Calf healthy in well ventilated shed

There is a lot of interest among dairy farmers in calf-rearing sheds. Therefore, I was glad last week to get an opportunity to look at a fine one on the farm of Christy Reynolds in Co Meath.

There’s a story behind this shed. Christy and his sons, Alan and David, were chatting about calf rearing with Joe Murphy of Bonanza Calf Nutrition, from whom they buy their milk replacer. Joe told them about a good calf shed he had seen on a dairy farm near Bristol in England. Joe contacted the English farmer who invited the Reynolds to come and look at his shed. They flew over and were so impressed that they came home and built a similar one, with plenty of advice and tips from the Bristol dairy farmer.

The key characteristics of this shed are:

The Reynolds are milking a large herd and so have a lot of calves to rear, albeit half are born in the autumn, splitting the numbers. This shed was finished last autumn and so has reared a full crop of calves. David Reynolds showed me around when I called. He said that if this autumn’s calves do nearly as well as last year’s, he will be very happy.

The calves spend five days in a calving hutch and then move into the pens and switch to once-a-day milk.

Picture one

The calf shed consists of pens running side by side in a long row, under a high roof, which is wide open at the front and back. The roof is 13ft high at the front and 11ft at the rear, so good ventilation is a given. The shed is south-facing, David told me.

“The farmer in England stressed that this was an important part of the success of his shed. The calves get the winter sun and it’s beneficial to their health.”

The Reynolds shed, put up by Conaty Steel, has seven 5.5m (18ft) bays. Part of the first bay is a secure feed store, where milk is made up in a wheeled milk cart. Each of the remaining six bays is divided into two pens, giving 13 in all. Each pen is sized for six calves, so the shed can rear 78 calves at a time.

The frame of this shed is simple: 8in x 4in pillars at back and front supporting 8in x 4in rafters.

The walls are made with pre-stressed panels (5.5m long, 1.5m high and 150mm thick) from O’Reilly Concrete. The back walls lean against the pillars, held by a bolt and bracket. The side walls of the pen sit into the web of the front pillars, which are turned sideways to accept them.

Picture two

Each pen is 2.7m (9ft) wide and 5.5m (18ft) deep. The roof overhangs the front by 1.8m (6ft) and the back by 1.2m (4ft), so it has a span of 8.5m (28ft). The wall panels are 1.5m (5ft) high and provide the necessary shelter from wind. The rear of the pen is bedded, while the front is bare concrete.

Davey told me that the floor rises by 300mm (1ft) from front to back, so that urine drains to the front and out of the pen. That’s a slope of one in 18 or over 5%. “You’d feel it when you walk into the pen.”

The slope on a typical open yard, in contrast, would be one in 30, or about 3%. We can see the liquid running down to the front of this pen.

The front gate is a locking feed barrier, made by Condon Engineering. This works well, David said. When the calves are given milk by the herdsman, Rafel Swierczynski, the barrier can be locked on them, preventing pushing and bullying. “That way, if a calf doesn’t drink you see it.”

For cleaning out, the gate is opened and lifted off its hinges, out of the way. The dirty straw is removed by loader and the pen power washed and disinfected.

Picture three

Liquid drains out of the pen into this channel and on to the farm’s dirty water sprinkler system. The channel consists of a 100mm (4in) plastic pipe with a slot cut out and buried in the concrete.

Picture four

The front pillars are turned sidewards to accept the wall panels. A slot was cut to allow the hinge brackets to be welded to the centre web.

Picture five

Here, we are looking over the back wall of the pen. The footed timber keeps straw in place. David told me that he would prefer if the walls were 150mm (6in) higher. Straw builds up under the calves and, at the same time, they are getting bigger. Last year, one calf jumped the wall. We can see how open this site is, yet David said the calves thrived in it during winter. Some rain may blow onto the front, concrete half of the pen, but it does not reach the bedding, he said.

Picture six

Fiber cement sheeting means there are no drips on to bedding and calves’ heads. Steel purlins can support the weight. There is fluorescent lighting in each bay. The open roof means the metal work here won’t rust.

Picture seven

The first bay has a bird- and weather-proof store for milk replacer and nuts. Milk is poured into buckets from a milk cart.

Picture eight

The Reynolds place straw outside the rear of the pens and throw a little in each day. The calves pick at the new straw for roughage. The farmer in England believed that keeping the straw at the rear wall kept the bedded area at the back of the pen a bit warmer. This shed and feed concept has a role to play in dairy expansion, said Joe Murphy of Bonanza.

Christy and David are happy with the performance of their calves. “We didn’t lose a calf in this shed last year. Prior to that, we had mortality,” David said.

“We had an automatic feeder but I prefer this setup, along with once-a-day feeding. Our numbers are too big for an automatic feeder. If anything goes wrong, it’s a problem. This system is simple. If the shed is full, it would take 1.5 to two hours to feed the 78 calves. It should be full in three weeks’ time.”

The shed cost approximately €30,000.