Dairy Leaders of Tomorrow Lesson 1.3 Designing a Dairy: Understanding the types of Housing Options and Milking Systems Available to Dairy Producers Dairy Leaders of Tomorrow Lesson 1.3

What determines the design of a dairy? There should be 5 things that every dairy producer should be considering when determining the type of design they want their dairy to be. These include: What are the main goals of my dairy farm? (Cow comfort? Longevity? High Milk Production? Being able to show and sell high quality animals?) What is going to provide my cows the most comfort? How much labor do I want involved in the day-to-day responsibilities of my farm? What is my overall budget for this project? In my area, what types of weather and environmental factors do I face? (What are the summer temperatures? How much snow falls here and how cold does it get? Do I have enough land to rotationally graze my herd?) How many cows do I want to have on my dairy? Do I want to have the option to grow my herd in upcoming years?

Housing Options for Dairy Cattle

Tiestall Barn Many “traditional” dairy farms still house their animals in a “tie-stall barn”. This type of facility allows each cow a designated stall, access to water and feed that is right in front of her, and is usually bedded with either sawdust or straw. This type of facility can range in size with as few stalls as 12 and as many as 150. Cows housed in tie-stall barns are usually kept in place by neck chains so that the animal can’t leave that specific stall. Each stall typically has to be manually cleaned at least twice a day.

Freestall Barn Freestall barns are growing in popularity within the dairy industry as they are seen as providing the most cow comfort. Freestall barns allow cows to move around freely to eat, drink and rest. They provide easy access to feed and clean water, as well as shade and protection from inclement weather. Many freestall barns have ventilation systems to maintain adequate temperatures in hot or cold weather, curtain sidewall systems to shade cows in the summer and stop wind during the winter. Spray water misters and large fans are also common in this type of facility. Stalls are often bedded with sand. These barns are also easy to clean, as most often a farm employee will just use a skidsteer to scrape manure into lagoons or piles outside of the barn to be spread.

Compost Bedded Pack Barn Compost Bedded Pack Barns are less common dairy facilities and do not work well for all dairymen. This type of barn requires strict management practices such as pack aeration (in essence stirring up the bedded area) to refresh the surface and enhance microbial activity, good ventilation throughout the barn, and excellent udder sanitation at milking times. In general, compost barns have an indoor or an outdoor concrete feed alley, the bedded pack area, and a wall surrounding the pack. Producers who use this type of housing believe that it improves cow comfort and longevity. This barn allows cows more freedom of movement than conventional tie stalls or free stalls and also reduce manure storage costs and needed space, and a savings in labor and manure handling.

Rotational Grazing Rotational Grazing is a management-intensive system of dairy cattle where they are in subdivided pastures and are regularly rotated to prevent overgrazing and optimize grass growth. The grass from the pasture tends to serve as the main source of feed for the animals while they also have free choice water available. Rotational grazing doubles as a system of perennial grassland management, providing exceptional erosion and runoff control on uplands as well as stream corridors. It also provides built-in manure management as it decomposes into the soil rather than running off. While employees don’t have to manually clean this type of housing for cattle, they do have to ensure that fence is always stable and/or take down fencing from previous pastures and move them to a new area. Additionally, cattle are not protected from the heat, cold or weather conditions unless a shaded area or trees are available.

Drylot Housing Though more common in the Southwest Dairy Region, Drylot housing provides space for hundreds, even thousands of cows. Most often 3-4 times less than building a free-stall, tie-stall or pack barn, this type of housing requires a very dry environment because it keeps cows on dirt areas with lots of shade provided by temporary structures. Cattle in this type of environment must have access to free choice water and feed but both must be maintained well through cleaning. These lots should also be bedded during extreme cold and misting fans in severe heat.

Types of Milking Systems Just like dairy barns, milking systems are a large investment on a dairy farm. Producers must ask several of the same questions that they would when building a barn, when selecting and building a milking system – such as how much labor do I want involved? How many cows do I plan to milk? What is my budget?

Robotic Milking Unit Robotic Milking Units have become more and more popular on many dairy farms as they have replaced the need for manual labor. Costing approximately $250,000 per unit, robotic milkers, or “robots” can do everything from prepare a cow to milk her, as well as refuse to milk one who has been through the robot more than 4 times. While a dairy would need one robot for every 50 cows milking, robots have not only replaced the need to have manual labor but many dairy producers state that after switching to robots, their overall milk production has increased per cow and their somatic cell count has dropped. Experience a cow being milked by a robot, with a full explanation, here!

Milking Parlors Milking Parlors are easily the most common systems that are used when milking a herd of dairy cattle. Parlors come in a variety of forms that each offer unique benefits as well as disadvantages. At this time, please read through the “Types of Milking Parlors” followed by the “Flat-Barn Milking Systems” reading passages to learn more about the specific types of parlors available. After you complete the reading, view the videos below. To watch cows being milked in different types of parlor, check out the links below: Side Opening (Tandem) Parlor Herringbone (Fishbone) Parlor (begin at 3:03) Parallel (Side by Side (Parlor) Rotary (Carousel, Turnstile) Parlor

What questions are there?