During the week, Agriland made the trip to just outside Ballaghaderren in Co. Roscommon, to check out a newly-built suckler shed.
The new suckler unit can be found on the farm of Pat Hanley who runs a herd of 35 predominately Limousin cows – with a spring-calving system in operation on the farm.
Up until this year, Pat was housing his cows between two cubicle sheds – which were around since the time Pat’s father was milking cows – that had a roofless feed area adjoined to them.
However, due to a compact calving period, every year around calving time Pat was always stuck for a suitable space to house cows and their newly-born calves.
Speaking to Agriland about the need for more housing on the farm and a designated area for cows and their young calves to be housed for the first few days after calving, Pat said: “Up until this year, cows would have been housed between two cubicle sheds that were there since the time we were milking cows.
“Back when the first grant came about, I put down two tanks outside the two cubicle sheds and made an outside feeding area for both sheds – which I find great and is very healthy for the cows.
“I had a designated calving area as well, but the problem was once the cows calved, I would have to move them up to the top cubicle house where young calves would have access to the outdoor feeding area, and you would just have to be constantly keeping an eye on them in case they lie out on the slats for the night.
“So basically, I wanted to have an area where I could move the cows and their calves into a shed for a few days until the calves got strong, before moving them up to the top cubicle shed where the calves can creep graze and come to and from the cubicle shed where the cows stay until the weather picks up and when they can be turned out to grass.
“Also, there was an open slurry pit on the farm, that I eventually covered with slats in 1999, that I wanted to make more use of. I thought to myself: This might be a good location for the new shed as it was bang in the middle of the two cubicle houses.”
Design
Pat said he knew what type of shed he wanted, with him adding that the design of it was “in his head”. Luckily, Pat did manage to get the design on paper, which can be seen below.
Looking at the unit in more detail, the three-bay shed spans 14.4m long and 13.9m wide. It stands 5.2m high to the apex and 3.5m to the eave gutters.
The slatted tank is 14.8m long, 4.5m wide and 2.4m deep. Two agitation points are located externally at either end.
The bays of the suckler shed measure 4.8m in width. The slatted area is 4.9m wide; calves have access to a solid lie-back area via creep gates. This section is sloped down towards the slatted tanks in order to keep the creep area dry.
These three pens behind each of the three slatted pens are 6.6m wide and 4.8m wide.
The feeding passageway is 2.4m wide and 14.4m long and has a canopy protruding out over it to keep the silage dry and prevent rain from getting into the slatted area.
Inside the suckler unit
The cubicle shed can be divided into two main parts. The front section of the shed encompasses three slatted pens.
Pat said that each pen can comfortably hold six to seven cows at ease.
The beauty about the way the shed is laid out is that Pat can feed his cows from both sides of the slatted pens and also leaves the shed open to try other systems, with Pat mentioning bull-beef as a possible option for the farm in the future along with the sucklers.
He can either feed cows at the front of the shed under the canopy or inside, where one sliding door gives him access to the creep area which can also obviously act as a feeding passageway also.
Pat decided to install Jourdain Safety IV headlock barriers at the front of the shed, while the feed barriers between the slats and the creep area are standard diagonal feed barriers.
Two water troughs were fitted to serve the three slatted pens, while three smaller water drinkers were installed in the three dry bedded pens at the back of the shed.
With all modern suckler units nowadays, a creep gate can be found between the slats and the dry bedded area and that’s no different in Pat’s shed.
Each pen has a creep gate fitted beside the diagonal feed barriers and Pat said calves took to moving between the slats and the creep area very well.
This creep gate can be opened fully to allow cows, for example, to come to and from the slatted and dry areas as well.
Moving to the back section of the shed, for the creep area, Pat opted to put in a fall of roughly eight inches to allow any runoff from the bedding to flow down into the slatted tank.
Because of the steepness of the slope, Pat had to step one of the two gates which separates the three pens at the back of the shed (seen below), so that calves couldn’t go under them and move between pens.
Rather than having two sliding doors at either end of the dry section of the shed, Pat decided to go with a small access door at one end and a sliding door at the other end.
Where the small access door is, leading out from it brings you into what will be a penning area which has a grooved and smooth concrete surface.
The idea behind the grooved surface is that when cows and their newly-born calves move from the calving area to the new suckler shed, the pathway up to it is quite steep and just to prevent cows from slipping, Pat opted to groove the concrete to eliminate this risk.
‘Space boarding all the way’
Pat said that having an airy space for cattle to be housed in is of critical importance to him and was one of the key reasons behind his decision to create two open feed areas for his cows in his two cubicle sheds.
Similarly, in his new suckler unit, the importance of good ventilation comes through when you look around. Where the roof on either side meets at the apex, one side is stepped below the other. This gap between the two sides allows increased airflow in and out of the shed.
Furthermore, at the back of the shed, Pat opted to go with space boarding rather than vented sheeting.
Having visited a couple of newly built sheds, he saw how the vented sheeting was getting blocked up and was “full of cobwebs”.
He said little, to no water came through the boarding at all last spring and that the shed was airy and not too cold and with straw bedding down for the calves, it was a perfect environment for them.
Cost
The total cost of the suckler shed came to €35,000 (including VAT) Pat said. Pat didn’t get grant aid on the build, but it’s finished to the spec of a grant shed.
The finish of the overall shed can’t be faulted either inside or outside. The shed itself was erected by Newtowngore Engineering. All the concrete work was carried out by a local contractor Dermot Dooney.
While the inside of the shed was kitted out by Teemore Engineering with Pat and a friend of his fitting all the gates and feed barriers themselves.
The electrical work was done by David Regan.
Speaking about the decision to build the new suckler shed, Pat said: “Overall, I’m happy with the decision.
“There were one of two things that were going to happen; either the tank that was there was going to be backfilled or a shed was going to be put up – and obviously, we went with the latter.
“We got to use it at the back end of the calving season this year, but next year will be our first full year in it, so I’m looking forward to being able to fully make use of it.
“The other great thing about the shed is, if I ever go down the line of bull-beef, the shed can be used for that as well. I can feed from both sides of the slatted pens, which gives me options – which is great.”
