Cubicle sheds have been the main focus of recent ‘Buildings Focus‘ articles on Agriland in recent weeks and that trend is continuing this week, with another impressive cubicle house, this time in Kilkenny, the latest of having the pleasure of seeing.
The man at the helm of the dairy farm, situated in Muckalee, is Caleb Daly, a second generation farmer who is milking 160 Holstein Friesian cows along with his wife , Breda, children Thomas, Emma and Niall and full-time worker, Patrick.
Caleb took over the running of the farm from his father, Tom – who stills plays an active role on the farm – and mother, Madeline, who bought the farm in 1966 having moved back from Australia.
Caleb operates a spring and autumn calving system, which sees him calve down 100 cows in spring and 60 in autumn – which has, so far, seen 10 cows calve down this autumn.
Up until last year, cows on the farm were housed in old converted sheds that have been in use for many years and are no longer fit for purpose.
Having put in a 20-unit parlour in 2008, Caleb was missing the last part of the jigsaw and that was having a cubicle house that would house of all of his cows under the one roof.
So last year, construction got underway to build what Caleb wanted and he is now looking forward to using his new cubicle house for its first full winter in the coming weeks.
Speaking to Agriland on his farm in Kilkenny during the week, Caleb said: “We’d been housing cows in old converted sheds that are past their sell by date and having put in a parlour a few years ago, the last part of the jigsaw was having a cubicle shed to house all of the cows in.
“It just makes life easier having them all under the one roof. I use a diet feeder here and some of the sheds you just couldn’t get it in through the passageway and in other sheds you were constantly looking over your shoulder in fear of hitting off something.
“So in essence, I just wanted to streamline the farm and also increase my slurry storage as it was quite tight.”
Design
Having had the idea of building a new cubicle shed for a while, Caleb took time to do some research before putting pencil to paper on a design.
Eventually he decided on building a 160-cubicle shed and then spoke with Paddy O’Keefe who designed the new shed for him.
The cubicle house was built on what was once a paddock for cows to graze in beside the existing yard; however, quite a bit of ground had to be excavated in order to get the site level, as there was gradual incline from the front of the paddock to the back of it.
Unfortunately, the only design of the shed Agriland could get a hold of was the one originally Caleb had planned on building, but as time went on, he changed his mind on what he wanted.
So in the drawing (below), you will notice room left for calving pens and a loose straw area. That was scrapped and instead, Caleb opted to fit in more cubicles to house all of his cows and, now, will make use of existing sheds on the farm for calving space.
Also rather than having two tanks, Caleb installed a third, which are all connected up at both ends. The tanks have the capacity to hold just under 1.4 million litres of slurry.
So looking at the shed in more detail, the shed spans 8 bays long and measures 42.4m long and 33.6m wide – which includes the feeding passageways either side.
It stands 9.2m to the apex and 4m high to the eave gutters.
The two outer passageways between the feed barriers and the first line of cubicles measure 4.6m wide, while the two passageways splitting the centre row of cubicles from the other two rows of cubicles measure 2.75m. In total there are 160 cubicles in the shed.
There are three rows of back-to-back cubicles in the shed, with two rows of cubicles containing a walkway in between in order to split up cows within the shed, if ever the need presented itself.
Inside the 160-cubicle shed
The two main reasons why Caleb built the new cubicle house, as we said already, were to increase the slurry storage on the farm and to be able to house all of his cows under the one roof.
In terms of slurry storage, Caleb opted to put in three tanks at one end of the shed, rather than one at either – which he had thought about.
The plan originally, was to have the tanks at one end and a calving area at the other end, but rather than loosing cubicles, he opted against a calving area and fitted in another 34 cubicles – which allows him to house all of his cows together under the one roof now.
Youngstock on the farm will now make use of the old converted sheds during the winter as housing.
The cubicle shed is set up in a way that Caleb can feed his cows from three sides of the shed.
For extra comfort while his cows are eating, Caleb installed Easyfix evolve feed rails along the length of each side of the shed and then put in headlocking gates across the width of the shed at one end if ever they need came to handle cows.
Speaking on the feedrails and headlocking gates, Caleb said: “I find the Easyfix feedrails a good job. There’s a bit of give to them and the good thing about them is that the cows aren’t restricted, whereas, with the standard feedrails, cows wouldn’t be able to reach out as far to eat the silage and they would be constantly be banging off the metal rails.
“So as well as allowing cows reach further for silage and increase their intake, they are also a far more comfortable option I feel for the cows than the standard metal feedrails.
“Then at one end of the shed, the other feed face, I installed headlocking barriers – which are great if I ever need to handle cows in the shed.”
As well as going with Easyfix evolve feed rails, Caleb also opted to install Easyfix cubicles and mattresses and fitted them himself.
Again Caleb said cow comfort was to the fore of his decision to install these cubicles rather than the standard metal ones.
He said: “There’s far more give with the Easyfix cubicles than the standard metal ones.
“My cows are big Holsteins and they need as much room as possible due to the sheer size of them, some of them could be up to 700-800kg, so having a cubicle which restricts them doesn’t suit them.
“So I went with these ones as there is more give to them and less chance of a cow getting hurt, as I had witnessed that problem with the metal cubicles in the old sheds and then, on top of that, the cows, for the while they lied on them last spring seemed very happy on them and took to them straight away.”
In the old converted sheds, back in the 1980s, Caleb installed Dairymaster scrapers and to this day he said they are still working, with only ever minor tweaks and fixes over the years needed to keep them going.
Therefore, when he was deciding on what way he would go about cleaning his passageways in the new cubicle shed, Caleb said he was going to struggle no to put in a “few more Dairymaster scrapers”.
Caleb added: “We installed Dairymaster scrapers in the old converted sheds back in the 1980s and we have never had any major bother with them.
“So, when it came to the new shed, I found it hard to look elsewhere, even though I did have a look at other options.
“I looked at that those robotic scrapers but I was told my shed was too long for one, so I said I’d go back to what was tried and tested on the farm and installed four Dairymaster scrapers.”
Elsewhere in the shed, two passageways can be found splitting up the two rows of back-to-back cubicles either side of the the centre row of cubicles and at either ends of the shed.
The idea behind these passageways is so that Caleb can split up his cows within the shed if he wants. A small gate is hung in each passageway so that cows can be confined to a particular area of the shed (pictured below).
He added: “I wanted to be able to split up my cows into different areas of the shed and because we operate a spring and autumn calving system, I’m going to have cows in milk, dry cows and cows close to calving in the shed, so when we are housing the cows, I can keep those groups separate.”
Any concrete surface that could be grooved was grooved by Caleb to avoid the chances of any cows slipping.
Also installed in the shed are six “fast release” water troughs at either end of the cubicle shed (three at either end). Furthermore, two sliding doors were also installed at one end of the shed, while LED lights were wired up.
Cost
Caleb applied for a grant under the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) in which he was eligible for a 40% grant.
The overall cost of the build came to €320,000 including VAT.
The digging of the site began back in May of last year and the build came to a finish in spring of this year.
All of the groundwork and concrete work, which included the tanks, floors, walls and cubicle beds was completed by John Domer Construction. Brenstone Ltd supplied all the stone.
The concrete was supplied by both Eddie Roche Agri and Lismaine Concrete, while the slats and hollowcore slabs were supplied by Croom Concrete. The frame of the shed was supplied and erected by Decal Morrissey Engineering.
Speaking about the decision to go ahead and build the shed, Caleb said: “It was a must do really; I had no choice because the sheds I was housing my cows in weren’t fit for purpose.
“Last winter we only had cows in the shed for the tail end of it – for about three weeks. So this will be our first full winter in the shed.
“The cows took to it brilliantly without any bother and they were extremely content and more relaxed in the new cubicle house than they were in the old sheds.
“They have plenty of feedspace, water access and a lovely bright airy shed that is a pleasure for the cows to stay in and for me to work in,” Caleb concluded by saying.
