One of the big events for 2020 on the farm has been the total renovation of the inside of the barn. After last winter it was apparent that there were too few cattle to keep the water from freezing and also that the stalls (last renovated in the 70's) were in rough shape and needed serious repair. The general state of the stalls is seen in the picture below, with bent bars, broken stall walls, and more stalls than cattle we planned to keep.
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| Barn in early 2020 |
One of the biggest issues facing the redesign was that the barn cleaner circles the outside parameters of the stalls so a new reno needed to fit around that infrastructure. I took most of last winter and lockdown to draw up plans from my own experience and also from the advice I got from other farmers to come up with a box stall/tie-stall combo that now looks like this:
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| Barn in late 2020 |
The set up is a tie-stall in the middle with a water bowl and new plumbing. This plumbing has heat tape wrapped around it with insulation to keep it from freezing. The box stall set up also allows the calf to be loose all winter which will allow the calf to get exercise and strength in its legs while having access to milk on all sides of the mother.
I'm hoping to lead the cattle down the alley and in the front door, circle around in the stall and tie them up. Fingers crossed that there are no issues but we'll see.
The weather is extra warm now and in the 14 day forecast so I don't expect to be putting them in the barn now until late November/early December. Once they are in, I'll post another blog post on it.
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