Last week, the Irish Farmers Journal visited Donald Bateman at his farm in Knockane, Ballylooby, Cahir, Co Tipperary. Donald runs a 230-strong Jersey crossbred spring-calving herd on an 81ha milking platform, with all young cattle contract-reared locally.

A large cubicle shed was recently completed on the Bateman farm for housing the dairy herd.

Donald said he had a number of reasons for building the shed.

“I needed a shed to improve the wintering facilities on the farm and make feeding and management more straightforward. I was short of accommodation and feeding space.

“At the shoulders of the year especially we had nowhere to go with the milkers if weather was bad or if supplementation was needed. The simple design of the shed was vital to tie in with the existing farm layout,” explained Donald.

Before this new shed was built, the cows were out-wintered on a pad and on topless cubicles with access to a shed for feeding and shelter. This accommodation was fine and served its purpose, but the Batemans felt they needed better facilities for ease of management during the winter and at times during the grazing season.

Donald is married to Lucy and they have four children – Jonathan (13), Ruth (11), James (8) and Rebecca (6) – who all help out on the farm.

Click here for plan of shed

The new cubicle house was built on a greenfield site. The shed is 53m (11 bays) long by 29.5m wide. It has 232 cubicles and up to 200 cows can feed at any time. The feeding space was vital in Donald’s eyes. He said that if the cows ever had to be brought back into the shed during a week of bad weather, feeding space was going to be an issue.

The cubicles and mats were purchased from Denis O’Herlihy through Teemore Engineering. The cubicles are 7ft by 44in. The supply and installation of the 232 cubicles and mats and the barriers cost €28,750 excluding VAT.

Slurry storage was another area that Donald put great thought into. The double tank in the new shed is 9ft deep by 120ft long, with two 14.6ft slats wide. This double tank provides ample slurry storage. Donald decided to go for Dairypower hydraulic scrapers. The four scrapers supplied and installed cost €18,000 excluding VAT.

There are plenty of skylights and Donald said there is plenty of natural lighting in the shed. “I left the shed open on the sides for two reasons; firstly, for ventilation purposes, and secondly, to keep the cows acclimatised to the outdoors at the same time. Even on warmer days with the shed full, it’s never warm or clammy inside,” he explained.

The Batemans did not apply for a TAMS II grant for the cubicle shed. “I didn’t apply for a grant. I reckon savings made through the grant would have been small and it would be too much hassle,” Donald said.

The shed was constructed by Paul Bergin and it was finished at the start of December 2016. Donald is very happy with the end result and wouldn’t change anything about it. “The cows are comfortable inside. Coming from the outdoor system we had, it is a big improvement. There would always have been 10 to 15 very bad days of weather during the winter that are hard on cows. It’s great to have this shed for the future.”

Figure one

Figure 1(above) shows the original plans of the shed. However, Donald added more cubicles into the shed than what is displayed. There is no walk over in the middle of the centre passage and the cubicles are actually narrower than what is on the plans.