Bedded Pack Barn

[BoumaticWonders]

Anyone currently or used a bedded pack barn before?

I was kinda interested in one for a small dairy herd, but had a few questions. If someone had some answers that would be great. I was wondering how often the entire bedded area should be cleaned out. I heard you have to "agitate" the bedding material twice daily, but I wanted to know how long can it go without bucketing the whole entire area out.

These look like a good cow-friendly barn and if done properly, very effective against High SCC.

If anyone had some info thanks.

 

[rkm]

The big problems with bedding packs as I remember are: no 1 takes a lot of bedding, no 2 if they are crowded it is hard to keep the cows clean, and no 3 stepped on teats!

All that aside you can't beat it for cow comfort!

 

[certherfbeef]

We never had teats stepped on in the loafing shed.

We started the pack with corn fodder. Then added about 8-10 bales of straw a night depending on how tramped up the shed was that day. The barn floor was dirt and the fodder allowed the moisture to drain out the dirt floor.

We had 30 head in a 1oox60 shed with access to water in the barnyard. The barnyard was probably as big as the shed, concrete and open. Hay rack split the shed down the middle.

Straw was not a problem. We used the oats, speltz, and wheat straw after the grain was combined.

We cleaned the pack 3 times a year weather permitting. It was spread on the fields. Used an old JD 420 crawler.

I've worked in both. I was raised using the bedded pack and the college dairy had a freestall barn.
I saw much less problems with cattle's feet and legs on the pack. If the pack is maintained properly the cows will come in cleaner too.

 

[rkm]

Certherbeef, when I lived in WVa I had several friends in Ohio who kept their cows in loafing sheds. Them big ole cows seem to last forever. Your 60 by 100 shed gave you 200 square ft per cow, that is why you was able to keep them clean and had no problems with stepped on teats. Plus you did a good job of maintaining. With the pressure to milk more cows someone came along with the big idea, "I have a 60 by 100 shed look how many freestalls I can put in there". More is not always better.

 

[BoumaticWonders]

did you "agitate" the bedding? I heard using like an old cultivator 3pth or some type of tined rake turned the bedding over and dried it up like a mofo.

I'm just expiramenting with different options for my small 40 cow farm. I don't want to milk tiestall anymore and was thinking about one of these packbarns with the clearspan frame and cover. Also been looking at putting one of those swing parlors in our existing barn.

Anyone know what straw bales would go for in the northeast??? I'm guessing I would need about 10-12 bales per day for a loafing area of 40x100?

 

[rkm]

BW, I can't answer your question about straw, but I was wondering with you living in Maine and close to Canada about the possibility of wood chips as bedding? If you could buy dry wood chips delivered bulk at a reasonable price it would make excellent bedding and easy to maintain.

 

[BoumaticWonders]

hmm thats a possibility. Chips would probably be a lot cheaper, but what about when we go to spread on the fields? They also have these "compost" pack barns which are just a lot of sawdust that is stirred and then broken down later in the year for an almost compost material when spread. I guess I have a lot more researching to do before I go building lol.

 

[mdmdogs3]

We have chicken houses and the bedding that is added to the houses sounds like what you are talking about
here is our process.
the bedding goes in once a year
after each batch of chickens (6-7 weeks) the bedding which is now called litter is stirred up by our "cake machine" which breaks up the packed litter and the clumps are put into basically a manure spreader - it is then applied to our pastures.
the litter builds and builds and the process repeats until another year goes by and a company comes and cleans out the houses and trucks it to western oklahoma where it is spread on their pastures.
in the past our bedding has been wood shavings, rice hulls, and probably a number of other things that I can't think of right now.
Hope this helps

 

[TJ]

We put up one 2 years ago for 75 cow dairy. Sawdust only works for us, tried straw, fodder, wood chips. Stir twice a day.
Also fans are very important. We clean out once a year in the fall. SCC went under 100,000 there great for cow comfort, but price of sawdust keeps going up.

 

[Vinny5036]

I think bedded packs are great! The best benefit would be from the close cows to calve and your fresh cows. I think it really gives those fresh cows room to lunge and lounge, and cow comfort in that stage of the game is crucial to getting off to a good start. Close cows, same thing, just a more comfortable transition period, and the least amount of stress with room to lounge also. Bedding is costly, but overcrowding seems to be an issue for most. Simple solution is not over crowding. Stirring twice daily is a must, but any dairy worth its salt scrapes alleys and lots twice daily anyway, so that shouldn't be an issue. If you don't overcrowd, you'll have no problems. SCC will stay low, the business end of those udders will remain healthy, and bedding will require a minimum. We give 80 sq ft per cow, the main lactating group is house in free stalls.