Calf rearing shed designs

FIAT 450 said:
Ya I'd be trying to keep them separate anyway. Not always easy trying to have sheds for everything.
Click to expand...
Repurposing a shed here to become a calving area and calf shed all in the one shed so just going through threads here about calf sheds for ideas, This point is after striking me though. Its a round roof/Lean to shed with lots of ventilation open at the front where the calves will be, spaced timbers on the side the cows will be, The plan is 50 calves on one side and whatever 10/15 cows on the pop of calving on the other side. The shed plan itself will work very well, easy clean out, easy bed and easy move stock. But the issue being the cows sharing the airspace with the calves. Just wondering is anyone doing this already its all grand hearing lads say you cant share the airspace, that's ok in an ideal setting but its hard have everything 100%
 
Mf310 said:
Repurposing a shed here to become a calving area and calf shed all in the one shed so just going through threads here about calf sheds for ideas, This point is after striking me though. Its a round roof/Lean to shed with lots of ventilation open at the front where the calves will be, spaced timbers on the side the cows will be, The plan is 50 calves on one side and whatever 10/15 cows on the pop of calving on the other side. The shed plan itself will work very well, easy clean out, easy bed and easy move stock. But the issue being the cows sharing the airspace with the calves. Just wondering is anyone doing this already its all grand hearing lads say you cant share the airspace, that's ok in an ideal setting but its hard have everything 100%
Click to expand...
Definitely not ideal. We've had a few issues with pneumonia over the years with cows and calf house in the one airspace. IBR has been an issue with a while. So we're looking at a new calf house and converting the old calf house to calving pens.

But it mightn't be too bad if the cows are only there for a short while precalving?
 
Not idea no. Now we do mix abit here and get away with things but the vet has a hissy fit every time they are here. Hence that is why we are changing plan.
 
Rusty Spade said:
Definitely not ideal. We've had a few issues with pneumonia over the years with cows and calf house in the one airspace. IBR has been an issue with a while. So we're looking at a new calf house and converting the old calf house to calving pens.

But it mightn't be too bad if the cows are only there for a short while precalving?
Click to expand...
This is what I was thinking cows are only there for a few days max but for the calves it will be their fulltime airspace from the time they hit the ground to about 3-4 weeks which would be their most vulnerable period. I'm struggling to figure a way around it will upload a sketch of the shed in the morning.
 
Mf310 said:
This is what I was thinking cows are only there for a few days max but for the calves it will be their fulltime airspace from the time they hit the ground to about 3-4 weeks which would be their most vulnerable period. I'm struggling to figure a way around it will upload a sketch of the shed in the morning.
Click to expand...
While the cows are only there for a couple of days while waiting to calve, you could think of it as having 5 or 6 cows there full time over the calving season?
 
FIAT 450 said:
Well lads. We have a shed here that we are planning on repurposing from a meal shed to a calf shed next year. It is 2 round roof sheds joined side by side approximately 3 spans long X 3 wide with two centre spans lattice beamed. The plan was to have a automatic calf feeder under which was a small tank to collect waste water and some individual calf hutches and also have trough space for when they progress from milk to tmr feeding. Looking for ideas on lay out from guys even pictures of their own set ups especially paying attention to air flow. All walls in the shed as is will have to come out along with the floor to get falls right. Plan to rear 40 odd calf's.
Click to expand...
Check this out on Agriland - Buildings Focus: Mono-pitched calf shed for 80 calves in Co. Fermanagh
https://www.agriland.ie/farming-new...ched-calf-shed-for-80-calves-in-co-fermanagh/
 
Have penned out a few calf sheds over the years. Nearly always a conversion job. The main seems to be a well designed pen and passage layout so that calves can be moved with least amount of stress. If you have 15ft 9’’ long pens (same as bays) then passage and gates should be 7ft odd. 2 gates per pen front with a post in the middle. The gate can then swing over and block the passage. Hospital pens fully sheeted with stockboard for isolation very important. We used rubber in the bottom of doors/gates to eliminate draughts at low level.97F680E0-53DD-4555-A044-987E381A3A85.jpegFA527240-F2BB-4168-BF41-00DA5F03BB51.jpegCEDF3C42-318F-4EC0-9B32-7C5EB802AF19.jpeg
 
whichwire said:
Have penned out a few calf sheds over the years. Nearly always a conversion job. The main seems to be a well designed pen and passage layout so that calves can be moved with least amount of stress. If you have 15ft 9’’ long pens (same as bays) then passage and gates should be 7ft odd. 2 gates per pen front with a post in the middle. The gate can then swing over and block the passage. Hospital pens fully sheeted with stockboard for isolation very important. We used rubber in the bottom of doors/gates to eliminate draughts at low level.View attachment 103038View attachment 103039View attachment 103040
Click to expand...
Nice. Where you get the gates?
 
whichwire said:
We made all the gates and posts. Done a few calf rearing setups and export lairages.
Click to expand...
Extremely well made not your standard make yourself gates, got a shocking quote from an ag engineering company for kitting out a small calf shed here 40ftx15ft 4900€ excl the vat just for supply with an 8 week lead time.. was expecting 2000€ to be on the stronger side , bought the steel friday to go at it all myself 700€ of steel will do it all and more for me
 
Mf310 said:
Extremely well made not your standard make yourself gates, got a shocking quote from an ag engineering company for kitting out a small calf shed here 40ftx15ft 4900€ excl the vat just for supply with an 8 week lead time.. was expecting 2000€ to be on the stronger side , bought the steel friday to go at it all myself 700€ of steel will do it all and more for me
Click to expand...

what way you going kitting it out
 
aidank said:
what way you going kitting it out
Click to expand...
4 15ft gates to divide into 4 pens then 4 8ft gates at front and 4 2ft access gates, with feeding 14ft outside out the front of shed using the round 50tit quad feeder , but none of the fromt part was included in that engineering company quote bought a pipe bender myself to make the round feeder gate , will be putting 15-20 calves per pen
 
Mf310 said:
4 15ft gates to divide into 4 pens then 4 8ft gates at front and 4 2ft access gates, with feeding 14ft outside out the front of shed using the round 50tit quad feeder , but none of the fromt part was included in that engineering company quote bought a pipe bender myself to make the round feeder gate , will be putting 15-20 calves per pen
Click to expand...
Pictures as you go
 
You want around 30 sq ft per calf while they are young. That will do them up to 500 lbs or so.

You can get away with less sq footage, with more intensive management.
 
Two part video on a calf shed. Someone might get some useful information from them.

ODonovanEngineering on TikTok

Laying Out a Calf Shed Part 1 Earlier this year we did a video with @grasstec on calf housing. Vincent called out to a customer’s shed who has penning from 1997 and new penning from 2018. He talks through the spec and design features along with what we have changed over the years. #dairyfarming...
vm.tiktok.com vm.tiktok.com

ODonovanEngineering on TikTok

Laying Out a Calf Shed Part 2 Earlier this year we did a video with @grasstec on calf housing. Vincent called out to a customer’s shed who has penning from 1997 and new penning from 2018. He talks through the spec and design features along with what we have changed over the years. #dairyfarming...
vm.tiktok.com vm.tiktok.com
 
Have plans done up for a new calf shed. Going with the mono calf shed from teemore 5 bay hopefully should comfortably hold 60-80 calf's. What size of tank would you put in? Don't want to be emptying it every turn around, where it's going isn't close to any tank to run a pipe too. Was going to put in a septic tank and submersible the run off to the nearest tank as funds just wouldn't be there at the minute for a tank. Would a precast 4000g or smaller be enough to keep the run off for a couple of months?
No automatic feeders going in was told they produce alot of water with washing. Shed is going to be left ready for them but just not sold on them yet.
 
DaDonegalLad said:
Have plans done up for a new calf shed. Going with the mono calf shed from teemore 5 bay hopefully should comfortably hold 60-80 calf's. What size of tank would you put in? Don't want to be emptying it every turn around, where it's going isn't close to any tank to run a pipe too. Was going to put in a septic tank and submersible the run off to the nearest tank as funds just wouldn't be there at the minute for a tank. Would a precast 4000g or smaller be enough to keep the run off for a couple of months?
No automatic feeders going in was told they produce alot of water with washing. Shed is going to be left ready for them but just not sold on them yet.
Click to expand...
Our tank is 2500gal. Had to be emptied two times this yr
 
Mf310 said:
4 15ft gates to divide into 4 pens then 4 8ft gates at front and 4 2ft access gates, with feeding 14ft outside out the front of shed using the round 50tit quad feeder , but none of the fromt part was included in that engineering company quote bought a pipe bender myself to make the round feeder gate , will be putting 15-20 calves per pen
Click to expand...
@Mf310 did you get this started/finished yet? Would love to see the end result.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top