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Plattsville, Ontario | Im looking for opinions on this type of dairy housing.
Currently i milk 35 cows in head to head tiestall. I want the cows to be free, get away from individual waterbowls and individual feed space.
I would prefer milking in a parlour, why should I carry milkers to them? They should come to me, get away from continually making that vaccum line and all the bending |
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Plattsville, Ontario | edit: "continually HOOKING and UNHOOKING the vac line and electric" after reading my post im thinking i should just be satisfied with what i have..... |
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ND | I looked into it awhile back. From what I gathered you need to be using sawdust in order for it to work properly and I just don't have a source for wood products in good ole ND where trees are scarce. |
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michigan | Could you build a new barn to put your parlour in and convert your tie stall barn into a free stall barn. |
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Plattsville, Ontario | Im thinking bedded pack so i can HOPEFULLY stay with mostly solid manure. (i dont have liquid facilities at this farm) As far as the pack, im not necessarily thinking composting, just lots of bedding. The thing is the sq footage the cows will need... |
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wc MN | Remember one thing-- the cows are in the stall for you now, in a parlor you will move them to the site and move them in and out of parlor and chances are you may be going up and down steps unless the cows go up steps or a grade. I've milked in a parlor for years and prior to that a tie stall. If I were to do it again I would have upgraded my tie stall and been happy. There is much time involved in moving cattle to and fro when you are by yourself. In the winter the barn is warm and in the summer you can always turn them outside. Dairy'ed for 30+ yrs and sold the last on the 31st. Give it some serious thought first. |
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Pine City, MN | We dry pack for our pre and post fresh group's. Its great for the cows(if you use enough bedding). Lots of labor though..
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Athens, Ga | know a few with pack beds, they have told me that the cows will use more space in a pack barn. They rather spend a little more in barn expense, than spend more money for a lagoon, liquid manure equipment, etc |
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| Dad had one before he sold dairy, used wood shavings, rice hulls. Need to turn over twice a day. Great cow comfort, but bedding can be hard to find. |
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western Pa | It takes alot of space and bedding. My dad did it first starting up cows crowded,still had tramped teats from being overcrowded,dirty cows. Like them in a freestall or tie stall better. Get some auto takeoffs and save yourself at least one bend. |
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Columbia City, Indiana | cressler - 1/1/2013 11:18
Im thinking bedded pack so i can HOPEFULLY stay with mostly solid manure. (i dont have liquid facilities at this farm) As far as the pack, im not necessarily thinking composting, just lots of bedding. The thing is the sq footage the cows will need...
You might need new cows, too. Sometimes they never make the adjustment from being waited on hand and foot to having to walk to feed or the parlor like a conventional dairy. I have a friend who used to milk in a tiestall barn and he sold some young cows to another guy who milked in a parlor with freestalls, and only about half of them were able to make the switch. |
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Central MN | We have a a compost barn out at the farm. The cows love it but it takes a TON of bedding to keep the cows clean. Sawdust is the best bedding but it can be expensive. It works good provided you use sawdust and stir it everyday. |
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| mastitis can be a real struggle to keep under control in straw pack barns if you don't keep them real clean,that is what a friend of mine always say's. I used to have freestall with liquid manure that might be a little easier to keep clean. I think that if you're not planning on expanding the herd, your tie stall may be the best, there are some real nice new tie stall barn designs out with cow comfort in mind, |
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Plattsville, Ontario | thanks for all the responses. exactly what i need to think on. 30 years experience is what i dont have and it is such a wonderful resource to be able to communicate with people who know! |
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cental pa along the Susquehanna River | Minn gopher how much space do u have for your freshening cow group? Square foot per cow ? We are looking at making a pen for freshening cows and not sure how much space is needed. thanks or anyone else feel free to offer any help. |
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Thompsontown, Pennsylvania | the more the merry-er i would think....probably atleast 150 square foot per cow plus a big boxstall to move them to when they are "close" and atleast 2.5ft of bunk space per cow |
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Pine City, MN | Depends on how full the group is ideal is 150. But lot of times its close to 100. We bed 2X a day and pick manure out all 3 milkings. |
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| Have had a bedding park for 15 years and love it. We just build another one to put our 2 year olds in it. You need at least 100 sq ft / cow. We are milking around 140 in both barns. SCCis around 130 to 250 but we bed 2 times a day and use lots of straw a day You must have the equipment to clean it out 3-4 times a year. First barn was 70 ft pack wide but second barn went 50 ft with drive thought to spread straw with bale processor. You will have increased mastitis with pack but I think cow confort is more important and management of pack is also important |
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whitesville new york | I seen a nice barn with a scrape alley and they used sawdust. They said they have never cleaned the sawdust part in their first year. They just stir it 2 times daily even when the cows are outside. I liked the set up and will strongly look at doing the samething when I build a barn some day. |
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eastern ontario | Where you live cressler there is so many good barns to go see within a hours drive. Do you not trust what you are seing at the neighbors? I know there is pack barns close to you just can't think of them off hand |
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Plattsville, Ontario | yeah i can look and look, and i like what i see...... i enjoy the variety of opinions here, im trying to find reasons to stick with what i have...extra labour and such, tie stall vs parlour |
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arthur , ontario | am a bit late into this discussion,just joined! are now in our coverall pack barn for 6 years for the cows and second winter in a britespan for our heifers, the cow barn is actively composted while the heifers is basically just a pack barn. we are still experimenting with the process? spread straw at night and do a combination of deep till with a rig I built this winter to a depth of up to 3' and then till after to level it out! should also mention sawdust is added every week or two depending on supply. have found that the lighter the colour of sawdust the better! oak does not rot well! We went from a tie stall barn which was not a good scene! usually lose a number of animals due to leg injuries and stepped on teats etc. was no issue for the cows when moving into pack barn, first time into parlour building was the most challenging due to new barn smell! cows had the swing parlour figured out after just a few milkings! haven't had a teat injury or leg issue since,and hoof issues(strawberry) are very few! I am not far away from you cressler, if you want to talk, am up between Arthur and Drayton |
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Nova Scotia | We converted our barn from tie-stall to free-stall and dug a pit and put in a double 3 parlour in the barn, we were also milking around 35-40 cows so double 3 was plenty. The barn had 3 rows of tie-stalls, head-to-head on one side and tail-to-tail on the other. During the renovation the gutters were filled with cement, with the exception of one across the end, and the stalls on the tail-to tail side were raised about 8". The stalls were removed on the opposite side and it was used as the sole feed bunk. We did all the work ourselves, aside from running milk and vacuum lines, so kept the cost down.
Transitioning the cows to the new layout was a nightmare, production went through the floor for the first few months, some cows never took to it and had to be replaced.
As far as bedding, we use kiln dried shavings and it worked well, somatic cell count stayed fairly low... The best bedding we ever used though was actually newspapers put through a bedding chopper, somatic cells count was lowest it had ever been, cows were spotless and dry, hardest part was getting our hands on enough newspaper though.
Not shipping milk anymore, switched to cow-calf beef about 3 years ago, it was a tough move, especially after all the work we did. |
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bedded pack dairy barn
