For this week’s Buildings Focus, Agriland made the trip to Athenry in Co. Galway to check out a new suckler shed on the farm of Aidan Cahill.

Aidan, who runs a herd of 30 suckler cows alongside a flock of 50 mule ewes, also works full-time off farm.

The Galway native had existing housing on the farm, including six bays of slats, three bays either side of a centre passageway alongside a four-bay straw-bedded shed, with one bay used solely as storage for straw.

Aidan felt that he was tight for housing. On top of that, he ws looking to streamline the farm in terms of making the feeding of cattle in winter, as well as calving and lambing at spring, less time consuming and stressful.

So, he looked at putting up a new shed to alleviate these issues.

Aidan Cahill standing in front of his new shed

Speaking to Agriland on his farm, Aidan said: “We were tight for housing on the farm.

“I kept the majority of the cows in the straw-bedded shed during the winter but had to put the rest in the slatted shed, which already had weanlings and also bulls that we finish under 16-months-of-age.

“Big pressure came on in the farm in spring when cows would be calving in February and March but once April came, I needed it for the ewes to lamb them in.

“So, I was left in a situation where, regardless of ground conditions, I’d end up having to sacrifice one field to let the cows and calves out to because I needed to free-up the straw shed for the ewes.

“As well as that, I needed a new crush, as the ones on the farm were an ordeal trying to get cattle into,” he added.

“So between needing more space and taking the hardship out of winter feeding and calving, and just making the farm work a lot smoother, I decided to look into building a new shed.”

Layout

To suss out the best way forward and what type of shed would suit Aidan and his system, he got in touch with Carroll Consultancy Agricultural & Business Consultants in Co. Mayo. The team there gave him a few options to look at and mull over.

The new shed was built on a greenfield site beside the existing sheds and yard on the farm.

The design includes a four-bay slatted unit with four loose pens and an outer and indoor feed passageway which includes a crush.

The building is 19.2m long and 18.9m wide. The unit stands 7.2m high to the apex and 4.1m to the eave gutters.

The concrete walls of the shed stand 2.4m high. The slatted tank is 21.9m long, 4.1m wide and 2.4m deep. Agitation points are located at either end of the tank.

Design source: Carroll Consultancy Agricultural & Business Consultants

The four slatted pens are 4.8m wide and 5.1m deep, with the slats that are 4.4m long. The four loose pens directly behind the slatted pens are 4.8m wide and 6.7m deep.

The feed passageway at the back of the shed is 4.2m wide and 19.2 long, while the feeding passageway in front of the slats facing out to the yard is 4.7m wide, with the canopy protruding 2.7m out from the feed barriers.

There are three sliding doors in the shed. Two on one side of the shed, which gives access into the four loose pens in the middle, and one that allows access to the inner feed passageway on the other side of the shed.

Design source: Carroll Consultancy Agricultural & Business Consultants

Inside the shed

At the front of the shed, where the main feeding passageway is, Aidan left a substantial concrete surface to allow him to leave and push feed in with the loader.

The entire shed is fitted with diagonal feed barriers, both at the front and back of the slatted pens as well as in the loose pens facing out onto the inner feed passageway.

The slatted pens themselves are currently holding six cows/pen comfortably. Two troughs serve the four pens, with two pens being able to access one trough each.

Aidan wanted to give himself options and that’s exactly what this shed offers. He can feed cows that are in the shed from both sides of the slats. The idea for this is for feeding silage on one side and meal on the other side, which would suit him feeding his bulls for finishing this way.

Each slatted pen has a small gate fitted beside the diagonal feed barriers which also doubles up as a creep gate.

The idea here is that when a cow is due to calve, she can be moved into the loose pen and calve down there.

After a day or two, the cow can be let into the slatted pen again and the creep gate can be opened to allow the calf to move between the slatted pen and the loose area that will be bedded in straw.

The loose pens

The four loose pens, similar to the slats, are served with two troughs, with two pens being able to access one trough each. The troughs in both the slats and loose pens are back-to-back and it is evident that the cows like to go between the two.

The pens are split up in four by two five-bar gates that lock into a pole in the middle of the pen which is fitted into a sleeve, meaning that the gates can be swung back and the pole taken out to clean out the pens at ease, rather than having to manoeuvre around them.

Cows can be fed silage in the loose pens from the feeding passageway inside the shed.

This area can also double up as a creep area as the feed barriers along the four pens, similar to the ones dividing the slats from the loose pens, are fitted with a small gate that can double up as a creep gate.

The back of the shed where the inner feed passageway is, also contains a crush, something Aidan said he was badly in need of.

The hardship experienced with the two crushes on the farm ensured that Aidan wouldn’t be making the same mistake again.

Cattle should be able to be loaded into the crush much easier with the way it’s been designed.

Similar to the loose pens, sleeves were made, this time, two, at an angle from the corner of the last pen to the gate at the back of the crush.

The hope is that when cattle need to be loaded into the crush, once they are moved into the loose pen and head out towards the small gate beside the feed barrier, they will funnel into the chute of the crush.

The hope is that this will prevent the cattle turning back as they have less space to do so compared to if the gates were hung straight across, which would give them larger area to manoeuvre in, rather than at the angle at which they are at now.

Another feature of not is the slip through between the gates and the crush. This allows Aidan, once he has the gate at the back of the crush closed, to slide into the passageway without the need to open or even climb the gate.

A water trough was also installed in this space.

The crush itself is compartmentalised, meaning each section can be taken apart with ease or opened out.

The beauty of the design of this shed, which is incorporated in many sheds like it, is that cattle can be in any pen of the shed and moved around from pen to pen, up through the crush and back into the same original pen they were in by one person.

It makes management and handling easier and safer for the farmer, while also getting any jobs needed, such as a herd test or dosing, more efficient.

The sliding door on the side of the shed where the front of the crush is allows Aidan to back the trailer in and load up cattle onto it, if needs be.

This passageway where the crush is, like the loose pens, offers Aidan a number of options, whether it be feeding cattle along it, using it as a creep area or as it is now, a set up for the crush to be used.

Other features, typical of a grant-spec shed, include a translucent sheet in each of the bays of the shed to increase natural daylight coming through; and 12 LED lights.

At the back of the shed, a gap was left between the eaves and the galvanised sheeting too.

Cost

Aidan was eligible for a grant under the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS II) which enabled him to claim up to 40%.

This, along with claiming VAT back on the build, leaves the shed standing to Aidan from his own pocket at roughly €55,000.

The entire building from start to finish was completed by Damien Ryan Contracts based in Co. Mayo, with the job starting in April of this year and finishing in August.

The only other work carried out was the electrical work, which was done by a local contractor, Gerry Kelly.

Speaking about the decision to go ahead and build the shed, Aidan said: “I’m very happy with how it turned out.

“It was a stress-free process as Damien and his team did all the work and had it done in no time and to a top finish as well.

“The cows are only gone into it a week, but already the ease of feeding is unreal and now less time will be spent bedding cows with straw and cleaning it out during the winter.

“It frees up more time for me and also frees up other sheds on the farm and takes the pressure off all going well during the pinch point of the year, at calving and lambing.”