Prior to the building of the new dairy unit the cattle used to loaf in an outdoor concrete yard to the front of the existing 100 cow cubicle shed. This had the dual disadvantage of having to be scraped by tractor twice a day and that being outside it collected a large amount of rain water all of which has to be trapped and spread by slurry tanker. (It is unacceptable, indeed illegal to allow dirty yard water to run down an ordinary field drain).
This loafing area has now been enlarged to cover the area in front of the
new cubcile shed. It also serves as a collecting / dispersal area for the
milking parlour. The tank is 9 foot deep and covers the enitre loafing area.
The walls of the tank are breeze blocks. The outer walls are 18 inches wide
and the inner walls are 12 inches wide. The main part of the tank is 31 feet
wide. This has been divided into three channels. Two at 10 feet wide and one
at 11 feet wide. The tank is covered with gang slats including five safety
slats for mixing. The slats were manufactured and installed by Creagh Concrete.
They have a non slip finish as well as being embedded with carborundum dust.
The end result is that we now have an enclosed loafing area with a new slatted tank this means we have:
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Page created 2nd November
1997