In this week’s Buildings Focus, Agriland travelled to just outside Gort in Co. Galway, to check out a 63-cubicle house built last year on the farm of David Gillane – built for the main purpose of creating extra slurry storage.
David runs both a spring and autumn-calving system, which sees him calve down 60 cows in spring and the same again during the autumn.
At the time of Agriland’s visit, David had calved down over 20 cows. His system which suits him perfectly, he says, as he does the majority of the work himself and wouldn’t be able to calve down all of his cows say, in the springtime, as he would be overwhelmed.
David has invested quite a bit of money in the farm over the last number of years, including putting in a new 10-unit milking parlour, calving shed and silage slab.
The last piece of the puzzle David said was increasing his slurry storage – which he says was tight on the farm.
Speaking to Agriland during the week, David said: “I have spent quite a bit of money modernising the farm over the last number of years, and I suppose the one area I needed to improve, to add the finishing touch, was increasing my slurry storage.
“I had thought about putting up a tower to store the slurry, but I was thinking it would be an awful eyesore and really only serve one purpose.
“So I said to myself that putting up a cubicle shed would make a lot more sense and it would obviously serve more than one purpose – which for any sizeable investment is what you want.”
Layout
The cubicle house was built on what was once a paddock for cows to graze in.
David made contact with Henry Lydon who designed the shed, while Michael Kelly of Michael Kelly Engineering erected the shed and hung all the gates and barriers. All the concrete work was carried out by Sean Grealish.
The cubicle house is 28.8m long and 14.8m wide. The unit stands 6.6m high at the apex and 4.0m to the eve gutters.
The concrete walls of the shed stand 2.4m high. The two slatted tanks are both 28.5m long. Both tanks are 4.7m wide; however, due to the cubicles at the back of the shed, the slatted floor area is smaller (2.67m wide) compared to the tank at the front of the unit, which stretches 5.1m wide.
There are four agitation points – one at either end of each tank.
The 63 cubicles in the shed measure 2.4m long and 1.35m wide. While at either end of the back-to-back cubicles in the centre of the unit is a walkway – which measures 2.3m – and allows cows to move the whole way around the shed.
David has the option also of feeding his cows from two sides of the shed, one side at the front which measures 28.5m long and at one side of the shed which measures 9.5m long.
Creating extra slurry storage ‘was the priority’
As mentioned already, David’s main aim was to create more slurry storage on the farm, as cow numbers had crept up since taking over the running of the farm from his father.
This meant, the last few years, slurry storage has been “tight” according to David, and having decided against putting up a tower for slurry storage he opted for a cubicle shed.
Originally, the plan was to put in an L-shaped tank, but after talking with Henry Lydon, they both decided on putting in two rectangular tanks 16ft wide and 120ft long.
Speaking about the need for more slurry storage, David said: “I couldn’t see the benefit of putting up an overground slurry tank.
“So I said putting up a cubicle shed would make more sense and be ideal for housing my dry cows and in-calf heifers.
“The original plan was to put in an L-shaped tank but after talking to Henry we decided that I would put down two tanks – just so that I would have more than enough space and that if I had to keep cows in longer than expected I wouldn’t be stuck or tight like before.
“So over in the main housing facilities, I can pump the slurry over to this new cubicle shed which I did last winter and I didn’t even fill both tanks – so finally I don’t have to be looking over my shoulder and having to worry about tanks filling up and being stuck.
Inside the 63-cubicle house
Looking inside the unit, David was keen on having a cubicle house that had plenty of feed space and also had an emphasis on cow comfort.
Looking at the latter first, David contacted Easyfix and sourced 63 cubicles from them along with mattresses for each one.
David fitted them himself and said that it was easily done and the fact that they are light in weight meant it was easier and faster to get them fitted.
He added: “I’m big on cow comfort and I’ve seen the Easyfix cubicles on farms and have heard good things about them from farmers.
“The cows are very happy on them. The one thing I like is the flexibility of them. The flexibility in the cubicles means the cows are not going to get hurt stepping up into the cubicle bed or get caught in them.
“I have standard steel ones in sheds across the yard and I would have cows getting stuck in them, but that’s not an issue with the Easyfix ones.
“I find the cubicles great for training the heifers into. They take to them very well.
“I put sawdust on them once a week as well which I find works well and then lime the cubicles every day.
“The cows just seem very comfortable on them and the fact I could fit them myself as well was great.”
At either end of the shed lies two tip-over water drinkers. Again, David said they are a good job and can be cleaned out instantly – thus making sure cows have access to clean fresh water at all times.
As it is a grant-spec shed, the features you would expect of such a shed can be seen throughout. David went with vented sheeting at the back of the shed and also opted to go with spaced sheeting on the roof.
Similar to the slurry storage, there is no lack of feed space either – as mentioned, David can feed cows from two sides of the shed.
If David wanted to, he could lock cows in at the back of the shed – which gives the flexibility of keeping the dry cows separate from the in-calf heifers, for example.
Cost
David availed of the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS II) but having made part use of it before for another investment on the farm, he was only able to claim up to 20%.
The overall cost of the cubicle house came to €110,000. However, when the grant is deducted from the overall cost, the build is standing to David at just over €90,000.
Speaking about whether going with a cubicle shed was the right decision, David said that “it was 100%”.
He added: “Looking back, with my first winter over and going into my second one now, it was the right decision.
“Last winter, by the time cows were out, the tanks weren’t even full. So not only is my slurry storage issue a thing in the past, but I also have a cubicle house with more than enough housing and plenty of feed space.
“The cows are very happy in it and I’m pleased, in the end, it was the correct decision,” David concluded by saying.
