Housing Cattle on the Farm - A Collection of Articles on the Buildings Required for Keeping Cattle

By Read Books Ltd.

This antique text contains a fascinating a collection of articles on the buildings required for keeping cattle. A compendium that will be of much value to the farmer, this text makes for a worthy addition to collections of cattle farming literature and is not to be missed by those with an interest in the entirety of cattle management. The articles contained herein include: Buildings for Dairy Cattle, Carpentry Suitable for the Farmstead, Dairy Cattle and Milk Production - Prepared for the Use of Agricultural College Students and Dairy Farmers, Some Common Diseases of Cattle, The Care and Handling of Milk, The Farm Dairy, and many more. We are proud to republish this antiquarian text here complete with a new introduction on farming.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: May 6, 2015
• ISBN: 9781473395244

Book preview

BUILDINGS FOR DAIRY CATTLE

In this Chapter the following are dealt with, in the order mentioned:—Housing for Calves; Housing of Cows; The Milking Parlour or Milking Shed; Cowsheds; Liquid Manure; Cowshed Dung; Hospital or Loose Boxes for Cows; The Dairy; Housing for Bulls; The Bail system of Dairy-farming.

HOUSING FOR CALVES

THE MAINTENANCE OF GOOD HEALTH.

No class of stock deserves greater consideration than calves; yet on many farms the provision for them leaves much to be desired. Under ideal conditions their building should be isolated from the cowshed, for reasons of health. Adequate air-space, ventilation and light should be provided. A recognized air-space is 180 cubic feet per calf, but it should be associated with good ventilation, preferably of the ridge type. Draughts should be avoided, as these do not constitute good ventilation. An abundance of fresh air favours the maintenance of good health. A southern aspect ensures better lighting, but dark buildings can usually be improved by introducing roof-lights. Most farmers have to be content with the buildings they find already on their farms, but alterations can often be made to provide healthier rearing conditions, and the exploration of these possibilities should be the first step towards raising a clean herd of dairy cattle.

The flooring should be sanitary and capable of being thoroughly disinfected. Concrete that is well-insulated below by a layer of broken bricks, is very satisfactory, and can be recommended. The pens themselves need not be elaborate, but it is an advantage if all surfaces can be thoroughly cleaned. Wood is far from ideal, owing to the difficulties of proper disinfection. Tubular metal pen-divisions have many advantages, but brick walls lined with cement have also proved satisfactory.

In the early stages of rearing, a separate pen for each young animal is the ideal, as calves are often prone to suck one another if penned together. As calves like company it is an advantage for them to see their mates through the pen divisions. Suitable pen sizes for small calves are 4 feet wide and 6 feet long. The doors are best made of tubular metal and it is generally more convenient if space is provided outside the pen for the calves to put their heads through apertures or stanchions for taking their milk and trough food. All feeding utensils employed should be capable of thorough cleaning and disinfection, and if permanent troughs are fitted these should be of glazed construction.

When a new structure is contemplated, a building with a span roof provides better ventilation than a lean-to type and also makes possible a central feeding passage wide enough for a cart, to facilitate the cleaning out of boxes.

Suitable hay-racks should be provided, and preference should be given to those made of metal. Occasionally hay-nets are preferred for young calves.

When calves have left the bucket stage of rearing, usually at from two to three months old, they can be grouped together in larger pens or boxes. Many rearers now favour the use of partly open yards with a southern aspect for calves of this age.

One can quickly sense that the housing conditions for calves are not satisfactory if the atmosphere is stuffy and strongly charged with ammonia. Louvre or ridge type ventilators will usually cure this trouble in all span roofed buildings, while the drainage arrangements should be such that excess urine quickly drains out of the buildings, or is absorbed by peat moss litter and straw. In some parts of the country wooden platforms are utilized on the floors, but these are very unsatisfactory from the health standpoint.

HOUSING OF COWS

No unanimity obtains as to the ideal cowshed. A considerable difference of opinion exists on many matters of detail. On most dairy farms, milk-producers have to be satisfied with what they find and existing buildings, will frequently have been modified already to conform to the requirements of local authorities. Modern lay-outs are not common and the improvement of existing buildings frequently involves making the best adaptation that is possible. It is unnecessary to assume that only new equipment and buildings will give satisfactory results, and as a matter of fact many modern structures have been designed to facilitate the production of clean milk without studying the comfort of the cows.

THE IDEAL COWSHED.

The ideal form of housing from the standpoint of comfort is to keep cows in well-bedded covered or semi-covered yards and to milk them in a milking shed or milking parlour. Such yards exist on farms in arable districts, formerly associated with the yard feeding of cattle in winter. The dairy cow can be utilized in this way as a producer of manure, but the system necessitates the availability of plenty of straw for bedding purposes. In keeping cows in yards it is an advantage if they are de-horned, and this operation must be performed when the animals are only a few days old. The great advantages of this system are the avoidance of injuries incurred through being tied up in standings, the saving in the loss of urine which is absorbed by straw and the production of better manure, the saving in labour in cowsheds because manure carting is concentrated at the times of the periodical cleaning out of yards, and the cows are cleaner. There is the further advantage that in suitable yards the health record is more satisfactory, and, provided there is protection from prevailing winds in winter, cattle are not inconvenienced by being kept in yards that are only partly covered. This method combined with a milking parlour or shed, into which the cows go for the milking process allows one to satisfy the requirements of clean milk-production more cheaply and efficiently than by any alternative means. In summer the cows run out at grass and the milking shed is only used for milking purposes and for the feeding of concentrates. In winter, cleanliness in production can be more readily achieved, since there is no dusty straw for bedding and the dust can be satisfactorily controlled generally. It is often possible to house cows more cheaply to meet the requirements of modern milk-production in this particular way than if existing buildings were remodelled to satisfy the requirements of the Milk and Dairies Order. The possible disadvantages are that it is difficult to ration bulky foods and roots under this system where the cows are housed in yards, while they require more space than when tied up in standings, though they have the advantage of greater freedom and exercise.

THE MILKING PARLOUR OR MILKING SHED

THE MILKING PARLOUR.

These are buildings constructed specially for housing cows during the milking process only. The milking parlour is the cheapest method of providing accommodation for dairy cows where the existing sheds are adequate for housing purposes but do not conform to modern requirements for clean milk-production. Normally these special parlours or sheds are equipped for machine milking, but may also be utilized for hand-milking.

The general lay-out under this system provides for the construction of a collecting pen into which the cows are driven from their winter housing or from the fields in summer. From the collecting pen the cows sometimes pass down a gangway where they can be held for washing purposes prior to going into the stalls of an auto-recording or other machine-milking outfit, which milks from three to six cows at a time, depending upon the size of herd. More frequently there are two sets of stalls, one in which the cows are prepared for milking and from which they pass forward into the other, that of the milking stalls. This arrangement is probably the ideal. In designing the layout under such conditions, it is essential to have a concrete floor that can be kept well-washed, and provided with adequate drainage. The collecting pen and stall divisions are best formed of tubular metal. The whole building should be capable of being washed down. This requires cement-rendered walls. In some cases a flat cement-rendered roof is chosen, but in the majority of cases a span-roof is favoured, providing ridge ventilation and adequate lighting.

COWSHEDS

DETAILS OF EASE OF WORKING.

While there is no uniformity about cowshed construction and design, there are certain recognized ideals which result from experience. The ideal lay-out is for the sheds to run from north to south, with a dairy on the north side. For convenience of working, the double-row shed is favoured on the larger farms with the heads of the cows facing the walls and a central gangway for cleaning out. With new constructions it is important to study details of ease of working, but in modifications of existing sheds improvements have, of course, to be effected within the limits of the existing buildings. There are four main points to observe in cowshed construction. The first is light, the second ventilation, the third comfort and the fourth cleanliness.

Lighting and ventilation are often inseparable, because windows can also be made to serve as ventilators. In general, however, the lighting should be so designed that it falls behind the cows and to this end properly arranged roof and wall lighting is important. Thus in single-row sheds, requirements can be met by having glass panels in the lower portion of the roof or in the wall adjacent to the gangway. In a single-range structure I have found no need for wall lights provided there is adequate provision for roof lighting so arranged that it concentrates the light on the hind-quarters of the cows. In double row sheds, the lighting may be part of the ventilation system in the walls, but this has the drawback of limiting the intensity of light in the gangway, and therefore some form of additional roof-lighting is necessary. Where this is incorporated at both sides of the apex of the roof, it can also be associated with ventilation as in the Findlay-ridge type of construction. This, however, is more expensive than that incorporating ordinary louvre ventilators with fixed roof lights in the lower portions of the roof. The area of glass per cow should be from 2 to 3 square feet. Artificial lighting is equally important, and in double-row sheds this may conveniently be placed above the centre of the gangway, while in single-row sheds, wall bracket lighting may be used, with the light directed on the hind-quarters of the cows. The concentration of natural or artificial light in this way facilitates the production of clean milk.

GOOD VENTILATION AND GOOD HEALTH.

Good ventilation and good health mean almost the same thing, and the ideal conditions provide adequate air-space in the building itself, with suitable inlet and outlet facilities for the exchange of air without encouraging draughts. From 600 to 800 cubic feet of air-space is necessary, but beyond this the common arrangements for ensuring an exchange of air are too often left to the discretion of the workers looking after the cattle. For this reason it is desirable that provision should be made for a minimum of permanent ventilation with the addition of controlled ventilation when good supervision can be exercised. Defective ventilation is one of the commonest errors in cowshed construction. Too often the upper portions of the windows in the side walls are used as inlet ventilators, with the result that the air enters the cowshed well above the level of the cows so that the cool air tends to fall downwards on to the backs of the cows. The ideal is for the inlet ventilation to be as near to the ground as possible, and preferably on a level with the noses of the cows. Having tried a good many of the inlet ventilation systems, I favour the type which results from removing a brick on the outer wall and bevelling the aperture on the inside of the wall so that there is no direct draught and when this type is so arranged that one inlet ventilator serves two cows, very satisfactory ventilation results. Alternatives are to stick a glazed 4-inch pipe through the wall in front of each cow, with a downward bend on the inside of the building. The fact that cows benefit from inhaling the cool fresh air emphasises the importance of inlet ventilation.

OUTLET VENTILATION.

The outlet ventilation is equally important. In double-row sheds, the ideal is probably that provided by the Findlay-ridge system, the essential element of which is composed of glass sides, operating at the apex of the roof and providing both light and ventilation. The ventilator is operated by levers and when open the entire ridge of the roof acts as a ventilator. The ventilator can be adjusted in accordance with the needs and the weather. This type would not be suitable in a single-cowshed, owing to the fact that in wet weather the rain would tend to fall on the backs of the cows. For single-row sheds the fixed louvre ventilator is recommended. Even in double-row sheds where expense has to be kept down to a minimum, the fixed louvre system is also very satisfactory. The louvres require to be properly made to give protection against heavy rain, and they should be covered with wire-netting to prevent birds from nesting or lodging in them. Sure signs that the ventilation is inadequate are a tendency for moisture to condense on the roof and a stuffy smell noticed on entering the shed in a morning.

For the structure of the building itself a variety of materials is employed, including brick, stone, concrete and in some cases wood. For single-row sheds a minimum width of 15 feet is necessary when there is no feeding passage, and 22 feet for a double-row shed. It is however desirable to study the problems affecting labour-saving when erecting a new building and to this end two worthwhile conveniences are a feeding passage in front of the cows and a gangway behind the cows sufficiently wide to allow room for a horse and cart to pass along it to facilitate cleaning out. Where it is impossible to get a building of adequate width it is of first importance, if not essential, to sacrifice the feeding passage altogether in favour of a wide gangway behind the cows. The height of the shed to the wall plates should be 8 or 9 feet.

LAY-OUT OF THE STALLS.

The lay-out of the stalls gives rise to much controversy as far as the type of standing, width and length are concerned. This results from the differences in the sizes of animals and the importance attaching to particular needs. The primary object should be to provide cows with accommodation that will enable them to be comfortable. Standings that are short, keep the cows clean but are apt to be uncomfortable and give rise to injuries to the hocks and knees. The theoretical ideal is that when the cow is standing up, her hind legs should be so placed that when she dungs, the gutter alone is fouled and not the standing, so that soiling the thighs when she lies down is avoided. It is obvious that with animals of different ages in a milking herd, heifers require shorter standings than mature cows and this need is often met in cowsheds by having standings of different lengths. It can be controlled also to some extent by the method of tying adopted. After considerable experience of different forms of stalls I favour the use of double stalls in which the divisions are made of reinforced concrete with a system of side ties, in preference to the use of tubular fittings with metal yokes. Experience suggests that the comfort of cows is thereby increased, while animals are more easily handled in such stalls when they have to be examined by veterinary officers and others. Furthermore such a system restricts the spread of infectious disease from cow to cow. As regards the ties themselves, I have found the rope ties used in the North of England more satisfactory than chains. The width of standing for the average Shorthorn type of cow should be from 6 1/2 to 7 feet, and the length from the front of the trough to edge of the standing should be about 7 feet 6 inches. Thus with a trough that is 2 feet 6 inches deep, the animal has a space of 5 feet in which to lie down or stand up. The best type of trough is one of glazed earthenware, as this material is kept clean more easily than concrete and is not affected by the action of foods, which often causes concrete troughs to become pitted. These glazed earthenware troughs are frequently set in concrete surrounds. The floor of the trough should be slightly above the level of the floor of the standing and the portion of the trough adjacent to the cow’s body should not be so high that the cow is likely to damage her knees or brisket in lying down or getting up. A good fall on the floor of the stall is important. This should be in the order of 2 1/2 to 3 inches from the trough to the end of the standing.

The construction of the floor itself is important. In the majority of modern sheds, concrete is utilized, but it is of the greatest importance that this should be properly insulated by a layer of broken bricks or drain pipes placed side by side to give a