Low Cost Beef Unit Construction on Furzehill Farm
For our Beef unit to be viable at Furzehill Farm we had to avoid unnecessary capital
cost into our buildings and equipment. The low rainfall here on the east (of
approximately 28 inches per annum) meant that a corral based system was a viable
option. But this appreciation came about more by chance than design. Several
years ago we noticed that when cattle were in a Heston bale walled environment
we had a pneumonia problem and then when they went outside it disappeared.
Once this cycle of events was shown to be repeatable we knew that an outdoor
system had potential. The straw dust pollen, moulds etc, always being blown at the
cattle was no doubt irritating the lungs and encouraging the onset of infections.
We had old cart sheds that were open fronted with roofs and a lean to with a simple
roof that could hold a limited number of stock but we needed more
accommodation. Then by chance one of my straw customers offered me some
second quality panels destined for multi-storey car parks, hospitals, etc, suggesting
they could be used to build low cost outdoor corral pens using RSJs. Combined with
old road crash barriers we had viable beef penning system. The size was convenient
also with the panels being 20 foot long so a 2 by 2 arrangement meant we could
easily have 40 x 40 feet pens 8 feet high. This was compatible with the ideal group
size of 20 bulls and so we were away.
This design allows the animals to take shelter from the wind and they always seem to
find the drier side during rain – and they soon look happier once the rain has
ceased. Most importantly there is no cold air blowing straight at them. Mechanised
straw chopping and bedding allows us to bed up all 800 cattle with 2 men in 2 hours
should the need arise especially after heavy rain. This is the machine that is repaired
the most quickly as it takes 4 men 5 hours to bed manually!
You may have noticed the absence of gates and the first reaction was no doubt it
must be difficult to muck out and move the animals around the yard. This could not
be further from the truth. How many gates on bedded cattle yards get bent under
the pressure of the muck and then cannot be closed. The crash barriers are secured
by 3 bolts each and with 2 barriers per pen and a power impact driver. It is a 5
minute job to take them off. The Teleporter bucket has total access to clean out the
pen with no awkward corners for the unlucky one with the hand fork! The feed
troughs have blocks underneath and are easily lifted out with the Teleporter
beforehand.
As for the water troughs – the fitting of taps to each pair of troughs per divide has
provided a very simple system – with only 2 foot of lagged plastic pipe – that is now
boxed in we have no curious cattle chewing the pipes resulting in a flood in the yard
and a large water bill. Even last winter the pipes were easy to thaw out and if they
proved more challenging we only needed to replace a small length of pipe and
water was back. We added a bit of extra straw lagging to reduce the risk. These are
routinely cleaned by simply disconnecting the pipes and tipping out.
0845 355 9935
www.kwalternativefeeds.co.uk
The troughs were all made on the farm. The meal trough had to be water tight to
preserve the feed quality but the opening accommodates the width of the
Teleporter bucket for quick filling. We take the feed to the cattle in the bucket rather
than using the wagon to discharge the feed – this fits better into our system and
minimises waste.
We recognised the benefit of the moist feed and found ourselves in a race to
produce sufficient moist feed hoppers to capitalise on the feed saving as the dry
meal troughs were not suitable. They have a concrete base that appears to keep
the mix cool stopping it going off. Despite not been galvanised these have lasted
well, some have been in use for 6 years with no sign of needing replacing.
Concrete is probably the largest investment – we have laid a lot in recent years and
will continue to do so as we feel it allows us to clean the passageways to the pens
and control diseases. All pens have been set with the ultimate goal of a fully
concreted yard while maintaining drainage and access.
The feed store sometimes becomes a machinery store but will ultimately be a
dedicated building. It is vital we have the space to take advantage of the feed
material opportunities, be able to rotate bunkers allowing old stocks to be used first
and store a week’s supply of the grower mix and a premix of the dry ingredients of
the finisher mix.
Storing moist feeds such as the potato co-product Supastarch also needs proper 3walled storage and so we have recently adapted a pen using the panels to build
concrete floored storage area sufficient to hold the current batch and new
deliveries to ensure rotation.
Our culture is to spend when you can on items that give a good return in the short
and the long term and not to cut corners. We will continue to lay more concrete
and build more pens as and when until we reach the optimum cattle numbers to
staff ratio – where is our field boundary?
0845 355 9935
www.kwalternativefeeds.co.uk