Housing the sucklers

[AndrewG]

Cow health is definitely better outside!! Outwintered my sucklers on kale and bales this winter, best thing for them, the cows that have been out have had no issues at all in comparison to my cubicle housed cows regarding health. Didn't even have to turn a key on to feed them.

I would love to feed all the cows on kale n bales, I do strip graze ewes on forage crops, however it's just too wet and I don't have enough dry ground to crop for the ewes and cows.

What sort of health issues do you find indoors?

 

[Manx Fella]

Have you considered cubicles for suckers? We house 100 Limmy X on cubicles with rubber mats, not as expensive as you think! We scrape out over a ramp in to a west duel spreader every day, takes about 20 mins to empty spreader depending on how far you have to travel.

 

[Cowcalf]

stick with your system , I brought mine in last week off hill ground 13 miles from home for calving all looking fit and healthy, Its not all roses indoors

 

[AndrewG]

How do you feed them on the hill?

 

[Cowcalf]

How do you feed them on the hill?

Only feed one lot with hay rolled down the hill, the others have old grass and some barley and minerals which gets them coming to a call and keeps condition on them. Incredible how well they do on old grass with a thick dry bed to lie on, but all hills are different

 

[sheepwise]

Get the shed built,money is cheap and even at a more realistic cost of £250,000 will cost you less than £7k a year in interest which you will probably save in labour alone.Alternatively, build a smaller shed and house half the cows initially and assess the pros and cons.Then in a couple of years build your second shed with the benefit of knowing the alterations you would make to you initial shed.

 

[AndrewG]

Saw a really good shed on a monitor farm meeting, 100x50 feed barrier under canopy, 2 pens deep then a feed passage and another row of slats. Held 150 cows and they looked good and very clean

 

[Cowcalf]

Saw a really good shed on a monitor farm meeting, 100x50 feed barrier under canopy, 2 pens deep then a feed passage and another row of slats. Held 150 cows and they looked good and very clean
View attachment 647950

thats a small square footage per head

 

[Sethieboy]

I would love to feed all the cows on kale n bales, I do strip graze ewes on forage crops, however it's just too wet and I don't have enough dry ground to crop for the ewes and cows.

What sort of health issues do you find indoors?

A little bit of everything really. Lameness, had the odd abortion with cows that were being fed perfectly good silage, mastitis, cows not lying in cubicles. I would admit though for obvious reasons that you couldn't out winter cattle on every farm but keeping a low stocking density on an out wintered field does help a lot.

 

[Manx Fella]

 

[Manx Fella]

I don’t have any trouble with lameness apart from from a few going a bit pinchy on the their feet a week after housing, but that soon passes, will try and get a good photo of main cubicle house in the night

 

[jamesy]

You’d be closer to £2k per cow for slatted shed I’d say

 

[AndrewG]

@SolwayFarmer had some pictures up of a tidy shed costing £80000 for 120 head, sounded quite reasonable.

 

[holywell farmer]

View attachment 653080

Many housed in that shed ?

 

[Manx Fella]

Many housed in that shed ?

85

 

[dannewhouse]

what about slatted tank but no roof over it? seen it on here somewhere up Scotland not long ago?
I wouldn't do the 50:50 idea as you will still have to trail all the way up the hill but for less cattle?
I feed sucklers with a mixer wagon, at 2k + 8 knives at £20 or something its not a lot of money, I do use more diesel obviously but I believe it opens up opportunity to feed more/ less to certain pens and reduces competition at the feed fence.

as for some of the costings.
I put a building up 3 year ago, conc floor with conc panels to divide into 4 pens of 25 cattle (its 120x50+cantilever) and it would have cost 50k if I hadn't gone out of the house to do anything. that's £500 per cow space.
recently had a rough guestimate of 50k to put a tank under similar shed and slats etc basically back up to ground level so with 8k in my concrete floor my reckoning is a shed to house 100+ on slats would be 92k depending on location etc.

I'm looking at putting a shed up 100-120ft wide on slats debating central feed passage or cantilevers. would you put slats right up to feed barrier as a local shed had grief with them blocking like that but this was in 80's another shed had a 15ft passage by feed fence.