Pallas by name, palace by nature

01 Feb 2003: Dairy technician Mervyn Kearney and farm manager Gene McGrath of Pallaskenry Agricultural College showed me around the latest development on the college farm, a new calving facility, writes Jack Kennedy. The Salesian College milks 190 pedigree Holstein Friesian cows. Herd average is 1850 gallons at 3.79% fat and 3.34% protein

Cows near calving are picked out from the main cow shed every Monday and these go to the straw bedded area in the new shed.

"Here the cows can be locked out from feed during the day and allowed to feed at night. We have had good success doing this and only two cows calved at night out of a hundred this year" maintains Mervyn.

New calving facility

The new calving shed is divided into three main sections. The six bay shed measures 96ft long by 44ft wide. Along one side of the shed are individual calving pens.

Beside this there is a loose straw bedding area with slatted feeding area capable of holding around 18 cows pre calving.

Adjoining this area is a cubicle area with cubicles for 18 cows, scraper and slatted feeding area. This area is used for cows just after calving so they are not introduced to the main cowshed and stress is minimised.

The straw bedded area allows cows to stretch out near calving and the ‘feed at night policy' can be implemented with complete control.

Pushing across an extra set of slanted bars between the existing slanting feed bars locks off feed face.

"Many people thought there would be a lot of rushing and pushing but this is not the case and cows soon get used to feeding at night. Intake is small during this period anyway so there is no major pressure on cows" maintains Mervyn.

Cows calve in one of the six individual pens along one side of the shed. The pens are big enough to hold 2 cows before calving.

There are cameras situated over each of these individual calving pens.

All bars and gates are removable and this allows for great ease when cleaning pens out. There are roller doors at each end of the individual pens to allow easy access for cleaning out the shed.

When cows calve they enter the cubicle area to the front of the calving shed. Cubicles are big and roomy measuring 8ft by 4ft.

"The cubicle shed here allows cows a chance to settle down after calving. They are not bullied to the same extent as they would be in the main shed and have a chance to settle into milking with cows at a similar stage of lactation" maintains Mervyn.

The shed is constructed to allow all feeding be done with a diet feeder. Gene McGrath pointed out that they have plans to put a canopy over the feeding points to keep rain off the feed.

"Using the diet feeder saves great messing with wheelbarrows. At first I was sceptical with the idea of feeding outside of the shed but now I see it as a great advantage to the shed" maintained Gene.

The site was prepared by staff at Pallaskenry and a contractor was hired to build the tanks and walls surrounding the shed.

O'Donovan engineering in Coachford made all the steel works within the shed.

The O'Dwyer Steel Company constructed the shed. One side of the shed has space sheeting with the other side enclosed. The north facing side has raised sheeting in the roof. Each of the six bays has a sheet raised two inches above the level of the other sheets.

The total cost of the building is in the region of €113,000.

"The shed works perfectly, it is state of the art and is a pleasure to work in. It minimises stress on cows and makes feeding and looking after cows around calving a pleasure," maintains Mervyn.

Calf care

Calves are left with dams for two days in the individual pens to ensure they receive adequate colostrum. They are then moved to individual hutches.

"The hutches are a little more labour intensive, but at least you do the feeding rounds in the morning and the evening and that's it.

"Before, we used to spend half of the day injecting for scours and viruses etc. This can become very frustrating.

"We have very little health problems when the calves move to the hutches. This year we have invested in more individual hutches and also are trying the batch hutches."

Individual hutches cost in the region of €200 each. Hutches are placed on a bed of gravel and faced away from prevailing winds.

32mm pipe with taps on 25mm droppers. Main pipe is in a continuous loop back to storage drum so that the pump is running continuously while calves are being fed.

Yoghurt added to milk lessens nutritional scours but also keeps pipe and feeders clean.

Calves are fed two litres of cold milk twice daily for the first week.

After seven days they are grouped into batches of 12-15 calves. During the spring they drink from a mobile feeder outdoors on grass and are fed 4.5 litres cold milk once a day at this stage.

Hay is offered ad lib at this stage also. No concentrates are fed. After three days they are grouped into batches of 24-26 calves. Calves are grazed 3 to 6 days ahead of the cows. This way calves have access to the highest quality feed on the farm. Young calves settle much easier than older calves so the sooner they are back out again the better.

Kevin finds that older calves are more likely to roam whereas younger calves will not go too far away from feeder.

Calves are fed and moved once a day. They follow the feeder so they can be moved easily at the same time by one person.

They continue to follow the feeder for months after being weaned, which simplifies moving calves. Calves are weaned at 90kgs. Calves stay ahead of cows until mid July.

At this stage, they tend to taint grass ahead of milkers so they are put in front of the heifers in a leader follower system.