Collecting Yard Design

[early riser]

We are at the very early stages of planning a new milking parlour and handling setup. We are looking to utilise an existing building to house the parlour but we are restricted for length and will struggle to accommodate a big enough collecting yard to the immediate rear of the parlour in a straight line.

Several questions:

1. What collecting yard space allowance per cow would you guys normally budget on in terms of m2 or ft2 per cow for a medium sized 600kg HF?

Dairy engineer has suggested 1.4m2 would be sufficient, but Dairyco recommends nearer 2 sq metres? No real consensus amongst the 'experts'.

2. Does anybody have an 'L-shaped' collecting yard and get away with it from a cow flow point of view?

Obviously the ideal would be to have a long narrow collecting yard in a straight line behind the parlour, but we would not be able to do this without having it extending outdoors uncovered - which is what we are trying to avoid due to dirty water issues etc. We have another building to the side of proposed collecting yard which could provide an overflow collecting yard area, but there would be 90 degree bend for cows to hide behind (see diagram)

Thoughts please anyone

Thanks

 

[Serup]

In Denmark, by law we have to have 1,5 sq m/ big cows (holsteins, reds..)
I have a 300 sq m collective yard (about 11 x 27m), which is legal for 200 cows. I have scandinavian reds, and it can hold about 250 cows if it need to.

 

[multi power]

We are at the very early stages of planning a new milking parlour and handling setup. We are looking to utilise an existing building to house the parlour but we are restricted for length and will struggle to accommodate a big enough collecting yard to the immediate rear of the parlour in a straight line.

Several questions:

1. What collecting yard space allowance per cow would you guys normally budget on in terms of m2 or ft2 per cow for a medium sized 600kg HF?

Dairy engineer has suggested 1.4m2 would be sufficient, but Dairyco recommends nearer 2 sq metres? No real consensus amongst the 'experts'.

2. Does anybody have an 'L-shaped' collecting yard and get away with it from a cow flow point of view?

Obviously the ideal would be to have a long narrow collecting yard in a straight line behind the parlour, but we would not be able to do this without having it extending outdoors uncovered - which is what we are trying to avoid due to dirty water issues etc. We have another building to the side of proposed collecting yard which could provide an overflow collecting yard area, but there would be 90 degree bend for cows to hide behind (see diagram)

View attachment 457778

Thoughts please anyone

Thanks

How wide is that collecting yard?
65 x 50 here , but I will double check, 160 cow's fit or 180 at a push

 

[multi power]

Having some around the corner is ok, as long as someone else will push them in once a few rows have been milked

 

[simmy_bull]

If you can extend outside/uncovered in a straight line would it not be possible to cover this at some point in time?

 

[early riser]

Collecting yard on initial plans is only 23ft wide (width of parlour) but could be pushed to say 33ft wide if we nibbled into the area designated for handling and placed the seg pens somewhere else. That would be sufficient for 120 cows @ 1.5m2/hd.

 

[early riser]

If you can extend outside/uncovered in a straight line would it not be possible to cover this at some point in time?

If extended the building would run across the face of a silage pit so not straight forward to cover over, unless we relocated silage pit

 

[Big_D]

Don't think having an L shaped collecting yard would be end of world as long as there is a decent sized straight section directly behind parlour. I certainly wouldn't push the parlour further forward to increase collecting yard space at the expense of exit area which may be a tempting option.

 

[Fergieman]

We have a 'U' shaped collecting yard. so the cows turn 180degrees in the collecting yard, there is plenty of width and space for them to do this so doesn't cause a problem.

 

[Coldbrook]

With regards to L shaped yard , I've seen a 3/4 round one (PAC man shaped) with a backing gate hinged in the middle.

 

[Agrispeed]

Cows should in theory follow the group, so they should walk around the corner on their own, so they stick with their mates.

I've milked in parlours with about 30' behind the parlour with a 10' gate to an outside collecting yard halfway down. Worked surprisingly well, and the less dominant cows could get out the way of the others. The only problem was that cows in the outside collecting yard could see others coming out the parlour so occasionally they would stand and watch, but generally it worked very well, and that was without feeding in the parlour, so with feeding I would think you would be fine.

 

[rusty]

How are you going to get cows into your handling race? I have my race parallel to the parlour. My collecting yard is wider than the parlour so when we are doing vet PD etc we put cows in collecting yard and use backing gate to push them into handling race. Ours is a 20/40 parlour and can usually get 9 cows in the race.

 

[early riser]

Handling race and parlour exit passage would be parallel to the parlour on the other side of the shed.

I have relief milked in an L-shaped setup years ago and it wasn't too much drama IIRC, just had to jump out of the pit and push the last half a dozen cows round that were hiding behind the corner. Also milked in a U-shaped setup in a stone barn which again only required getting out of the pit once to shut the remaining cows from outside into the yard directly behind parlour. Didn't like not being able to see bulling cows the other side of the wall while milking though

I want this to be a one-man setup so don't want to be getting out of the pit too often during milking, but I could live with getting out once at the end of milking if it saved the alternative of building a green-field site and the ££££ that goes with that.......

 

[HasthorpeGrange]

Where will the cows be entering the collecting yard? They want to be entering so the are facing in the right direction, towards the parlour

 

[early riser]

@HasthorpeGrange cows will enter from gable end of building i.e. facing the parlour but would then have to filter to side a bit to all fit in if that makes sense

It wouldn't be ideal but it is sort of how our existing setup operates and that works ok

@Big_D how much exit room would you want to see in front of parlour? Working on about 15ft at the moment based on parlour salesman recommendation

 

[Big_D]

@HasthorpeGrange cows will enter from gable end of building i.e. facing the parlour but would then have to filter to side a bit to all fit in if that makes sense

It wouldn't be ideal but it is sort of how our existing setup operates and that works ok

@Big_D how much exit room would you want to see in front of parlour? Working on about 15ft at the moment based on parlour salesman recommendation

It think it depends more on how soon they encounter a single file situation e.g shedding gate after leaving parlour, need to be able to disperse all 12 cows so one awkward sod not moving doesn't block the whole exit, we only have 6ft in front of parlour leading straight into single file passage which is not ideal! 15ft sounds pretty decent for a 12 aside if the 15ft carries on into the handling area. Look forward to dfollowing progress!

 

[multi power]

@early riser , I had a measure up, 60x50 and had 180 cow's in there

 

[early riser]

@early riser , I had a measure up, 60x50 and had 180 cow's in there

1.5 square metres per cow then, guessing your cows will be a smaller crossbred type on your organic system?

 

[multi power]

1.5 square metres per cow then, guessing your cows will be a smaller crossbred type on your organic system?

They are autumn calving so a little bit bigger than some grazing types, mostly Friesian type, 550 kg I would say, i know that that amount of cow's won't fit in the yard by late summer when heavy in calve

 

[BouMatic Man]

1.5m/cow would be ok. if your loading form the bottom and you only have a 6m gate you will probably find they wont use much of the the L shape bit as they will all try to go straight on. I would widen the entire yard by another 1m and extend it at the bottom end where required. If its raining after the first couple of rows they will all move up anyway.