Paddy Downey and his parents Eddie and Mary from just outside of Slane in Co Meath recently made the switch to dairy farming from what was traditionally a tillage and beef enterprise.

“This is our second year milking,” Paddy said. “We bought in calves three years ago. It helped to improve our calf-rearing skills and get familiar with that side of dairy farming.

“We are milking 120 cows this year. We bought in a lot of cows and heifers on the point of calving which has worked very well to get numbers up quickly. The faster we can increase the herd size, the more we are diluting the cost of the initial investment.”

The new shed has capacity for 161 cows with the aim to continue to build up numbers in the coming years.

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“We had originally looked at converting some of the existing sheds on the farm to hold cubicles and it would have decreased the costs involved,” said Eddie. “However, then we wouldn’t be able to use these sheds for calves, yearling stock or even just for storage.”

The decision was made to go for a greenfield site and planning permission was sought and approved for a 240-cow cubicle shed, the maximum the current platform could hold.

“The shed was designed in such a way that we can simply extend down past the new shed and install more cubicles. We can then scrape back into the newly constructed tank,” Paddy said. “We will try and build numbers to 160 cows first and then look at where things are. We might never build the additional section of the shed but we left ourselves with the possibility.”

The shed itself is an A-roof design with cubicles either side of a central feed passage. An existing solid floor shed on the site was kept. This meant the new shed was constructed to wrap around the existing shed. The existing dry-bedded shed will be used as a calving area for cows.

The new development is 10 bays, or 48m, long. It stands at 3.5m at the eaves, rising to 7m at the apex. A continuous opening is in place at the apex to provide outlet ventilation, covered by a ridge cap. Vented sheeting runs along both sides of the shed. Spaced sheeting is in place throughout the roof, which also provides outlet ventilation.

The dry spring of 2019 meant that even though the shed was finished at the end of February, a large portion was never used as cows have been out at grass since.

“We were very lucky this year. We got cows to grass at the beginning of February,” Paddy said. “Some of the early calvers maybe had two or three nights in the shed when ground conditions were challenging but the majority of the herd have been out at grass since calving.

“We outwintered the cows on forage crops this year and the dry conditions meant that it worked very well.”

The good weather over the winter months meant that work on the site was never halted by weather.

“We started work on the site at the end of November. The first thing we had to do was get the ESB to move poles that were in the way,” Paddy explained. “We had the tank in before Christmas and had the shed finished by the end of February.”

On one side of the shed there are 104 cubicles laid out in a three-row design. There are a total of 40 cubicles running along the back wall while there is a double-row of cubicles with 32 cubicles in each row – or 64 in total.

Cubicles themselves are installed at 1.19m centres (47in). Cubicles running down along the back wall are 2.54m long, and 1.74m from the brisket board to the heel of the cubicle. This gives a lunge zone of approximately 65cm. All cubicles are fitted with Kraiburg rubber mats.

There are crossover points at either end of the shed as well as in the centre. This provides cows with more than one route to the feed face while also ensuring there are no dead-end passageways. This all helps to ensure heifers are not bullied by dominant cows in the herd.

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The passageway running along the back of the shed is 2.6m wide while the passageway along the feed face is 3.8m wide. “When we were designing the shed we wanted to try and have as much space for cows as possible,” Paddy said.

Eddie added: “There is always that balance when you are trying to build a cubicle shed for a grass-based dairy farm. You want to ensure you have enough comfort and space for cows but at the same time it has to balance out with the cost of the development. Paying up on €2,500/cubicle space would be hard to justify when we can have cows out grazing for the majority of the year.

“We are lucky when it comes to the land type we have that we get cows out and keep them out,” Eddie said.

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The other side is also laid out in a three-row design. However, it is only fitted with 57 cubicles, 21 running along the wall and a double-row of cubicles with 18 in each row. Again, crossover points are located at either end. Additional feeding space is located at the end of the shed. Ensuring adequate feed space is one of the key challenges with this type of cubicle shed, where cows can only be fed along a central passage.

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A double-slatted tank runs across one end of the shed, which automatic scrapers will feed into. The tank stretches right across the width of the shed, with agitation points on the outside at either side. Each tank is 3.5m wide, with a spine wall running down between the two tanks, upon which the 3.8m long (12ft 6in) slats are suspended. Drinkers are also located at the crossover points.

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There are no mass concrete walls along the sides of the shed. Instead, the decision was made to install mass concrete panels.

“There is probably not much of a difference when it comes to cost between going for the panel walls or the mass concrete but how quick they could be installed was the real benefit for us,” Paddy said. “It also gives us the option if we ever wanted to extend the shed out to provide additional feed space. We could remove the panels and use them somewhere else.”

Costs

While automatic scrapers are yet to be installed, the total cost of the project will work out at approximately €1,450/cubicle excluding VAT. This would see the total costs in the region of €233,450 plus VAT.

The shed was supplied and erected by Mooney Farm Buildings while the steelwork for the cubicles and feed barriers was completed by Condon Engineering, who also supplied and fitted the cubicle mats. Concrete work was completed by Conor Dowling. Alfco automatic scrapers will be installed in the coming months. The farm entered into partnership in the autumn of 2018 but they decided not to use their Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) grant to part-finance the shed. It will be used for the scrapers.

This means that combined the farm has potential grant aid of 50% of €160,000. “When we started milking here we installed a secondhand milking parlour which cost €10,000. We installed it in such a way that it was temporary; everything is bolted down. We also used concrete panel walls that can be removed and used somewhere else. We hope to upgrade the milking parlour in the next two years which will use the majority of the grant aid we have available,” Paddy explained.