a bale would be better.
Made some troughs out of gas bottles,heavy but last.
Always count jugs into the milk taxi.
Have a water heater permanently on for filling the milk taxi and warm water drink for fresh calvers.
Still use buckets and hutches/ibcs,I need calves to do well to top the market so they get spoilt.

 

[Beef farmer]

Split pens with straw bales. Perfect. Breeze over the top, sheltered down low

 

[Beef farmer]

You got a skidsteer headless?

 

[Headless chicken]

You got a skidsteer headless?

no sold it a couple years back as it was lethal in the wrong hands.

we do have a matbro tr200 which is fairly nimble just a faf getting in and out all the time.

 

[Headless chicken]

Split pens with straw bales. Perfect. Breeze over the top, sheltered down low

do you give them a roof as well?

 

[Beef farmer]

do you give them a roof as well?

Half roofed. Shanty town. When finished, take it all down. You only want to rear 40 heifers? Your beef gets sold as calfs?

 

[pappuller]

do you give them a roof as well?

Will you ?[emoji848]

 

[Princess Pooper]

We use 7ft square bales. I've got an olympic javelin thrower's strength right arm from lobbing wads of straw into our groups of 8 in pens (15 ft square) and my accuracy for the ring feeders is pretty good too (unless it's windy). Our 3 pens are in an L shape so I don't need to move far from where the bale was plonked with the foreloader.
If you have a nice long run of concrete along the front of the pens, anything like this suitable? https://www.stubbsengland.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=380

Used to use a similar one many moons ago but that was with little bales.

 

[Headless chicken]

Half roofed. Shanty town. When finished, take it all down. You only want to rear 40 heifers? Your beef gets sold as calfs?

Closer to double that for a few years until I can weed out the crap but realistically 50
Odd should be ample I hope. Then yes all other calves will be gone

Will you ?[emoji848]

Calf shed is roofed just not many sides. Cubicles no roof but sides.
I’m amazed how content the cows are though without a roof on.

 

[Headless chicken]

We use 7ft square bales. I've got an olympic javelin thrower's strength right arm from lobbing wads of straw into our groups of 8 in pens (15 ft square) and my accuracy for the ring feeders is pretty good too (unless it's windy). Our 3 pens are in an L shape so I don't need to move far from where the bale was plonked with the foreloader.
If you have a nice long run of concrete along the front of the pens, anything like this suitable? https://www.stubbsengland.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=380

Used to use a similar one many moons ago but that was with little bales.

That was my next thought. No concrete but it may just work although you’d be knackered after lugging a bale around.

 

[Beef farmer]

It's all about routine

 

[TomB]

We use rapestraw bales as pen walls, and put barley bales in the pen, and on top of the rape bales so usually have enough straw there to last till weaning. The larger crystalyx tubs or blue barrels cut in half will do as cake troughs. My milk mixer seems to be the right size fro a whole bag of powder, but I have a jug (couple of litres?) that I have weighed and is about 5 calves worth of powder so use it as a scoop. All milk bar breeders here, 1 in each pen. Some moneys worth but have built them up over the years (oldest must nearly be 20yrs?) and fairly speeds the job up. Minimal contact between pens so if you get a problem in one pen you can usually stop it spreading.

Have you got the roof on that cow shed yet?

 

[buffalo_soldier]

I'm a bit fancy as I have 2 sheds with bespoke internals.

I've tried all sorts of combinations over the years and for me pens of 10 for the milk phase are optimum.
Then 3 of the 10's are amalgamated where TMR training starts. This is where I'm about at currently.
When fully TMR they are moved to the second shed.

The beef department works best in groups of 7's weirdly.

I do have a straw blower though.

 

[Headless chicken]

We use rapestraw bales as pen walls, and put barley bales in the pen, and on top of the rape bales so usually have enough straw there to last till weaning. The larger crystalyx tubs or blue barrels cut in half will do as cake troughs. My milk mixer seems to be the right size fro a whole bag of powder, but I have a jug (couple of litres?) that I have weighed and is about 5 calves worth of powder so use it as a scoop. All milk bar breeders here, 1 in each pen. Some moneys worth but have built them up over the years (oldest must nearly be 20yrs?) and fairly speeds the job up. Minimal contact between pens so if you get a problem in one pen you can usually stop it spreading.

Have you got the roof on that cow shed yet?

how do you find they eat from the blue barrels? We use them when they’re weaned normally and they show a real preference to gate mounted troughs.
No roof yet shall be a bloody big party when there is!!

 

[Headless chicken]

I'm a bit fancy as I have 2 sheds with bespoke internals.

I've tried all sorts of combinations over the years and for me pens of 10 for the milk phase are optimum.
Then 3 of the 10's are amalgamated where TMR training starts. This is where I'm about at currently.
When fully TMR they are moved to the second shed.

The beef department works best in groups of 7's weirdly.

I do have a straw blower though.

Is that 10 on a 10 teat? And is it the same one per pen or moved?

 

[Headless chicken]

We use rapestraw bales as pen walls, and put barley bales in the pen, and on top of the rape bales so usually have enough straw there to last till weaning. The larger crystalyx tubs or blue barrels cut in half will do as cake troughs. My milk mixer seems to be the right size fro a whole bag of powder, but I have a jug (couple of litres?) that I have weighed and is about 5 calves worth of powder so use it as a scoop. All milk bar breeders here, 1 in each pen. Some moneys worth but have built them up over the years (oldest must nearly be 20yrs?) and fairly speeds the job up. Minimal contact between pens so if you get a problem in one pen you can usually stop it spreading.

Have you got the roof on that cow shed yet?

do you just leave the feeders in all the time or do you hook them off when they’ve finished?

 

[buffalo_soldier]

Yeah 10 on a 10.
They start in 2's in the nursery.

Each pen has its own feeder. Can peak at around 100 calves. So can't be faffing.

 

[Beef farmer]

for beefys that will be sold at 3 weeks.

 

[bigw]

We have these for feeding nuts

Small Pellet Feeder – Wydale Plastics Limited

Take a look at our Small Pellet Feeder which is made from the same tough and durable polyethylene which has proven itself over many years of service.

www.wydaleplastics.co.uk