A new beef finishing shed has just been completed on the farm of Shane and Connie Fitzpatrick from Brickens, Claremorris, Co Mayo. The new shed will have the capacity for up to 70 older cattle while it could accommodate up to 90 weanlings according to Shane. “We would usually buy in strong suck calves at five or six weeks old and bring them through to slaughter,” Shane explains, “and although we have a good calf rearing shed we had been renting out sheds for finishing cattle over the past few years so we needed to invest in our own facilities.

“I did the Green Cert two years ago and the plan was always to try and put up the shed with the help of the Young Farmer grant.” The farm also buys in weanlings during the year but calves do present an easier entry route, especially for younger farmers said Shane. “You can get into numbers easy enough at the start if you are buying calves. We have been buying calves for the last four or five years and it has worked well for us. If you were to go out and buy 20 or 30 weanlings it would be a big outlay.”

Safety and simplicity/ch>

Safety and making management as simple as possible, as Shane also works part-time off farm, were two key considerations when deciding on the design of the shed. The shed itself is an A-roof with six slatted pens, three either side of a central feeding passage. There is also a creep area on both sides of the shed, which allows cattle to be fed at the front and back of pens.

“Feeding on both sides gives us the capacity to house 70 cattle for finishing,” according to Shane, “I know some people will put tanks back to back but I don’t think you get the same capacity out of the pens if you are finishing animals as everything needs to be able to eat together.”

Pens

The pens are 4.8m wide with a span of 5.3m (17’6”). They are fitted with 4.4m (14’6”) slats with an additional 0.45m of a toe piece left at either side of the slats, giving a larger capacity pen.

The tank itself has an internal width of 4.1m and is 2.4m deep with an internal length of 16.8m. Each tank has two external agitation points, at either side of the shed. Net storage capacity of the tanks is 303m3, taking into account that a free space of 200mm must be left in the tank when calculating storage capacity.

The farm is located in Zone B meaning that 18 weeks slurry storage is required. If the shed was to house only cattle over 18 months old it would have sufficient slurry storage for 64 animals while if only cattle under 18 months were housed it would have capacity for 112 animals. In reality, it will be a mixture of the two types that will be housed so there is ample storage for the winter period to meet Shane’s requirements.

The central feed passage in the shed is 5.1m wide, ensuring plenty of room for machinery. The passage itself is three inches higher than the slats, allowing cattle to reach the feed at ease.

Measurements

The shed is approximately 25.3m wide and 14.4m long with a closed design, always the preferred option for Shane. Height to the eaves is 3.8m rising to 7.7m at the apex of the ridge cap that is in place over a continuous opening which runs the full length of the shed to provide outlet ventilation.

Inlet ventilation is provided by a combination of a continuous opening, running directly below the eaves on both sides of the shed and vented sheeting below this opening. However, each of the four sliding doors that provide access to the creep area can also be opened to improve airflow, with gates fitted inside each door. This may be especially useful during the summer months.

“The gates inside the doors should hopefully save the doors a bit in the long run as you don’t have cattle hitting up against them. The hope will be that we can finish cattle in the shed over the summer too,” Shane outlines, “it is a big investment and having it empty half of the time isn’t making the best use of it.”

Creep

Both creep areas are 4.4m wide. The creep area on the left hand side of the shed is well equipped for handling cattle and is split into three holding pens. A crush also runs the length of the wall adjoining these pens. Power sockets are in place at several points above the crush. The crush is fitted with anti-backing bars and can also accommodate the weighing scales on the farm.

Safety is a key consideration throughout the entire shed with small investments such as man escape gates between holding pens in the creep area adjoining the crush, helping to reduce the risk of an accident.

“When we were doing the job we said we would do it right,” Shane said, “in the overall cost of the shed, putting in little extras such as the man escape gates will not add a major cost but it means that if you have a cross bull in a pen you have a quick way to get out. Even just moving between the creep pens it is easier and you won’t be tempted to jump over gates.”

Crush

On the side of the shed without the crush, it was decided to fit the back of the pen with split feed barriers as opposed to a barrier spanning the full width of the pen. “We decided to put split barriers in after seeing them on another farm, mainly for ease of movement of cattle,” explains Shane. “It is a lot safer if I have to try and get an animal out of a pen with the split barrier than if I had to open up a full barrier while at the same time you are not compromising on feed space.”

The other side of the shed has a standard creep gate and a smaller feed barrier as cattle will be accessing the crush directly from these pens.

Cost

The total cost of the shed will end up at approximately €112,300 including the VAT according to Shane.

The shed has been put up through the Young Farmer Capital Investment Scheme (YFCIS), which is just one strand of TAMS, so Shane aims to get back 60% in grant aid on the first €80,000 invested, meaning he should get a grant aid of €48,000. He also hopes to claim back approximately €15,000 in VAT. This would leave the net cost of the shed to Shane at approximately €50,000.

“Initially I did think it would be cheaper but we did go for the extras. That said we have a shed that will last and has everything in it that it needs.”

Shane continued: “Some people will say that you will put up a shed cheaper without the grant but if you can get nearly €50,000 back then how could you do it cheaper? Cutting corners doesn’t save you cost or give you a cheaper shed over 40 years it just gives you a cheaper shed on the day you buy it. Some people will decide not to get the shed dipped to save money but in my opinion dipping is the only way to go.

“If you put machinery into a shed with cattle it would rust. A cattle shed is a very corrosive environment so you need to protect the steel.”

Barry Rogers from Rogers Agri Consultancy in Castlebar completed the planning and TAMS applications. The shed was supplied by Halcon Steel and erected by Tim Joyce. Brendan Harrington did the tanks and some of the other concrete work. John Dowd completed the electrical work which involved fitting the shed with LED lights while there are also sensor lights on the outside of the shed, illuminating the yard. The penning and barriers were supplied by Teemore Engineering who also supplied the Easyfix rubber mats for over the slats.

Slats were supplied by Harrington Concrete. The fitting off the barriers and gates, along with a lot off the concrete work was carried out by Shane himself which did help to reduce the overall cost of the project.