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A large four-bay shed was recently constructed on the farm of Anthony Glynn, who farms just outside of Four Mile House in Co Roscommon. A suckler enterprise is run on the farm with the aim of calving down 30 cows each year.
Cows are predominantly continental breeds with the majority of stock sold as weanlings. In some cases, weanlings will be over-wintered and sold as forward stores.
Anthony works full-time off the farm as an electrician so the shed had to be set up to allow him to cope with calving all cows in the shed. For this reason, a slightly unusual design was chosen.
Anthony’s father Frank also provides a valuable pair of eyes around the farm, especially when Anthony is at work. However, he is not heavily involved when it comes to the day-to-day management of the cows.
Calving cameras have also been installed in the shed to aid observation. Having an extra pair of eyes and a camera provide an invaluable assistance to a part-time suckler farmer when it comes to both calving and detecting cows in heat.
The layout of the shed was designed by Anthony himself to allow pens to be as flexible as possible.
“Farmers will often look at the comfort of the cows but they won’t look at their own comfort. I wanted this shed to make management of cows and calves as easy as possible,” Anthony said.
The shed
There are a total of 12 different pens in the shed – four slatted pens, four lay-back pens covered with Easyfix rubber mats and four calving pens which can also act as a creep area for calves. Anthony knew the design of the shed he required to suit his own system. Prior to the new shed, housing on the farm was substandard and an upgrade was desperately needed to ensure farming could be combined with full-time off-farm employment.
An apex roof design was chosen as opposed to an open shed as the shed is sitting on an exposed site. The shed is nearly square in shape, measuring approximately 19m long by 20m wide. Large 14ft 6in slates are in place over an 8ft deep tank. The slatted pens have a width of 4.8m while they stretch back 4.5m. The lay-back pens are larger measuring approximately 4.8m wide by 6m long.
Feeding
The feed passage along the front feed barrier measures approximately 4.8m wide. Sliding doors are in place at either end of the feed passage to allow for ease of feeding. Two of the pens are fitted with standard feeding barriers while the other two are fitted with lockable feed barriers, a trend that is being seen in a lot of suckler sheds throughout the country.
Drinkers
Flexibility is key for Anthony. For this reason, the shed was fitted with eight large water drinkers. This ensures that no matter what pen an animal is in, there is a water supply available. Cows are generally allowed access to the lay-back area at all times.
However, it can also be used to isolate a cow that is in heat as the target is to have cows calving down from November onwards so the majority of the cows will be served while housed.
Access between all of the pens in the shed is vital. For this reason, man escape gates which can also act as calf creep gates are in place between each pen of the creep. Creep gates also provide access between lay-back pens and from the lay-back pens to the creep pens.
Machinery access to the lay-back area of the shed can be undertaken from a sliding door on one side of the shed.
On the opposite side of the shed, a sliding door provides access to the creep area for machinery. A small sliding door is also in place to provide access to the creep.
Creep
The calf creep to the back of the shed is well equipped for a busy calving season, with two calving gates in place. The creep area measures approximately 4.5m deep. Two of the pens are losing space due to the crush. A calving gate is in place at the top of the crush that is along the back wall of the shed – this is predominantly used to aid a calf suckling.
A separate calving gate for caesarean sections is also in place in the shed. This can be folded back against the wall.
The gates between the pens in the creep were designed by Anthony and fabricated by Bó Steel, along with all the other internal penning in the shed. The gate was designed to allow two cows to be fed silage from an adjoining pen. Sheeting is yet to be added underneath the feeding spaces.
Water and urine will collect at the centre of each creep pen which is then piped into the main tank. This was done to aid in the prevention of disease spreading in the shed.
Ventilation
As the shed is approximately 20m wide, outlet ventilation is provided by a 600mm-wide outlet along the apex of the roof, as per Department specifications. The ridge cap above the outlet is 350mm clear of the roof. Inlet ventilation is provided by a combination of vented sheeting and an unobstructed opening running along the full length of the shed.
Due to the width of the shed, the requirement is to have the opening 300mm deep.
Vented sheeting is also in place at either end of the shed. This is strongly recommended in wide-span houses.
A total of 16 roof lights allow plenty of natural light into the shed. These are all fitted with safety bars underneath.
Brackets are in place at the four exterior corners of the shed, which yard lights will be hung on.
Cost
The shed was completed through TAMS II with Anthony qualifying as a young farmer, making him eligible for 60% grant aid on the first €80,000 of the investment, meaning he will receive €48,000 in grant aid. The cost of the concrete for the project came in at approximately €20,000 while the cost of the penning and the barriers also cost approximately €20,000 according to Anthony. The shed itself cost €45,000 while the slats came in at €5,500. These figures were not including ground works.
“Overall the shed was expensive but it is a once-in-a-lifetime job and is something that needed doing for a while. It will allow for much easier management of cows both before and after calving.”
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