I would want them to still be able to have that freedom to do as they want and not be restricted and on concrete the whole day. When the cows are out of the barn, they can go out in the pasture. I would like to try and have everything set up so we wouldn't change a whole lot from what we do now. I would try to really focus on the cow comfort with the stalls. Bedding would be sand, but we would need a separator for the Slurrystore, and we can't change that at all. Probably 90 stalls would be able to work for the 75 cows I would hope to get up to. I was thinking either a 3 row or 4 row barn. Here is what I had in mind for changes.Ĭows: New freestall. The only thing I would keep the same for the most part would be the feeding system. We have some room to grow on the current land we have. One thing just comes right after another. There is a concrete yard next to our current freestall shed that needs work and once you get into that, you get into doing the freestall support posts which leads you into doing the freestalls which leads you into the barn. That being said, it is not in the greatest repair. As I look at our barn, it is in good shape for it's age yet. The young calves have their own little calf barn with the individual bedded pens. The heifers have pasture and a concrete yard for feeding. The calves (2 months to 8 months ) are housed in a lean-to coming off the barn and they are all on concrete. The cows have 16 stalls to lay in in the current freestall shed and the heifers have 32. No one wants to expand with the current setup but would be open to it with a parlor setup. We are currently milking 56 cows in our tie stall/stanchion barn. I have been trying to think it through a bit lately. I have been looking around at our operation lately and have really got to thinking, when is a good time to start thinking about a freestall barn? It wouldn't just be a freestall, we would basically be starting over. Posted 21:40 (#4500884) Subject: Thinking about a freestall barn Thinking about a freestall barn Jump to page : 1 Now viewing page 1

3 row dairy barn design with parlor