Sloping Floor Experiment

[Old Tip]

It’s great @jamesy saw @Mr always wrong the other day and he was also asking.
Will post some more photos as soon as I get some taken.
The cattle have done well, are cleaner and happier, we’ve got more cattle in less room and used a quarter of the straw and less silage as well.
I was cleaning them out every other day but now they are bigger I try and do them every day but it’s no worries if you don’t as they keep clean.
If I did it from scratch I would still do two slopes but have a wider flat section in a he middle to make it easier to scrape out. Also the bigger the group the cleaner they keep, originally had three pens of fifteen but now have forty in one group and they definitely keep cleaner.

 

[Old Tip]

Took this today just after I cleaned out and let them back in again to the trough, as I’ve said before I plan to put a rack above the trough in time. Will try and get a photo of them all lying down but it’s hard getting them all laying down when it’s still light. But they do lay at the top of both slopes on a bit of an angle

 

[Old Tip]

Not the best photo but managed to catch most of them laying down this morning. In an ideal world it would be best to clean them out every day in the evening so the straw is nice and clean for them to sleep on. But as I say they keep reasonably clean for hairy outdoor reared cattle and def cleaner than they were on straw beds.

 

[Old Tip]

Bit since i have done an update but the experiment has definitely worked.
Managed to get myself a small petrol drive straw chopper which has further reduced the straw use and made for cleaner cattle too.
Then bought a scraper for the telehandler which makes scraping out much easier and quicker. The pull scraper on the tractor tended to ride over the muck and you could never make a decent job of it.

 

[Sharpy]

Bit since i have done an update but the experiment has definitely worked.
Managed to get myself a small petrol drive straw chopper which has further reduced the straw use and made for cleaner cattle too.
Then bought a scraper for the telehandler which makes scraping out much easier and quicker. The pull scraper on the tractor tended to ride over the muck and you could never make a decent job of it.
View attachment 855762

What are you chopping the straw with, and how do you feed it with not wee bales?

 

[steveR]

Bit since i have done an update but the experiment has definitely worked.
Managed to get myself a small petrol drive straw chopper which has further reduced the straw use and made for cleaner cattle too.
Then bought a scraper for the telehandler which makes scraping out much easier and quicker. The pull scraper on the tractor tended to ride over the muck and you could never make a decent job of it.
View attachment 855762

Chilled, nice looking bunch.

 

[Old Tip]

What are you chopping the straw with, and how do you feed it with not wee bales?

It’s a wee bale chopper but I just put slices from a big bale in it, only use the equivalent of one wee bale a day for thirty store cattle

 

[Sharpy]

It’s a wee bale chopper but I just put slices from a big bale in it, only use the equivalent of one wee bale a day for thirty store cattle

Thank you for that, most interesting. How long does it take?

 

[Old Tip]

Thank you for that, most interesting. How long does it take?

About ten minutes to run the cattle out, scrape and bed, put meal in trough and let them back. Feed big bale silage on the other side of the shed, will get another photo

 

[j6891]

Looks very clean. Is this just after scraping or has it been "walked" clean by the cattle?

 

[Forever Fendt]

Bit since i have done an update but the experiment has definitely worked.
Managed to get myself a small petrol drive straw chopper which has further reduced the straw use and made for cleaner cattle too.
Then bought a scraper for the telehandler which makes scraping out much easier and quicker. The pull scraper on the tractor tended to ride over the muck and you could never make a decent job of it.
View attachment 855762

Anything to cut straw use had got to be a win win especially this year £££

 

[Old Tip]

Looks very clean. Is this just after scraping or has it been "walked" clean by the cattle?

No that’s a few hours after it’s been cleaned out will take some more photos in the morning if I remember

 

[Old Tip]

Here we are @j6891 @Sharpy

First photo before cleaning out showing the top of the slope is reasonably clean
Second photo, scraping out
Third photo, straw chopper thanks @pappuller
Forth photo, letting cattle back in
Last photo, showing feed fence

 

[jamesy]

Looks like it’s working well. Cattle are looking great too.

 

[Sharpy]

Here we are @j6891 @Sharpy
View attachment 856119View attachment 856120View attachment 856121View attachment 856122View attachment 856123

First photo before cleaning out showing the top of the slope is reasonably clean
Second photo, scraping out
Third photo, straw chopper thanks @pappuller
Forth photo, letting cattle back in
Last photo, showing feed fence

Thank you for sharing that, the wee straw chopper does a good job doesn't it? I would think that you won't be any more time over the winter than traditional bedding and mucking out, especially as the shed will be empty of dung as soon as they are at grass.

 

[j6891]

Any thought on what you might do differently? Slope steeper/shallower? In my head one I'm thinking a single slope to a level bit the width of my forklift bucket and scrape out this area when needed allowing all slope muck to be walked into it.

 

[Old Tip]

Any thought on what you might do differently? Slope steeper/shallower? In my head one I'm thinking a single slope to a level bit the width of my forklift bucket and scrape out this area when needed allowing all slope muck to be walked into it.

I wouldn’t change much, the main thing is to have a slope at 1 in 12 and reasonably short as the only really clean bit is right by the feed fence. My building is twenty foot wide so did the two slopes rather than one. If it was thirty foot wide I would have a central passage with a ten foot slope either side.

 

[Old Tip]

Thank you for sharing that, the wee straw chopper does a good job doesn't it? I would think that you won't be any more time over the winter than traditional bedding and mucking out, especially as the shed will be empty of dung as soon as they are at grass.

Takes less time than when I bedded up by hand and I get twice as many cattle in the same space ??

 

[Sharpy]

Takes less time than when I bedded up by hand and I get twice as many cattle in the same space ??

Proper job!

 

[pappuller]

Takes less time than when I bedded up by hand and I get twice as many cattle in the same space ??

Glad to see mechanisation is revolutionising Cumbriam agriculture