Tidy suckler shed for 20-cow herd

This week, I feature a nice, tidy suckler house and yard built in Co Clare. It’s the kind of shed that would suit many farms.

Paul Mooney

1 May 2013

Picture one The shed is three bays long with a roof spanning 8m (26 feet) plus a 3m (10 feet) overhang. Two of the bays have locking feed rails, the third a diagonal rail. The shed is east-facing with its back to the prevailing wind. Nonetheless, we can see that Mike opted for two walls at the gable ends to provide shelter – that is common enough in west Clare. Although it restricts tractor access a bit, it gives shelter from strong winds.

Picture two Behind the feed rail are three pens with 12 foot six inch slats, now matted, standing over a (nine feet – 2.7m) deep tank. Suckler farmers regularly debate the merits of cubicles or plain slats – Mike opted for cubicles, four in each bay, one in front of the creep gate. Cubicles offer comfort and probably better animal health for the cows, but they add to building costs, reduce stocking capacity and risk injury to calves. The three pens are divided by these sturdy gates, latc

Picture three Behind the pens are three bedded creep areas. The creep areas are separated from the pens by a 1.5m high mass concrete wall – it helps eliminate draughts at ground level. All dividers in the creep area are hinged and there is a sliding door at the end, all to facilitate easy cleaning out. The near creep pen is fitted with a calving gate to allow it double as a calving pen. The head restraint of the calving gate means this can also be used for occasional animal handling tasks.

Picture four I haven’t seen this type of creep gate before. The vertical bars which set the gap are rollers which will rotate as a calf goes through. The pins at the top lift out to allow the roller be moved. These gates and the shed barriers were supplied by Declan Carey.

Picture five Some farmers choose to put a handling unit inside the shed in the creep area of a suckler house, under the roof. Mike opted to put his new handling unit outside. Advantages are that all internal space is left for creep area, the crush stays cleaner and cleaning out of the creep area is that bit easier.

Picture six Many new cattle sheds are built on sloping ground and that was the case here. The 2.5m (8 feet) side wall on this near side is sitting on a base side wall which, although now backfilled, is three feet high. So foundations of the wall here are some four feet underground. Part of the hard core yard area in front of the shed was raised up using stone.

Picture seven On this gable end, the ground was even lower and had to be raised more. The yard wall is 14 feet high here, with eight feet of this underground. The additional concrete and 20 loads of stone (€100 each) used to counter slopes added €4,000 to €5,000 to costs.

Picture eight The Kellehers are building up suckler cow numbers with a target of 21. Uncertainty over the future of Single Farm Payment and DAPS prompted the investment in winter facilities – they had none. The finished shed cost €50,000. For tractor access into the creep area, Mike had to raise the ground outside the shed gable. Once this was required he then decided to put the crush outside against a retaining wall. Otherwise, it could have gone inside.

The site presented what is a common challenge for farm building contractors and farmers, particularly in western counties; sloping ground. The new shed is on the farm of Mike and Bernie Kelleher at Knock, Kilrush. They run a herd of pure bred Limousin cows. It was built by Cooraclare-based building contractor Declan Fennell who fabricated and erected the steel, made the slats and laid all concrete.