Whole farm approach to livestock handling

A large number of livestock farmers have some type of off-farm employment. Working off-farm for a large portion of the day is challenging. Making sure all livestock are fed and checked before you leave the farm in the morning and doing it all over again in the evening time after work is straightforward. However, if something goes wrong or an animal is sick, your plans for the day can be thrown up in the air. This is especially the case if you have poor handling facilities.

If issues on the farm leave you late for work regularly it might have a negative impact on your career – not all managers will be understanding.

Many farmyards and grazing infrastructure around the country could benefit from some attention. Unfortunately, low farm incomes are prohibiting investments on many farms. For part-time farming to be successful facilities really need to be available so that anyone can come in and handle livestock single-handedly and safely.

Andrew Carolan took over farming the family’s beef farm in 2014. in Dumheeda, Kingscourt, which is located on the Cavan-Meath boarder. He works as an agri lending manager in Ulster Bank in the northeast by day. The farming system consists of buying in strong bull weanlings and finishing them under 22 months and younger. Approximately 100 cattle are killed per year. Andrew has made some big investments in the farm since 2014 with the long-term view of creating an easily run productive farm.

“I have a real passion for farming, so I needed to create a system that would allow me to do both safely,” he explained. Investments were made in the housing facilities, handling facilities and the grazing infrastructure. Andrew says without off-farm income the investments made on the farm would not be possible.

He has taken a whole-farm approach to improving livestock handling on the farm, so that each segment of the farm links in well with the other. The Irish Farmers Journal visited the farm last week to see the livestock handling facilities and other farm infrastructure.

Handling unit

The first thing you notice when you enter Andrew’s farmyard is the large circular handling unit. It was built by Condon Engineering in 2015. The unit is situated right in front of Andrew’s sheds and is also connected to the main farm roadway. This means it is very accessible to the paddocks and housing facilities and is used throughout the year. There is a long runway leading up to this unit from the paddocks. This runway is subdivided by gates and can be used to hold different groups of cattle during a cattle test or when carrying out animal treatments. Andrew said he wanted more space to hold cattle, it wouldn’t typically be part of the design of a new handling unit. The unit itself has three divisions for holding cattle. There is also a circular 6m-diameter forcing pen leading up to the cattle race with a non-return gate. Condon Engineering say the 7.5m-diameter curve is the most popular and they recommend sheeting the curved section for even better livestock flow.

Andrew says one man can easily use this unit and cattle run up the race without any real hesitation. When cattle are in the race they are very secure, the high penning ensures none can jump out. According to Andrew anyone handling cattle beside the race is also safer because the standing area is completely separate from the livestock area.

“I’m happy if my father is helping me that he is safe working here,” explained Andrew.

A platform running along the race makes handling easier and allows more access to the animals if injecting or using pour-on products. At the end of the race there is a headlocking barrier and a weighing scales.

There is a non-return device that allows a bar to be placed behind the animal to hold it securely when needed. The race mouth turns away from the concrete wall so that Andrew has access to both sides of the animal.

According to Condon Engineering a handling unit like this would cost €5,000 to €7,500 today excluding VAT depending on the size. This is also excluding concrete and hardcore costs.

Shed

Originally the housing facilities on the farm included a three-bay hayshed with two large straw-bedded lean-tos off it. There was no slatted accommodation. Andrew said the facilities had become dated and he was keen to modernise them. He had the lean-tos removed because they had very low roofs.

He then built a new slatted shed to the right of the existing hayshed with a double-sized slurry tank.

In 2017 he completed another slatted tank on the left hand side of the hayshed as well as a storage area and sick animal bay. The hayshed now acts has a wide (22m) central passage between the new sheds.

All the slats were fitted with comfort slat mats, Andrew said he preferred to have cattle lying on mats to avoid lameness. A dry bedded sick bay was added with a small crush so that animals could be segregated from the main bunch if needs be.

He also uses this area for holding newly purchased animals.

Feeding

Feeding bulls is one of the biggest daily jobs. Andrew thought also about this and, like all other tasks on the farm, he wanted to make it as easy and straightforward as possible.

He got a 9t-capacity meal silo erected in the hayshed section between the two sheds. The silo is split to hold grower and finisher ration separately. Large meal bins can be transported on the back of the tractor and they are placed in front of the cattle pens and meal can be bucketed out to cattle from there. The large meal bins can also be transported to feed cattle in paddocks.

Picture 6

As mentioned previously, a whole-farm approach has been taken to the handling of livestock on the farm. Over the past three years Andrew has carried out a lot of land drainage. He wanted to increase the number of days cattle spent at grass but the ground was usually too wet for early turnout.

“The land was fine for summer grazing normally but once the rain came in the back end, fields would become mucky and untrafficable and the cattle would just have to come back indoors,” he explained.

A series of piped field drains were installed and stoned in the wet fields. The majority of the land has been reseeded and Andrew hopes to finish reseeding work this year. He has just put in a new roadway through the land and the perimeter of the fields has now got two strands of mains electric fencing.

The plan is to subdivide the fields with temporary electric fencing. New concrete water troughs have been strategically placed to achieve this. Andrew didn’t want to put in permanent fencing because he will be using these fields for main cut silage during the year.

The temporary fencing also means wires can be removed easily when spreading fertiliser or slurry. Andrew expects cattle will be very easy to handle solely when they are in a paddock grazing system rather than set stocked. The roadway is fenced and this will allow moving of livestock back to the sheds or handling area without and major fuss.