- Location
- Huntingdon, UK
Thought I'd put some pictures up of the new cattle shed build we completed in the autumn. One shed needed replacing, and while we were at it we altered the feed passage set up. In this particular building, we doubled the yard space and went from 2 yards to 4 or 5.
The cattle used to feed through diagonal barriers, but this makes the yard very mucky, and unless you muck the yard out regularly the fat cattle always need clipping before slaughter.
The system we use now (trialled in 2 yards already seems to work very well for us. We have an 80ft wide shed, with a 20ft wide passage down one side. There is a feed trough on both sides of this passage. The cattle can be shut out (allowing us to fill the troughs), in (allowing us to muck the yard out) or free roaming (most of the time).
Compared to diagonal feed fronts, this gives a larger bedded area and a larger feeding area, allowing more cattle to be housed in the same building. We slop the passage out once a week, saving muck in the yards and keeping the cattle cleaner.
I've attached a plan as it can get quite confusing! The gates are shown in green.
This shows the yards set up as 5 yards.
This next plan shows the shed set up as 4 yards. The 5th yard is used if we need to keep 2-3 animals separate for whatever reason. As you can see, the far right hand yards can be made bigger or smaller by moving the gates to a different post. The 'horizontal' lone green gate in this area allows the gates to be made into a Z shape, so the very right hand yard can be small ish (as above) large ish (as below) or a happy medium. The gate in line with these in the feed passage is on a slider so the amount of feedspace can be altered with the yard size.
This was the old building! The stanchions were telegraph poles and way past their best.
Doing some demolition. The two sheds left will stay, the new shed joins onto these, covering the left hand end of the plans above, so the feed passage will be just inside the closest building.
New shed finished, digger back sorting the floor.
Laying concrete for the feed passage. Concreting's easy with a crawler box in the tractor!
A few concrete panels....
Half of the steel needed....
This is the biggest water trough, which waters 3 yards. We suffer from really bad water pressure, we have to have big tanks to store it, our water in running most of the time. If the waters off for 6 hours, it's 3 days before our tanks are full again!
So we have to put frames around the tanks to stop the cattle getting in them.
The first yard complete. The majority of the tank is clad in stock board to keep straw and muck out the water. There is a door in it on the end you can't see, so there is only about 4 square feet of water that can get mucky. Floor is crushed limestone. The heat and moisture from the muck sets it like concrete after the first year, and it's a lot cheaper!
Part 2 coming momentarily!
The cattle used to feed through diagonal barriers, but this makes the yard very mucky, and unless you muck the yard out regularly the fat cattle always need clipping before slaughter.
The system we use now (trialled in 2 yards already seems to work very well for us. We have an 80ft wide shed, with a 20ft wide passage down one side. There is a feed trough on both sides of this passage. The cattle can be shut out (allowing us to fill the troughs), in (allowing us to muck the yard out) or free roaming (most of the time).
Compared to diagonal feed fronts, this gives a larger bedded area and a larger feeding area, allowing more cattle to be housed in the same building. We slop the passage out once a week, saving muck in the yards and keeping the cattle cleaner.
I've attached a plan as it can get quite confusing! The gates are shown in green.
This shows the yards set up as 5 yards.
This next plan shows the shed set up as 4 yards. The 5th yard is used if we need to keep 2-3 animals separate for whatever reason. As you can see, the far right hand yards can be made bigger or smaller by moving the gates to a different post. The 'horizontal' lone green gate in this area allows the gates to be made into a Z shape, so the very right hand yard can be small ish (as above) large ish (as below) or a happy medium. The gate in line with these in the feed passage is on a slider so the amount of feedspace can be altered with the yard size.
This was the old building! The stanchions were telegraph poles and way past their best.
Doing some demolition. The two sheds left will stay, the new shed joins onto these, covering the left hand end of the plans above, so the feed passage will be just inside the closest building.
New shed finished, digger back sorting the floor.
Laying concrete for the feed passage. Concreting's easy with a crawler box in the tractor!
A few concrete panels....
Half of the steel needed....
This is the biggest water trough, which waters 3 yards. We suffer from really bad water pressure, we have to have big tanks to store it, our water in running most of the time. If the waters off for 6 hours, it's 3 days before our tanks are full again!
So we have to put frames around the tanks to stop the cattle getting in them.
The first yard complete. The majority of the tank is clad in stock board to keep straw and muck out the water. There is a door in it on the end you can't see, so there is only about 4 square feet of water that can get mucky. Floor is crushed limestone. The heat and moisture from the muck sets it like concrete after the first year, and it's a lot cheaper!
Part 2 coming momentarily!
