Prebbleton Dairy Farm’s Large Feeding Shed

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28618, 21 June 1958, Page 9

Prebbleton Dairy Farm’s Large Feeding Shed

A feeding shed capable of stall-, ing 52 cows when they are standing is now in use on the 109-acre town milk supply dairy farm of Mr M. B. Leslie, at Prebbleton. Water pumped from an underground supply will eventually flow through the milking shed, yard and feeding shed to carry the manure out on to borderdyked paddocks. Arrangements for this have yet to be completed. Mr Leslie, who took the property over fhur years ago. has been spray irrigating, but he is now proposing to have the whole of his farm gradually prepared for border dyke irrigation. On the highest part of his farm, which is close to the milking shed and near the feeding shed, he has had a water hole 66 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 16 feet deep In the centre excavated. From this underground supply a centrifugal pump, powered by a 15 horsepower electric motor and capable of delivering 800 gallons of water a minute, pumps water into a race which runs through the centre of part of the farm. From it water is' drawn off by a 40 horse-power diesel motor at up to 600 gallons a minute for a spray irrigation plant with 20 sprays. This plant with 1150 feet of 4in aluminium pipe, can apply 4in of water in four hours and irrigate about two acres at a time. Tramway Post Pipes Water from the underground supply will be pumped through Bin pipes welded together out of old metal tramway posts to the milking shed and yard, where from one gate valve it will be directed ’nto the milking shed and from another into the yard. The water and manure will flow from the yard and shed along a concrete way 15ft wide with a 4in fall in 120 ft to an angular and narrowing approach to the feeding shed, with a 4in fall in 30ft to obviate any congestion of the material.

The cows will move along these same concrete ways with pipe fences to the feeding shed, which is 143 ft long and 36ft wide. It is of lean-to construction with a corrugated iron roof dropping down from a 15ft stud at the rear to 6ft 6in at the front, where the final section of the roof has an extra pitch, giving a veranda-like effect. • z

There are separate stalls sft 2in long for 52 cows standing, and by a simple slackening of one nut every other metal division can be removed, leaving space for 26 cows to lie down. lYe cows stand on a platform 6in higher than the sft Bin wide race, which runs along the front of the shed and along which the water and manure will flow with a 12in<fall in the 143 ft. There is also a 2in fall from the wooden feeding trough running the length-of the building In front of the stalls and the rear of the cows’ platform. Behind the trough there is accommodation for 5000 bales of hay with room for a motor lorry to drive in with its load of hay and drive out again at the other end when unloaded.

Feeding, trough arrangements have yet *to be completed as Mr Leslie is planning to feed concentrates as well as hay and auto-matically-fed water basins, one to two cows, may be installed.

From the shed another concrete way will carry the water and manure to the paddocks. Mr Leslie has largely designed this lay-out himself with some outside advice on weights of materials and levels for drainage being made by an officer of the Department* of Agriculture. The work has been done by Mr Leslie and. his son, Donald, with |ome outside help, including that of tradesmen, at week-ends. Costs have been cut by these methods and by using second hand materials such as the old tramway posts, which were purchased for 4s a foot. Old heating system pipes have been used to make ingenious gates, one 15ft long. An expert welder has give’n some assistance. In the feeding shed railway line iron has been used for posts. Mr Leslie has been asked why he should need a feeding shed when he has light land on which to feed stock, but last winter when it was wet 30 acres of pasture were practically ruined when it was used for feeding out and gave no early spring production. If he was able to save thesp paddocks for spring use he would be on the road to raising production, said Mr Leslie. In planning this shed Mr Leslie has sought to overcome the main objection to these sheds—the difficulty of cleaning them out. Mr Leslie started to use the shed this week keeping the cows there for about two and a half hours in the morning and Evening. Already production has gone up 6 a day over the herd and he believes the benefit will be seen when cold weather sets in. A saving in hay has been noted and it is felt that the animals are getting the benefit of the leaf. - If the light land onto which the water and manure will spill cannot cope with it all, Mr Leslie plans to extend the disposal to other paddocks.