Orkney sloping floor cattle sheds

[Old Tip]

Thanks for the info @Big_D, I did find the info but they advised using yoked barrier and scraping at the back. But your design suits my building better and I would assume is an improvement on the original design.

 

[Big_D]

Thanks for the info @Big_D, I did find the info but they advised using yoked barrier and scraping at the back. But your design suits my building better and I would assume is an improvement on the original design.

I'll be honest, I'm not a huge fan of it as a way of wintering cattle, maybe it's just ours, but they do get very dirty. Rubber matting was fitted for last winter. We don't use any bedding, handscrape the lying area twice a day , using some buckets of water from troughs. Do this whilst the cattle are eating, then the auto scraper takes it away. If it's any help we are just over an hour from Carlisle if you wanted a look

 

[Big_D]

Maybe you could put a picture of your shed up and people could make some suggestions for best way

 

[Old Tip]

Thanks @Big_D we would use a bit of straw as need some FYM for the hay meadows.
May head up to Lockerbie for the Cheviot tip sale at the end of the month if your anywhere on route I would love to call by.

 

[JP1]

Mat fixings

 

[Aspiring Peasant]

Thanks Big D and JP1

 

[Old Tip]

Well as promised I will be starting a new thread to show the alterations and building phase of my sloping floor experiment. Once completed I will continue posting updates through the winter to show how the cattle are performing on it and any savings in bedding etc.

OT

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Bit of a slope on our floor, but the nib wall is too low to prevent them tracking what they push back, off the concrete.
I have a cunning plan, which will either involve using hurdles or even a concrete sleeper, so they only use one track, which should help them cart much less across.

After reading up on US composting barn systems, I see they have much more of a corridor than my more 'open plan' 20 foot wide pens, and I think that's what's missing from my set-up.

The cattle definitely move the crap back but not out, so scraping is still necessary.
Lacking a locking yoke we just hoozle the cattle out the back and shut them in, while I push any muck out with the tractor.

We re-used last year's bedding this winter and just de-stocked as the cattle got fat, so it never really got wet enough to keep composting.

Stocked right and fed right (wilted silage) they don't get very dirty, but we don't house for months on end due to the grass being in need of grazing.
We house from around 1st May to 1st September and now just have some calves inside, " keeping the compost going " to a degree.
We'll soon have a bunch of store cattle in here 'til the silage is used up, and then give it a good clean out and fresh chip.

The composting material is then left in a heap for over a year just to help the woodchip disintegrate better, but is great stuff. We add a bit of peastraw in late, it blocks up the drainage of the woodchip but supplies a fair whack of N to help the biology multiply and break it down fully.

 

[Old Tip]

I guess your on a much drier climate than me @Kiwi Pete, mine would a sloder hole on that system I fear

 

[Hilly]

I guess your on a much drier climate than me @Kiwi Pete, mine would a sloder hole on that system I fear

I was going to try compost bed with chopped brash but that big company down your way working on my neighbouring farm messed me about something chronic , i orderd 800 cubic meters at the price they wanted and never phoned back never delivered anything , got straw in the end again as it dropped in price back to realistic level .

 

[Hilly]

Well as promised I will be starting a new thread to show the alterations and building phase of my sloping floor experiment. Once completed I will continue posting updates through the winter to show how the cattle are performing on it and any savings in bedding etc.

OT

Looking forward to it !

 

[Kiwi Pete]

I guess your on a much drier climate than me @Kiwi Pete, mine would a sloder hole on that system I fear

This year, being understocked over winter, I basically rotationally grazed in my shed, always had two pens empty, and it dries out because the microbes keep it so warm.
If you dig your hand in it is about as warm as you'd run a baby's bath, about 30° or so.

As you'd imagine, that helps keep the costs minimal, quite a saving in feed alone before you factor in the savings on ill-thrift and vet bills

I may have mentioned the cattle eat a fair bit of seaweed in chopped and liquid form, as well as about a ton of charcoal (homemade stuff) which helps prevent methane and ammonia losses - and means it's a living thing, more like a good soil than simply a bedding medium.

Most visitors are bracing themselves for an awful stink when they walk in, and comment that "it smells like a freshly ploughed field"

I don't use straw, it's wrong for what I want, we use about 15 bales of peastraw right at the end and that buggers it up for housing (as the moisture is trapped in)

however a few pigs soon get it broken up

 

[Hilly]

This year, being understocked over winter, I basically rotationally grazed in my shed, always had two pens empty, and it dries out because the microbes keep it so warm.
If you dig your hand in it is about as warm as you'd run a baby's bath, about 30° or so.

As you'd imagine, that helps keep the costs minimal, quite a saving in feed alone before you factor in the savings on ill-thrift and vet bills

I may have mentioned the cattle eat a fair bit of seaweed in chopped and liquid form, as well as about a ton of charcoal (homemade stuff) which helps prevent methane and ammonia losses - and means it's a living thing, more like a good soil than simply a bedding medium.

Most visitors are bracing themselves for an awful stink when they walk in, and comment that "it smells like a freshly ploughed field"

I don't use straw, it's wrong for what I want, we use about 15 bales of peastraw right at the end and that buggers it up for housing (as the moisture is trapped in)

however a few pigs soon get it broken up

Do you go through it with a triple k ? ones i have seen on youtube they tripple k them twice a day to keep air in .

 

[Old Tip]

What sort of rainfall do you get in winter @Kiwi Pete and is it humid. We are very wet, will rain most days during the housing period and if it’s not rain it will be snow or freezing. All the systems like yours I’ve seen on YouTube or read about seen to be in drying climates

 

[Kiwi Pete]

This has been an exceptionally dry year.

We had cattle in it in the summer as well, but normally every day is some fraction of wet over winter or they wouldn't be in

Good drainage and ventilation is absolutely critical, you don't absorb much with woodchip so you could run into trouble

however we have a serious depth and fall in the middle and the valleys are deeper chip, on a layer of sand with drain in although the bottom 2 thirds of the chip is dry enough to light it with a cigarette lighter if you fill it in good time.
I have a few bits of string that run the condensation into the water troughs as the double tunnel does have a lot of condensation and it dripped off the centre valley and made a wet line.. that part is actually where the old sheep race was when the site was sheepyards

But apart from being able to keep cattle cheaply and have your compost started inside where you can add what you want to it, not a huge number of downsides really.
We have had 23,000 cow grazing days on $1446 of woodchips, and added an optional $1200 worth of peastraw to it, literally cheap as dirt.

I have curtains on one end and the air comes through the gratings in the shearing shed if cold, open a big door if hot, it gets hot very fast if you don't have airflow, enough to kill my pumpkins.

Just been out shooting possums and rabbits with old mate

 

[Henarar]

So you have pumpkins possums and rabbits in the shed with the cattle ?

 

[Hilly]

This has been an exceptionally dry year.

We had cattle in it in the summer as well, but normally every day is some fraction of wet over winter or they wouldn't be in

Good drainage and ventilation is absolutely critical, you don't absorb much with woodchip so you could run into trouble

however we have a serious depth and fall in the middle and the valleys are deeper chip, on a layer of sand with drain in although the bottom 2 thirds of the chip is dry enough to light it with a cigarette lighter if you fill it in good time.
I have a few bits of string that run the condensation into the water troughs as the double tunnel does have a lot of condensation and it dripped off the centre valley and made a wet line.. that part is actually where the old sheep race was when the site was sheepyards

But apart from being able to keep cattle cheaply and have your compost started inside where you can add what you want to it, not a huge number of downsides really.
We have had 23,000 cow grazing days on $1446 of woodchips, and added an optional $1200 worth of peastraw to it, literally cheap as dirt.

I have curtains on one end and the air comes through the gratings in the shearing shed if cold, open a big door if hot, it gets hot very fast if you don't have airflow, enough to kill my pumpkins.

Just been out shooting possums and rabbits with old mate

How deep is it ?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

How deep is it ?

In the shallowest parts about 14 inches, up to just over 3 feet where the drains are.

I probably only take out a couple of inches of actual chip and put 12 back in, the microbes eat a lot

It's quite a different approach to bedding as in a conventional straw system the manure tends to be very bacterial and thus makes the system slightly more reliant on bag muck, the idea of using the wood is that it promotes the soil to be ever more fungal (and therefore more productive) over time

Plus it's a more healthy system for cattle as any pathogens and bacterial outbreaks struggle to survive while they are bedded - which is probably the exact opposite of the "sterile is best" way in which any bacteria introduced have free reign without competition that diversity brings

As I said on the compost bedding thread though your gov't/ inspectors wouldn't know what to do with it, because it's brown to black, not golden

But the stock do really well, I mollycoddle nothing, use no chemicals and it really works well for us

 

[z.man]

Eventually took some photo’s @Old Tip (only taken 4 years) this is one of our takes on an Orkney floor straight slope onto a scraped passage this passage is slightly wider than some but handy for bales or trailers in summer time

 

[z.man]

That’s a 90x30 ft shed 50 , 450-550kg cattle in it 2 round bales of straw a week