Cubicle / Free Stall Barn

Following a posting I made to dairy-l on the subject of free stalls (which we call cubicles). I realised there was a lot of interest in the subject. So in a new direction for my web site which usually focuses on grass and how to avoid putting cows inside for as long as possible, this page will cover the workings of our new freestall barn.

Just before Christmas 1995 we became the proud new owners of this sparkling 100 cow cubicle shed (photographed here before it had seen any animals). The shed is 45 feet wide by 123 feet long in a clear span with six 20' 6" bays. Those of you who have read the other pages on this web site will probably be asking why on earth someone who seems so averse to housing his cattle while there is still a blade of grass to be eaten outside is building a new shed (see extended grazing). We had space for a maximum of 130 cows in our upper yard. With a herd of 150 this meant that dry cows and replacements had to be kept in facilties further away. These facilities were no longer ideal for modern cows. This is also part of a larger devlopment which will drasticly improve the efficiency of the whole dairying operation.

Cubicles

The cubicles are of a cantilever type. They are space sharing not unlike the Dutch Super Comfort cubicles. The main advantage of these cubicles is that they have no rear leg so there really is no way for a cow to get stuck which always was a problem with the old Newton Rigg type.

The cubicles are 7 feet long and 3 feet 11 inches wide (centre to centre). The cubicles one leg which is made of four inch box section is set 12 inches out from the wall. A head rail has been welded to the top of the cubicles at the top of this leg. This keeps the cow from coming too far forward and provides her with a lunging space. The cows lunge to the side which I have been told is the best way. The cubicle has a four inch slope to it.

The centre block of cubicles instead of being 14 feet across as you might expect is actually only 13' 6" as the cows can share their lunging space. In addition to the head rails there are two rails lower down which stop the cattle walking through the cubicles. This is important when you want to keep the two sides segregated.

Due to the nature of our building work last year we were unable to house our milking cows in this house. However we had dry cows, springing dairy heifer replacements, dry limousin suckler cows and springing limousin replacement beef cows. What I was most interested in was how the fully grown dry cows liked the cubicles, as the rest of the stock will be housed in the older sheds when the building project is completed. While some straw was put down at the start as you can see in the photograph above we do not bed dry stock. Even so I was very impressed with the occupancy rate of the cubicles. The cows lay in much better shape to that in which they lay in the old cubicles. One thing I did notice the cows much prefered the side cubicles which faced the walls to the double cubicles in the centre. This may be because they had never had experience of a open double row before. The younger stock didn't seem to mind the centre cubicles nearly so much.

We have now placed Canadian pasture mats in the cubicles which the cows seem to enjoy. Occupancy rate particularly among heifers had increased dramaticly. These require less bedding than bare cubicles.

Sorry the above plan doesn't look so good. But it does show you a the layout of the building. his layout is basically an exact copy of the layout of our older cubicle house except it is in a nice new portal frame building and the cubicles are larger and of a better design.

Feeding

The first thing that you no doubt notice is that the feed passage at the front is only 8 feet wide. No getting a complete diet feeder up there! Those of you who have read the rest of this web site will know that we are not exactly the kind of farmer who likes to feed massive amount of bought in feed to our cows. The cows when housed just get fed grass silage together with a few kg of meal fed using out of parlour feeders.

We find 8 feet to be an ideal width for our feed passage. This is just a nice width for operating with out Matro TR 200 which we use with a 6' sheargrab attachment to feed the silage (Not attached in this picture). The barriers fold inwards so as to allow the cows to reach to the very centre of the passage. This means that no graping needs to be done and the whole thing is licked clean. The barriers then tilt out the way where they can locked in position to keep the cows head out of the way while feeding is going on. Since the silage is served up in big airtight blocks this means that it is slow to degrde and the cattle need fed only three times a week. The feeding passage is slightly higher than the floor of the shed were the cows are standing to make feeding easier.

Scrapers

The passages are scraped my means of a hydralic scrapers which operates every three hours. Their are holes at the end of the house covered by flaps (made from quarry belting). The scrapers scrape the much out onto a platform outside were the slurry falls through and the scrapers sit until the next sraping. The scrapers both have a wing on one side which is longer than usual to scrape the wider passage at the feeding barrier.

Water is provided by means of a built trough at the end of the feeding passage.

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Page Created 3rd August 1996
Last updated 2nd November 1997