New Beef House

[border reiver]

Good minds think alike Dr D - your set up is very similiar to mine in layout - maybe as a result of the old mothership threads
We scrape the passage way 3 x per week as it is 160ft run and end up with 2 handler buckets full each time.Can spread straw with the chopper over the barrier with some dropping onto the passageway but if it is really windy we reverse down because the midden wall is at one end. However we use a lot of wood chip bedding as well which we drive into the pens with when cattle are shut into the feed pass.
I designed the wide space between the buildings to give room for a handling system that should go in this summer and to give more air flow.
Yes straw bedded looks expensive against slurry systems but it is cheaper to build, you can change building use easier and the value of solid manure v slurry for land improvement should not be under estimated.BUT looking to the future my sheds would accomadate 2 rows of cubicles each if circumstances change.

 

[Samcowman]

 

[multi power]

I think we will have to get more layers of wrap on our bales as I can't say no "waste at all, period" Who wraps yours contractor or yourself?
With bales now worth £30 or more it will make sense to go to 6 layers I think?

when we went to all bales at home waste silage became a thing of the past almost, 3 bad bales in a thousand, they all had holes in them, its essential to handle/stack them carefully+ stack on ends

 

[Walterp]

when we went to all bales at home waste silage became a thing of the past almost, 3 bad bales in a thousand, they all had holes in them, its essential to handle/stack them carefully+ stack on ends

A roll of CCF patches are essential, but I'm not sure that - once pierced - waste can be avoided, so care in carting (or wrapping on site) is essential as you say.

But this standing 'em on end? I know it's popular in Ireland, but I've never seen much benefit unless you've got 'soft' bales. Or you're stacking on a wet site, perhaps?

 

[Walterp]

View attachment 1827View attachment 1828

Admiring this setup, but if I were doing it I'd be tempted to have a umbrella roof, forget the cantilevers and allow the feeding passage to be covered - it's all but, now, isn't it?

Doubt it'd add anything to the cost, as the concrete and barriers are all there now?

Going a bit further, would I be incorrect to think that two cantilevered cattle buildings facing one another ought to have been better-designed, to allow a single covered feed passage - easier to feed and bed, easier to manage cattle out of pens, no 'waste' space in between, no extra costs. Or have I missed something?

 

[DrDunc]

Admiring this setup, but if I were doing it I'd be tempted to have a umbrella roof, forget the cantilevers and allow the feeding passage to be covered - it's all but, now, isn't it?

Doubt it'd add anything to the cost, as the concrete and barriers are all there now?

Going a bit further, would I be incorrect to think that two cantilevered cattle buildings facing one another ought to have been better-designed, to allow a single covered feed passage - easier to feed and bed, easier to manage cattle out of pens, no 'waste' space in between, no extra costs. Or have I missed something?

A neighbour erected two cantilevered sheds to make a centre feed passage in this manner. The reason he didn't put up a covered centre passage was on their own, each shed was below the threshold for full planning. Connecting then would have meant the neighboring bunny huggers would have objected.

He made a mistake with the concrete for the feed passage. It should have been sloped into the centre from each shed. His isn't, and with our high rainfall here, the 6" plastic gutters he fitted overflow, and rainwater enters the scrape passage.

His sheds also have no internal gates, just one big pen. To scrape out, he runs an electric horse tape down to keep them back. To muck out, they're penned into the centre passage. Separate pens for individual animals are located in another building.

 

[multi power]

A roll of CCF patches are essential, but I'm not sure that - once pierced - waste can be avoided, so care in carting (or wrapping on site) is essential as you say.

But this standing 'em on end? I know it's popular in Ireland, but I've never seen much benefit unless you've got 'soft' bales. Or you're stacking on a wet site, perhaps?

patches come off, needs to be thick black tape, put it this was i would NEVER stack bales on sides again

 

[Spartacus]

patches come off, needs to be thick black tape, put it this was i would NEVER stack bales on sides again

Why wouldn't you? I've never got it either

 

[Sir loin]

Dr Dunc are your sheds 20ft bays if so should they not be Z purlins? If they are 20ft bays what size wood purlins are they. Iam assuming 20ft bays make the shed cheaper to build. They look great sheds but how do you manage calving in them.

 

[Samcowman]

It is just one feed passage for the two sheds. Maybe he pictures aren't very clear. Having it as one shed would mean bigger steels to take the extra span. Having a gap between the 2 sheds like that means airflow would be better. The concrete in he feed passage we put in level rather than sloped to the middle which would have been better but it really isn't too much of a problem unless we get a wet week

 

[DrDunc]

Dr Dunc are your sheds 20ft bays if so should they not be Z purlins? If they are 20ft bays what size wood purlins are they. Iam assuming 20ft bays make the shed cheaper to build. They look great sheds but how do you manage calving in them.

Aye 20ft bays. The timbers are 9x4s if memory serves correct from when I was up there wiring up the lights. The firm that made it (BHC carnwath) reckons z purlins don't last as long in a cattle shed? They've been building sheds for 25 years plus now, everything from wee cattle courts to the huge shopping centre at barrhead Glasgow. I remember there was a debate about purlins on the old forum, there wasn't really a conclusion?

Calving wise, they calf in the bedded court. I don't separate them into a calving pen, just let them get on with it. Provided they've enough straw, the navels get iodine, and you check they're sucking, it's fine. Do this with about 40 cows. My other 50 calf outside on grass (if it ever grows). On the (usually rare) occasion they need assistance, I've individual pens in the building with the crush, or in this shed I'll use the locking head yolk. If I need to teach a calf to sook, I just get the cows head in a bucket of feeding in the passage.

Any cows that even hint at being wild here become someone else's dinner.

 

[tr250]

looks a great shed like the feed walls better than bolt on barriers because you can scrape both sides i would of personaly filled middle in but fine either way air flow looks good

 

[multi power]

Why wouldn't you? I've never got it either

because the bottom bales get mis shaped, then water leaks into them, so does air, its essential that bales hold their shape to maintain a good seal

 

[Blue.]

It is just one feed passage for the two sheds. Maybe he pictures aren't very clear. Having it as one shed would mean bigger steels to take the extra span. Having a gap between the 2 sheds like that means airflow would be better. The concrete in he feed passage we put in level rather than sloped to the middle which would have been better but it really isn't too much of a problem unless we get a wet week

I remember you posting pics when you 1st built the sheds

can you not do anything to stop the calves getting out?

What about a double bar head rail that hangs down? I think there's a picture of some in Fraserb's dairy picture thread.

 

[Blue.]

because the bottom bales get mis shaped, then water leaks into them, so does air, its essential that bales hold their shape to maintain a good seal

Although I avoid bales,your right its the best way to stack them.

 

[Walterp]

because the bottom bales get mis shaped, then water leaks into them, so does air, its essential that bales hold their shape to maintain a good seal

Perhaps (he says, cautiously) you might consider allowing a bit more wilting time?

Nice bales, nice silage...

 

[multi power]

Perhaps (he says, cautiously) you might consider allowing a bit more wilting time?

Nice bales, nice silage...

we do

 

[Baling Hay]

we do

Do you think the reduction in waste from clamp silage pays for the extra cost of bales?

 

[multi power]

Do you think the reduction in waste from clamp silage pays for the extra cost of bales?

yesit does, plus there is the cost of concreate silage pit to concider meaning bales for us worked out cheaper BUT wrap is a lot dearer now n making bales actuly taught me a lot about clamp silage, in fact the silage clamp in my avatot had no concreate at all n that turned out to be some of the best silage i ever made

 

[DrDunc]

Clamp silage using a self propelled and team will use roughly 28l/acre diesel cut to clamp here. I use 8.5 l/acre cut to stacked for round bales.

I do all my own approximately 100 acres, or 1200 bales, with no contractors. The baler and wrapper purchase cost was £12000 total, and requires about £500 maintenance per annum.

Wrap and net costs around £2700. Total, including diesel comes to less than £4000 from cutting to bales stacked.

Contractors fee are what, £55/acre to rake, chop, cart and buckrake?? So before diesel, that's £5.5k. Diesel adds roughly £2k. So each year I save £3500. (excluding paying for machinery)

With bales, properly wrapped and handled, there is no waste at all. What percentage is waste from a clamp?

With my own equipment, I can go when the crop and weather suits me. I don't have the capital investment to build a clamp. The analysis of baled silage is as good as clamp when done correctly. The chop length of bales is what the cow is used to eating, and is also what current thinking about optimum fibre length. Clamp is too short.

So to answer your question..... If you rely on contractors for everything, probably.

If you can bale and wrap it yourself, then there is a very big saving to be made going for bales instead of clamp (in my opinion)