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John Fitzgerald, in partnership with Paul Sweetnam, recently constructed a new cubicle shed and milking parlour on a greenfield site on their farm in Leamlara, Co Cork.
“We originally started off in an employer-employee relationship in 2013, but, in reality, we were partners in everything but name so, in 2015, we went into partnership,” John explained.
“It helped to bring Paul closer to the business, as well as allowing us better access to grant aid. The partnership has worked really well so far.”
John and Paul both have off-farm jobs, so one of the main priorities is to have the farm as mechanised as possible.
“We would be really big fans of labour-saving techniques wherever we can implement them. Having a low-maintenance business is a key part of our model,” John said.
Expansion
The farm has experienced staggered expansion since 2012, when John took it over. The herd has steadily progressed from a milking herd of 56 cows to 160.
“We didn’t buy in any stock and bred all of our own replacements. We were doing calf to beef up until two years ago, but we stopped that as the herd grew,” John said.
When designing a new shed, sometimes people will only look at the short-term development of the farm, but this was not the case for John and Paul.
“The thought process for the new sheds started in 2012,” according to John. “We wanted to develop a sustainable business. In the first few years, we developed the farm roadways and the water systems and then attention turned towards the bigger investments.”
Research and planning were key when it came to deciding what they wanted the cubicle shed and parlour to look like. “We got a lot of advice and went to see a lot of different sheds and the quality of the finish before we decided on a design and a contractor to do the work. We took a lot of input from a lot of different people, which was definitely worth it,” according to John.
“We saw that where we place the shed now would impact on how we can expand again in the future if we wanted to.”
Grasstec was brought in to map the farm yard and develop a design that would fit in with John and Paul’s ideas.
Grasstec engineer John O’Callaghan said: “The key elements of this project were to design and build a new milking parlour and cubicle shed on to a difficult sloping greenfield site.
“We also had to be conscious that the new sheds would tie in with the existing farmyard and passageways, while providing the ability for future expansion of the herd, shed and collecting yard over time.”
Picture one and figure one
The new buildings include a cubicle shed with 88 cubicle beds and an adjoining 24-unit milking parlour. Additionally, a new collecting yard, handling unit and dairy were also constructed.
The parlour was built into a slope, meaning that the dairy is above the parlour itself. Located in the dairy is a new 18,000-litre bulk tank supplied by Liscarroll Engineering.
“The old parlour that was here was an eight-unit herringbone that was 40 years old, so it owed us nothing. It was a very tough spring milking in it, with milking taking up on eight hours a day, which was mentally and physically tough,” John Fitzgerald admitted.
Pictures two and three
The new cubicle shed is just under 23m wide and approximately 43m long and is fitted with 88 cubicles, as well as a dry bedded calving area.
The shed is nine bays in length with two bays of the shed dedicated to a calving area.
Feeding takes place on three sides of the shed, which allows for buffer feeding at the shoulders of the year, if necessary. Two double rows of cubicles run down the centre of the shed, which are 4.8m long at 1.15m centres.
All passageways throughout the shed are grooved to provide grip for cows. Three automatic scrapers run the length of the shed into a double slatted tank in place at one end.
One of the tanks is slatted, while the other extends out under a suspended feeding passage, which provides additional slurry storage, an option more and more farmers are opting for. This gives a total slurry storage capacity in this double tank of 564,000 litres.
Pictures four and five
While the new Boumatic milking parlour is currently 24 units, the pit has been constructed to take 32 units to allow for future expansion as the herd grows further.
“We decided to go for 2ft 2in centres for the parlour. It means that there is less walking to be done in the pit, which I like,” John said.
“We visited a lot of different parlours and the quality was very close between the lot of them, but the Boumatic parlour won on price.”
The parlour is fitted with swing-over arms, automatic cluster removers and an auto-wash system.
Milking time has been halved with the new parlour, now taking approximately four hours per day.
Picture six
A large collecting yard with space for 200 cows is located directly behind the parlour, which has greatly improved cow flow.
“Cow flow with the new setup is phenomenal,” according to John.
“We have stalls filled in under a minute. One of the main advantages of going to a greenfield site has been the cow flow. We installed a backing gate in the collecting yard too, which is a great help,” he said.
“Having good facilities means that there are more chances of getting in good casual labour whenever we need it and labour is really becoming the limiting factor on a lot of farms.”
John Mulcahy of Mulcahy Steel said: “The cow flow between the parlour and the handling facilities were designed to allow one man to manage large numbers safely by himself.”
The position of the collecting yard also means that it can be expanded easily in the future if desired.
Running adjacent to the collecting yard is a 19m long and 4.4m wide slatted tank, designated for parlour washings.
This has a total capacity of 165,000 litres, meaning it has storage capacity for over 400 cows for 15 days, according to Grasstec.
Picture seven
When cows exit the milking parlour, they can be directed through an automatic drafter where cows for serving can be separated. Also located in the handling area is a batch crush for AI that can hold nine cows or a conventional crush that can hold 11 cows.
Cows can also bypass the handling area and drafting unit if desired.
Both John and Paul qualify as young farmers through TAMS, meaning that accumulatively they were able to benefit from a 60% grant aid on the first €160,000 spent on the project, giving them grant aid of just over €90,000, according to John.
The TAMS grant was used for a new silage pit that was built adjoining the new shed and for the milking equipment.
“We are happy with the new facilities, which are a good investment for years to come,” said John.
Substantial groundworks were required on the site to dig into the hill on one side and build up the ground on the other side.
Mulcahy Steel completed the entire project, including all concrete work, fabricating and erecting the shed and installing the internal penning.
The total cost of the project came to approximately €565,000 including the VAT.
This does not include the cost of the silage pit.
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