The finishing touches are being added to a new four-bay suckler shed on Leo Whelan’s farm in Fruir, Kilkee, Co Clare. The shed was built to house Leo’s expanding suckler herd and their followers. It was built through the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) II. TAMS provides grant aid for farm buildings and opened for applications in June 2015. In this scheme grant aid will only be paid on approved, completed and eligible expenditure.

The grant aid is paid at the standard rate of 40% for the majority of schemes, up to an investment ceiling of €80,000 per holding, but if you are a young trained farmer and apply under the young farmer capital investment scheme this grant aid increases to 60%. Leo got approval to build his shed last August and started building work in September. Heifers were let into one side of the shed last week and he is just waiting on the arrival of new slat mats that are going to be laid on the other slatted area before cows are housed.

The shed

The shed is four bays long and each bay is 15ft 9in wide. There are two rows of slatted penning for mature cows and heifers and there is also a calf creep area on one side. It is 14ft high at the eaves and 24ft high at the apex. The four main sliding doors give access to the central feeding passage but there is also a 10ft wide sliding door at one end of the creep area and a smaller access door at the other end. The slurry tanks are 9ft deep and the central passage is not suspended. A393 reinforcing mesh was used in the central passage and 7in of concrete was laid. The concrete was supplied by Ryans of Ennis. Eight foot-high mass concrete walls sit in between the steel stanchions. Declan Fennell Contracting Ltd, Cooraclare, Co Clare, built the shed.

Inside, there are two rows of slatted penning on either side of the central feeding passage.

On one side there are 14ft 6in slats used, while on the other side there are wider 16ft 6in slats used.

There is also 500mm of toe room at the back of 16ft 6in slats leading into the creep area and over 400mm on the other side. This gives even more lying space for cows and their calves.

Leo plans to put nine cows in each of the larger pens – only seven cows will be able to eat at one time but this will not be an issue because their diet will consist of ad-lib silage.

All the barriers and penning were supplied by Condon Engineering. All the feed barriers have locking mechanisms.

Leo chose the locking barriers over standard types for a number of reasons. It will be easier to catch a cow when required, it will be safer for feeding cows because the barriers can be used to shut cows out when silage is being brought inside and it will also prevent calves jumping into the central passage.

The slat mats have been ordered from Comfort Slat Mats and will cost €7,300 in total, including VAT, to cover four pens.

The calf creep area is 10ft wide. There will be two calving gates and head bails added here too to aid difficult calvings. The calf creep will be used for feeding calves concentrates and as a layback away from cows. The roof sheets are all made of fibre cement and the skylights have safety cages fitted. All the timbers used on the roof were 8in x 3in imported Russian timber. Leo said the shed is near completion – only the wiring for lights is still required. He will also erect safety notices beside every new agitation point as this is a TAMS requirement.

The shed cost €94,000 excluding vat. This included all work done excluding auxiliary concrete and the slat mats. Leo hopes to get a TAMS II grant of €48,000 towards this investment. Leo is a qualifying young trained farmer and was able to apply under the young farmer capital investment scheme where the grant aid is 60%.