The Heffernan family run a very impressive low-cost grass-based dairy system in Caherleske, Dunnamaggin, Co Kilkenny. They currently have 300 British Friesian spring-calving cows and their plan is to be milking over 400 in the next three years.

Billy Heffernan was milking 30 cows combined with beef, sheep and tillage enterprises originally. In 2007, dairy cow numbers increased to 70 and since then numbers have gradually increased to where they are now. The increase in numbers was as a result of Billy’s two sons Liam and Mark coming home to farm full-time and a decision to specialise predominantly in dairying, phasing out the other enterprises on the farm.

The farm is very much suited to milk production, with one large dry block of top-quality grazing ground and farmyard located centrally. The grazing platform amounts to 124ha made up of owned and leased ground. They also have leased out blocks for heifers and silage.

Grass is sacred on the Heffernan farm and all the expansion in numbers was solely driven by the amount of grass that can be grown and utilised at home. Bought-in feed is always kept to a minimum. With the growth in numbers came the necessity to expand winter accommodation. The decision was made to build a new 163-cow cubicle shed alongside existing cow accommodation. The shed is built on the site of old hay sheds and lean-tos.

These old sheds needed re-roofing and did not make efficient use of space so it made better sense to knock them down and replace with a shed designed for larger numbers. Some of the stanchions from one of the old sheds were re-used for the new cubicle shed. The steel work was erected by Peter J McDonald Engineering Ltd from New Ross, Co Wexford.

When I walked into the Heffernan’s yard the first thing I met was the gable end of the cubicle shed. It looked pretty straightforward, nestled between a new walled silage pit and other cow accommodation. Nothing really caught my eye until I stepped around the corner to view the side – that’s when I realised the staggering length of the shed. It is 18 bays long in total and almost 13m wide.

This was not a straightforward build and a lot of factors came into play with its design. For one, the original haysheds had slurry tanks and the new shed had to accommodate them. The shed was also linked to two existing cubicle sheds which were different heights.

Because the site is located on a significant slope, it was important to the Heffernans that cows exiting the new cubicle shed were at the same height as cows exiting the existing cubicle shed. That is one reason why they decided to follow this slope somewhat in the design rather than building the shed at the same height throughout. By following the slope they also saved a significant amount of money on filling costs.

There was green corrifarm sheeting used on the 1500 pitch roof. The curved vent sheet is raised 9” above the roof. All the stanchions and rafters were shot-blasted, primed and painted grey. In total a massive 36 skylights were used in the shed, making it very bright inside.

On average, the shed is 4m high at the eaves but this height varies slightly as the ground level changes. The apex of the shed is approximately 8.8m high. Picture three shows the point where the new stanchion was fitted to the existing stanchion to extend the height. To do this, a plate was welded on to the front flange and one side of the web. This plate was pre-drilled, and similarly holes were drilled in the old stanchion. The new stanchion was placed on top of the old one and they were bolted together via the welded-on plates.

This was only carried out on one section of the new shed where an old hayshed once stood. The rest of the shed consisted of all new stanchions. The roof overhang from the feed barrier stanchion over the concrete feed apron is 2.45m wide. The overhang prevents rain blowing on top of the cubicles.

The far side of the shed was linked to existing cubicle sheds. The stanchions from these existing cubicles were perfectly strong enough to carry the new roof as well. It was just a matter of taking careful measurements to make up L-shaped fittings to join the existing stanchions to the new rafters. There is a 1m gap between the eaves of the new roof and the roof of the existing cubicle shed. This allows plenty of air inside the shed, improving the ventilation further. Six-inch-deep gutters are sufficient to take the water coming from both roofs. The gutters are connected to 4” sewer pipes which feed into a large 6” sewer pipe.

O’Donovan Engineering Ltd supplied the steel cubicles and they were erected by the Heffernans. The cubicle floor is 9” above the passage and all the cubicles were fitted with Easyfix Mats. The cubicle spaces are 1.17m wide. After laying the cubicle mats, the Heffernans poured concrete in the vacancy between the mats.

“A lot of cubicle sheds have mats down and a hollow is usually left in the centre of the cubicle between the two mats allowing muck build up over time, which is very difficult to clean,” explained Mark. The concrete-heightened layer between the mats prevents this from happening.

As I mentioned earlier, there were two existing slurry tanks on this site that were incorporated in the new build. The Heffernans added another slurry tank to increase the slurry storage. David Kenneally Farm Buildings from the locality did the concrete work for the new tanks and walls. The Heffernans laid the rest of the concrete themselves with the help of good neighbours.

The slats on the old tanks were all changed with new 12ft gangs. These slats were supplied by Doyle Concrete. Two automatic scrapers supplied by Colin Barry from Dairymaster keep the passages clean. The power pack that drove two existing scrapers in the adjoining cubicle shed was sufficient to drive the new ones, which was a saving in the new construction. One scraper cleans in both directions, while the other just scrapes in one direction but there are more tanks available to take the slurry from this scraper. Figure 1 shows the layout of the new shed, the location of the existing and new tanks as well as the cubicle spaces.

Cost

The new slurry tank cost €17,500 in total. Labour and steel for this tank cost €9,500 and concrete cost €8,000. Scrapers and electrical wiring cost €7,500. The supply and erection of the new shed cost €57,000. Cubicles, mats, water troughs and feed rails cost €21,000.

The Heffernans carried out a lot of smaller work themselves, with machinery work and dismantling older sheds, but the overall project came in at €1,070 per cubicle space not including their own time/labour.

The Heffernans are delighted with how the shed turned out. It came in useful this August when grass covers dropped during a drought and cows needed to be buffer-fed. There are plenty of feed spaces, with space for 140 cows to feed at one time comfortably.