Sloping Floor Experiment

Old Tip

Member
Location
Cumbria
9E24E95D-4B42-4ED0-A5F9-ECC8BC0B604B.jpeg
Well the few cattle I have in already are playing the game
 

j6891

Member
Location
Perth & Kinross
Will you get a clean scrape with the narrow flat middle bit? If this was bucket width would work well I'd say. At least with one slope bucket width wouldn't matter, may not get right to wall though but that wouldn't matter as much I'd say
 

Old Tip

Member
Location
Cumbria
Will you get a clean scrape with the narrow flat middle bit? If this was bucket width would work well I'd say. At least with one slope bucket width wouldn't matter, may not get right to wall though but that wouldn't matter as much I'd say
Only scraped it once so far and it seemed to work ok, the flat bit in the centre was a mistake by my helpers. I intended to slope it right to the middle but when they dragged the former along and filled the gap it was hard to get the angle right
 

Half Pipe

Member
Only scraped it once so far and it seemed to work ok, the flat bit in the centre was a mistake by my helpers. I intended to slope it right to the middle but when they dragged the former along and filled the gap it was hard to get the angle right
It may lead you to your next project! A bespoke scraper shaped to suit job!
 

joe soapy

Member
Location
devon
to get sloping floor to work it needs 1 in 12 with corrugations going up and down to drain moisture away.
my thinking was that waste feed became bedding eventualy arriving at scrape passage.
best feedlot I seen had slope in 2 directions so dung eventually was treaded to lowest point.
this was not really suitable for calving in, but everything else thrived
 

MGS6930

Member
Location
West of Scotland
Just to say love a good thread like this with building and pictures ! Over the summer we acquired 120 feet of lane barriers so precast concrete blocks 2 x 2 x10, we laid them out in a 100x60 shed positioned exactly 1 Loadall bucket width plus 1 open Loadall door plus 15% for Senior Management calibration away from the barrier, with a ten foot gate allowing the cattle to move between the scrape passage and the bedded layback area. The difference is unreal, straw use is well down as their now controlled where they enter and exit, cattle are keeping cleaner and scraping out now takes less than five minutes and is a one person job. A big roads job near us was coming to its end and it costs the contractor more to haul them to the next site than buy new so just brass necked it in with a bottle for the agent and we took the lot with our own transport. Already got a deal done for the next lot.
 

Old Tip

Member
Location
Cumbria
My system seems to be working with 90% of the muck ending up in the middle and the cattle are like at the top of both slopes. Just weaned thirty odd calves into it yesterday and was tb testing today and reading on Saturday. But once things have settled on I will get a few more photos, scraped out with the loadall last night and it worked well even though it was dark and everything was steamed up
 

hendrebc

Member
Livestock Farmer
Just to say love a good thread like this with building and pictures ! Over the summer we acquired 120 feet of lane barriers so precast concrete blocks 2 x 2 x10, we laid them out in a 100x60 shed positioned exactly 1 Loadall bucket width plus 1 open Loadall door plus 15% for Senior Management calibration away from the barrier, with a ten foot gate allowing the cattle to move between the scrape passage and the bedded layback area. The difference is unreal, straw use is well down as their now controlled where they enter and exit, cattle are keeping cleaner and scraping out now takes less than five minutes and is a one person job. A big roads job near us was coming to its end and it costs the contractor more to haul them to the next site than buy new so just brass necked it in with a bottle for the agent and we took the lot with our own transport. Already got a deal done for the next lot.
Pictures please :)
 

Old Tip

Member
Location
Cumbria
Got through the tb test today so as very happy, pee'd down all day but was able to get a few Cattle back out for the winter and split the bull and heifer calves do things should settle down now. Promise to get some photos next time it’s not lashing it down and blowing a gale.
Chippy tea tonight to celebrate :):happy:
 
Got through the tb test today so as very happy, pee'd down all day but was able to get a few Cattle back out for the winter and split the bull and heifer calves do things should settle down now. Promise to get some photos next time it’s not lashing it down and blowing a gale.
Chippy tea tonight to celebrate :):happy:
Yes good news I know how you feel!!!

We passed one Tb test today so I am getting pleased with that too
 

Old Tip

Member
Location
Cumbria
Bit of a disaster yesterday, got up to a total mess, heifer on heat and young bulls had managed to get the gate of its hinges and been charging round all night. One dead and another two with bad pneumonia and a few limping. My fault, in the rush to get them in for testing I forgot to fasten the gates down to stop such disasters.
In other news we have had some dire weather freezing fog and misty horrible windless days which are not good for man or beast. Finding in this damp weather it would probably be best to clean them out every day really as just can’t keep them clean. Be best done every day but not has the time with everything else that’s been going on.
Seriously should have bit the bullet and got yoked barriers as it would save so much time but otherwise things are working well. A light dust of straw works best, too much and it just gets dragged back too quickly and it also makes it hard to scrape out. Tried sawdust and think it would work well in drier weather, may get a few dump bags of it and do a comparison on straw both costs and ease of use.
Will try and get some more photos tomorrow
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 80 42.3%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 15.9%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,294
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
Top