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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
