Very interesting video, nice to see another farmers views and reasonings for doing things. Central feed passage definitely keeps feed drier. Ours is on the outside and it's always wet!
Great video, Nice shed and nice layout! Always good to see different layouts/design whats bad or what is working! Maybe to a farm tour/machinery tour would be awesome! Keep up the good work!
Thank you Dan for showing us your set up and its a really good set up. You have put a lot of thought into your set up and its cow friendly the most important thing. How meany cows does your shed hold? Great video
Great system Dan, looks like it works well for cow flow. Have you considered putting locking head yokes in the feed passage. We have them on all our feed barriers, it makes doing the vet visit very easy, tb testing and vaccinating ect very easy. The only down side made is you loose a little of feed space
kv 6080 Not a fan of head locking gates in terms of feed space. Also in the UK and from what I have seen on numerous farms, the Vet won’t TB test if cows are in head locking gates. They must all go through a cattle crush. I know a local farmer who kitted out his shed with locking gates and the departments vet wouldn’t test.
Nice shed Cow Farmer Dan, Cow flow looks good and it seems to have sufficient ventilation, rain may tend to come into a shed when there is no stock in it but their heat rising and venting out keeps the rain away. Lely do a great robotic scraper but i would be afraid your cubicle passages maybe too long, worth looking into all the same. Thanks
I like our soft touch push gate. It does save on labour of going out an pushing the cows up. As for alley scrapers, there are positive and negative to them. One of our barn has the track in the cement and it gets pushed off time to time. The main barn has the track above which works better. They call scrap the alley 6 times per 24hrs. Cows with with leg problems or hobles have issues with scrapers. The can freeze in our winters and get dry an stop working in the summer, so they do like to be maintained. You can get build up at the back of stall on the wall, which over time has to be chipped off. Our wings on them wear out about every 5 years but the head is okay still. Hydraulic hoses from time to time but in 15 years or so of them maybe a couple put just at the pump and the cylinders, so easy fix. Lol, l guess the only benefit is no tractor needed, an less man hours. Southern, B.C, Canada
if it works roll with it. weather determines layout. here in Mn same center feed lane but every pen everywhere has headlocks at the feed lane so the vet can do weekly preg checks and AI guy breed/give fertility shots while your milking. triple digit temps in summer a sprinkler system 2 1/2" pvc/nozzles spraying the cows 24/7 as they eat so it encourages them to eat more. stall cubicles around here are walk through type because cows are milked 4 times/24hrs and some have trouble getting up. freestall barn lights run by timer side curtains run by thermostat insulated ceiling & 24ft wide overhead doors on both ends to keep manure from freezing when wind chill is below -40*f. water trough water is pre-warmed from milkroom plate cooler water keeps it from freezing and cows drink more if it's warm. some dairies have rows of water softeners to take the hardness out. crowd gate is a must in the parlor holding pen for 1st group under 60 days in milk fresh cows/stubborn heifers. parlor holding pen to parlor there has to be a bio security barrier either roll up tarp or overhead doors it's a 5 point grade A violation to have it open at any time except when there's cow traffic (flies & birds). parlor/holding pen concrete is pea gravel size aggregate & aluminum flake troweled over surface for longer life and it cleans better less chance of slippery algae growth. in the usa every dairy must have a Watts N36 vacuum purge valve both on the water main and parlor power washer for bio security. state & federal milk inspection every 3 months
Brilliant video, you have a really impressive setup, i like the tip up water troughs, im guessing the galvanized layer was not done thoroughly hence them rotting out. Any issues with snow blowing in with the open ridge?
Random idea. would it be useful to cut a couple of small groove channels, one each side below the bed area down the length of the bed scrape path to allow LIQUID to drain away. you got the ribbing across the path road. This could be quickly and easily achieved with a motor road saw like they use to cut road excavation trenches. They are hireable from tool hire places on a day hire basis.
Nice layout Dan, something similar to ours except we have a main round roof and two lean-too each side instead and our parlour is a separate building, would like to c a farm tour and possibly the pic or something of yer old cow house thsnks
We're milking 140 at the peak, quite a few dry at the moment though. Robots are a good thing and are probably the future but the financial outlay is often hard to justify.
There will be stainless water troughs - either brand or custom made. www.delaval.com/en-gb/our-solutions/cow-comfort/drinking/water-troughs/ If the stainless steel troughs cost too much then make sure the galvanised troughs are double dipped.
Hi Dan, just a thought about your layout, do you prefer everything parallel to each other or if you were to build it again would you consider putting the parlour at 90 degrees to the dairy cow housing for better ventilation etc?
Hello dan.love your videos .im farming on thesouth coast of county cork ireland .love your cowhouse set up i milk 80 cows.all grass.no crops.the land is great to grow grass nothing more ..where are you farming..by theway im 64 still in good nick ..me and my wife run the farm..our 2 sons work away no intrest in farming.thanks
Hi Maurice, I run a dairy farm in lisdowney Co.Kilkenny, just behind the Glanbia milk factory. Milking 120 cow's supplying glanbia. Good year for grass this year. Hope your having a good year, good luck in the u20 hurling final, we can't have Tipp winning everything, they'd be insufferable!!! 🤣
Hi Dan, so in your opinion and from your knowledge, experience and expertise if you had a greenfield site to build a new dairy unit how would you design the layout please?
I say you run a very smart and clean dairy unit,just how I like it....But Please how can I convince operators to be clean when milking..especially older operators who over rule female operators ....I could write a book!!
I'm the wrong person to ask as I've never been employed or employed anyone else to milk cows! If they're not doing the job to an acceptable standard they either need training or moving onto other tasks.
Hi Dan, just a thought about your layout, do you prefer everything parallel to each other or if you were to build it again would you consider putting the parlour at 90 degrees to the dairy cow housing for better ventilation etc?
It's something to consider if you're starting from scratch, but where our parlour and collecting yard are were existing buildings and this is the best way for us with regards to drainage and slurry handling.
