Dairy farm design and structure

Dairy farming is a growing industry in our country. It is flourishing day by day due to its immense popularity and demand among us. But many of us fail to recognize the importance of building a proper structure for keeping the animals; instead we are busy in search of animals that we can rear for milk and other products. We need to understand the importance of a well built structure for the dairy farm. In this lessson, we will make you aware of the best dairy farm design for building a perfect shelter for the animals.

This is the fourth lesson of our dairy farming course. In this article we shared some important and knowledgeable information about the affordable dairy farm layout, structure and lot of do’s and don’ts. If you have a plan of starting a dairy farming business then this comprehensive guide is for you. This lesson highlights the importance of structuring and planning the designs of a farm which most people don't cars about. If you want to make your plan successful then go through this article. I can bet that you will learn something useful.

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Dairy farm layout overview

In the article we will give you an overview on barn designs and discuss the features of existing cow barns of Kenya. We gathered some information about some existing dairy farms which are popular in Kenya. You will get to know about the equipments you can use; the materials you will use for build the barn, specifications of the barn, cattle shed layout, efficiency of the labors, cowshed design, from where you can find the materials and much more. Below are some important notes which you should keep in mind before building a barn.

Dairy farming design principles you need to know

These are the basic principles that you should consider before the dairy farm structure design construction of your barn.

1. A design which is comfortable for cows

The first thing you should remember before designing dairy farm layout is you need to provide adequate space for the cows, where they can rest. You need to provide a proper area where the foods and water will be distributed to them. Passing of fresh air is important, so ensure fresh air can pass. You need to remember these following points,

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1.1 Water and Feed: You need to provide the feed in the correct composition and fresh water to the cows at least for 20 hours a day. Setup the barn accordingly and make sure that the cows have access to the food and water.

1.2 Light and fresh air: You need to make the dairy farm design layout in such a way that every morning the cows in the barn get the sunrise and the fresh air. Which is really healthy and people can work comfortably in the morning.

1.3 Rest: You need to make sure that the cows are getting Aplace to lay down whenever they like. Minimum 12-14 hours a day. The cows generally gets stress form people, so you need to keep an eye on your farm workers to know whether they are causing any stress to the cows or not.

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1.4 Space: Space is a very important factor when it comes to barn design. You need make sure that all the animals gets enough space to comfortably walk around and rest.

1.5 Health: Health is another important factor when it comes to basic principle of the dairy farm design; the design of the barn should be supportive to the hygiene, high level of bio security (work and walk lines, indirect and direct contact with others, etc). You need to take care of the animals and check whether they are having any wounds, infections and diseases.

2. Expandable and flexible design

Simple and minimalistic designs are really important for expandability and flexibility in modern dairy farm design. You need to design it like in a straight line structure, so when in the near future you plan for the expanding your business or add more spaces to the barn, you can do that in an easy way. The easy way actually is where you have to spend minimum amount of money. The working environment of the barn must be minimalistic, the design should be done in such a way that the farmers can multitask. The multitasking is very important in the dairy farm because you need to take care about many things at once.

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3. Economical and simple design

You need to make it very simple by using very durable material. Choose the material which needs minimum maintenance and is pocket friendly. You need to select some machines and equipments which will reduce the human effort and offer comfortable working condition to the farmers. The farm should support the structure plan of the building and the estimated number of years you plan to use it. You need to calculate the payoffs and evaluate these regularly for drawing the conclusion.

4. Movement optimization / Labor and flows efficiency

You need to optimize your farm by improving the movement and other few optimizations and take care of some situations. Here are some things you need to take care of-

4.1 Feed flow: Under feed flow movement of feed components like storage, mixing, cutting, feeding feed push-ups and cleaning of the feed troughs comes into account

4.2 Manure flow: This is the flow of urine/manure and the dirty things from the ground and separated from the clean flow.

4.3 Cow Flow: the movement of the cows or any animals during the day, weeks and the year or in their life cycle is included in this point.

4.4 Work flow and People flow: Movements of farmers during the day and night and amount of the work they are doing in entire days.

4.5 Materials flow: The used material which has been used to build the barn and the storage handling and maintenance and disposal of all the equipments and materials used in the farm.

4.6 Information flow: The way people communicate with other people and how the information is transferring form one person to another person and how it is registering, everything on the information falls under this information flow.

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Important aspects for Kenyan dairy farm design

These are very important points you should keep in mind before starting the dairy farm design plans.

Roofing

Roofing is a very important point you should think about when you are building a dairy farm. The roof is essential for the barn and it is needed for protect the barn from raining, shading and also will help for collecting the rain water. If you are looking for a low cost cow shed design then go with hard plastic. But if you are looking for a premium cattle shed design then you can go with steel because it is very reliable.

Climate control and ventilation

Providing fresh air continuously and climate control is very important for a farm. Sometime it needs very low temperature (extreme cold) and sometime it needs medium temperature and fresh air flow. Maintaining the heat is the main thing in the farm. Flowing of natural air also plays a vital role in dairy farm. The concept of natural airflow is known as natural cross ventilation. Sometimes the trees and walls blocks the airflow of the barn, in that case you need to remove that wall and cut the trees which are blocking the natural airflow. There is another solution to this problem; you can build the barn on a high ground where nothing could block the natural airflow. Always go for the slope roofs, because these roofs are very good for ventilation and catchment of rainfall is also easy. On the other hand flat roofs don’t provides good ventilation and are difficult for catchment of water.

Security of the farm

Security plays a very important role when it comes to any business. The purpose of security is to keep the scavengers and predators away from it. You can do a lot for safety measures, like putting a fence around the farm, building a locked metal gates and doors. In modern dairy farm layout in industries people uses smart locks and cameras, you can also hire security guards for better monitoring.

You need to keep in mind these points:

1. A slope type roof which will protect the farm from rain water and sun heat.
2. No need to install any side walls, only bars will do the job.
3. Making the floor good, which will be great for collecting manure the animals can sit and move comfortably.
4. Building the total system in a line so, you can expand it later in a minimum cost.
5. Providing good quality bedding so, the animals can swing their head and stay properly.
6. Setting up easily accessible water points.
7. Building up the feed tables in a way so, the cows can eat easily and comfortably.

Cost estimates for a perfect farm design

Here, are the cost estimates of the building up a perfect farm according to the modern dairy farm plan which includes all the costs to be incurred by you while setting up the farm.

In the picture below, you will get to know about the cost of building up a cow shed design any number of cows. Follow the price charts below to arrange the money and kick start your journey for building your own dairy farm.

Here, you will get to know about the perfect combinations that you can avail with the amount of money that you posses. W stands for wood, S stands for steel.

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Technical Description

In this section, you will get to know every technical aspect and requirements while building up a dairy farm.

Preparation of the site (Substructure)

The area that is needed to be constructed should be prepared in a proper way in order to create perfect levels and also a strong ground base. The ground base needs to be firm enough to support the laying of a concrete floor which is compulsory for both large and small dairy farm design. If the ground base is not as strong as expected then the life span of the floor laid upon it will be short due to some sudden incidents like cracking, disintegration etc. Even natural calamities may unsettle the ground base. Vegetable soil, cotton soil and any other forms of the loose soil needs to be removed and must be replaced with suitable black-filled material like hard core. Most importantly they must be pressed down well in order to construct a stable and perfect floor base.

Preferred construction materials

Many materials are required to build up something. Here, you will get to know several types of construction materials that are generally proposed for creating a simple dairy farm design.

Wood

1. 150 mm broad concrete material – It comes with a built in BRC mesh (Blast: Sand: Cement = 4:2:1) formed with diamond pattern troughs.
2. Size – 12 mm*5 mm*60 mm
3. Processed Wooden posts of size 15 feet*15 cm are needed for a structured construction.
4. Processed timber grades of size 50 mm*100 mm (2”*4”) are required for the construction as it will be used for making fences, gates and cubicle dividers.
5. Edges must be inclined for the comfort of the cow.
6. Galvanized grooved iron (GCI) sheets and pre-painted gauges are also required for the purpose. The timber structures are covered with proper roofs to complete the structure.
7. To support the strength of the wood structurally, grids of size 2.4 meter * 3.6 meter intervals are required. The grids finally combine in a center to center manner to create an equivalent grid of size 6 meter as similar as in case of steel and all are highly recommended for better design and structure.

Steel

1. 150 mm broad concrete material – It comes with a built in BRC mesh (Blast: Sand: Cement = 4:2:1) formed with diamond pattern troughs.
2. Size – 12 mm*5 mm*60 mm.
3. Mild steel posts/columns of 3 mm thickness and 4” diameter.
4. Mild steel tubes of 3 mm thickness and 2” diameter which is bended and shaped up in order to make cubicle dividers, fences and gates.
5. Galvanized grooved iron (GCI) sheets and pre-painted gauges are also required for the purpose. The steel structures are covered with proper roofs to complete the structure according to the specialization requirement of the fabricator.
6. Grids of 6 meters length are used as center to center support for the formation of a unit of cow barn by using the well structured steel columns/posts. These grids are the perfect multiple of a cubicle’s standard width (1.2 meters).

Floors

Floor construction as well as its detailing is same irrespective of the materials (steel/wood) that you choose for setting up the farm. Floor construction needs to be concrete in the feeding as well as walking areas. Concrete is the frequently used material for constructing driveways, industrial floors, floors, pits/basements, steps, pavements and sidewalks. It is comparatively cheap to install and finally provides a perfect, attractive and durable surface which can be maintained easily. It is really suitable for small scale dairy farm design. For providing superior and long lasting performance, a proper attention needs to given to the procedures and the practices involved in the construction of interior or exterior concrete surface. For getting best results along with a quality concrete in the construction projects, the following steps are needed to be followed –

1. Get rid of all type of vegetation and soft soils. Even rocks are needed to be removed for a uniform support to the formation of the slabs. If it is possible, then place the concrete on the firm and undisturbed soil for enhanced performance.
2. Set the forms in such a way that the surface of the concrete slab slopes at a minimum rate of 2% or a 1/4th inch per foot which ultimately provides sufficient drainage.
3. Drive off the trapped air by using the poker vibrator and also increase the bonding ability along with the scratch template. You need to ensure about obtaining a perfect slab thickness (typically similar to a lumber piece of size 2/4 or 2/6) by simply attaching the stakes to the surface at each of the ends or tying up a string line across the peak of the forms.
4. Avoid using high-slumped concrete. Control the process of water addition in the truck. The perfect slump required for this purpose needs to be of 5 inches size in order to have most of the flatwork which is being placed by the hands. The mechanical equipments must be of size 2-4 inches which is used for the purpose of setting of the slabs. Even the admixtures can cause a high slump which is really harmful as the shrinkage and paste content of the top part of the slab might be larger than the bottom part of the concrete slab causing a much increased warping.
5. Quash the top surface but keep a little amount of the concrete just in front of the straightedges to cover the low spots. This really helps to stop birdbaths in the highly finished surface and help in building a perfect cow dairy farm design.
6. During the presence of bleed water on the surface of slab do not accomplish any active operations. Do not even put dry cement on the slab surface to soak the bleed water.
7. Use a good groover (mechanical equipment required to create grooves) to make shrinking points in the fresh and new concrete. You must make sure that the depth of the groove must be just one quarter of the slab’s thickness. On the other hand, you can use the expansion joints instead of the grooves. The expansion joints needs to be used at the predetermined spacing. Even saw joints can be used using either a simple conventional saw or a sharply early-cut saw. Early jointing process prevents the sudden cracking of the surface.
8. Do not use trowel on the concrete which includes a surplus of 3% entrained air. Avoid high toweling of the concrete (air-entrained) may lead to surface deterioration.
9. Start healing the concrete as soon as the finishing operations are completed.

Flooring of the walkways –

1. Construct a high quality enriched concrete walkways which inhibits resistance to erosion and can withstand high load mainly the manure scraping with the tractors.
2. Make sure that slanting towards the manure dump’s direction is 1-2%.
3. Make sure that slanting towards the central point of the walkway is 1-2%, along with the bottom point ≥2 m away from the large feed fence. The lowest is ≥1 m from beds curb.
4. Do not polish so much and provide sufficient grip on the surface so that cows can walk comfortably.

Instructions for constructing perfect walk ways –

1. Good quality concrete (thickness – 15 cm) along with an iron grid of diameter 6/8 mm should be used for constructing the walk ways. The grid distance must be kept 15 cm for the construction purpose.
2. All the longitudinal walkways must be kept on a angular slope of 1.5 to 2.5 % inclined mainly in two different directions – one towards the central point and the other towards the direction of manure dump.
3. For easy and perfect cleaning, a holding pen needs to be built on the slope of 3 to 5 % towards the direction of the manure dump just a few steps away from the exclusive milk parlor.
4. Avoid polishing in order to sustain enough grip for the perfect movement of cows. Grooving is also necessary in most of the cases. The barns having sand bedded stalls do not need to groove anything.

Options available for grooving

1. Wooden block along with iron or copper pipes of diameter 2.5 cm can be used at a sure distance of 7.5 cm. Often known as jitters bug, the block is pulled in a longitudinal manner across the concrete soon after it gets hardened for over 2 hours. The grooves are of the measurements of 1-1.5 cm width and 2.5 cm depth just at a minimum distance of 7.5 cm.
2. After the hardening of the concrete, the grooves can be cut by using the diamond concrete cutter. The best suited option is to make a pattern similar to a diamond along with the grooves of 2.5 cm width and 1-1.5 cm depth just at a minimum distance of 7.5 cm.
3. Pull down a perfectly designed plate just over the concrete which is still wet in order to make special grooves of width 1-1.5 cm and depth 1 cm at a minimum distance of 5 cm just between the previously built grooves.

Resting/sleeping areas

Sleeping/resting areas are plunged earth along with some perfect bedding material. Cubicles/stalls floor should be highly comfortable enough so that the lactating cows can lay down for a minimum 12 hours per day. The flooring must be dry and soft enough to make it comfortable for the cows. The floors must not be slippery to prevent falling or slipping while the cows gets down or lies down. Till now sand is the most suitable bedding material. Saw dust is the next best choice for the above purpose followed by rice hulls, straw, dried manure etc. It is used to avoid formation of solid lumps when put into use in the cubicles.

Structural posts harborage

Harborage of the structural posts needs to be done according to the details shown below. The posts must be just 40 cm above the concrete floor in order to protect the posts from cow urine and water. This is done to check rotting of the wood and corrosion of steel. The posts made up of steel and wood can be prevented from damage by proper encasing of those posts.

Roof covering and structure

Now, have a look at the dairy farm shed measurements for getting a perfect roof for your farm. The structure of the roof should be made in such a way that the height of the bottom part is just 3 m high and the roof slope (pitch) is angled at 15 degrees. This type of structuring is really perfect and allows adequate ventilation and aeration.

The roof needs to be covered by brightly colored galvanized and corrugated iron sheets. Faded colored iron sheets used to absorb and keep solar heat resulting into a heat stress for the cows. For structuring of the roofs ordinary grooved sheets of least gauge size of 30 are being recommended. If you can follow the above instructions about the cattle shed dimensions, you can build a great cattle house for your lovely animals.

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Manure drain/gutter

Manure collection and keeping your farm clean is an important task which you should take care of properly. In daily basis you need to collect the manure and put it to your storage room or the bunker manure. Cow manure is very useful, you can produce biogas from it if you have a proper setup and you can also use it as a composite fertilizer afterwards. You can store the manure to a pit bunker and distribute it afterwards as an organic fertilizer to the agricultural lands. If you don’t have a land then you can sell it to the farmers. Actually the storing time of the manure depends upon the climatic conditions and cropping seasons. Generally you need to store it for three to six months in Kenya, according to the professionals.

Comfortable cubical stalls

You need to take care of the cow so, you need to construct the stalls in a way so a cow can swing their head whenever she is getting up and lying down. The width needs s to be 115 cm for a 135cm cow. Now if your cows are bigger than this then you need bigger stall. So the professionals suggest some optimal dimensions to you never suffer any issues with the stall. The dimension is 122cm wide and 225cm ling, the head should be opened, brisket and neck-rail adjustable locator in position.

In the near future the herd could be bigger or smaller. The size of the animals in a group always makes a large impact on the stalls. If the farm is small the cows cannot adjust themselves in the stall and maybe they will try to get out from the stall. If your cow is lying diagonally then they are having problems and their resting area is small. If your cow is behaving weird then you have to assume that she is having issues while swing her head. You cannot make it too big because the animals tend to manure in the stalls. You need to monitor you cows every one year and check that if she is feeling well or not. If you have a group of cows and if after some year later you can divide them into two groups, or in three small groups to maintain the space for each of the cows.

Maintenance

1. Using sand, rice hulls, chopped straws, manure solids and sawdust you need to maintain the deep bedding.
2. After every 2 weeks fill the stalls.
3. You need to keep the level of bedding above the curb point.
4. Keep an eye on the stalls, because you need to remove the manure and wet bedding 3 times a day.

Here some checkpoints you should know-

Check that whether the cows are able to stand in four feet straight in the stall or not. If the answer is a negative, then you need to move the neck rail forward. If the cow group in a stall is causing various problems then split the group in small or large.

You need to move the brisket locator forward if too many of them lying diagonally.

You need to check the stall bedding every day. Make sure the 2-3cm of the bedding is dry.

Feed fence

The feed fencer is generally used for stop the cows form stepping in the feeding area. You need to construct the feed fence after constructing the stall and measuring the dimension of the cow’s height. You can also make it detachable so you can remove it in the future.

Water troughs

For cleaning and providing fresh water everyday a water sources are pretty important in the farms. You need to make sure that the water sources are easily accessible to all the cows. Make sure the heights of the troughs are in a suitable height so cows can reach the taps easily.

Electrical grounding of iron works

You need to make sure that the all the electrical wires are grounded well and maze in the concrete, steel posts, cubical dividers, and feed fence needs to be well managed. Milking parlor needs to be connected to the electrical wiring system via ground cables. Make the cable management and grounded works carefully and make sure there are no wires lying around.

Rainwater harvesting

Adequate supply of water is always necessary for several services that need to be provided to the cows. Water is needed on daily basis for drinking as well as cleaning purpose. The rain water catchment’s may be a good source for providing some percentage of the water requirements but regular water supply cannot be guaranteed for this type of sources. To solve this crucial issue, it would be better to connect the farms to a water supply network where water is supplied through pipes. You also can sink a borehole or a well down below the water surface in order to supply water to the farms. Even storage tanks can be built to overcome sudden crisis of water supply but for that the storage capacity of the water tank needs to be sufficient. As per the thumb rule, the capacity of the water tank must be equal to the minimum of 2 days total water requirement of the farm including both for the drinking as well as cleaning purposes. For building up a perfect dairy farm you need to concentrate on the perfect cow shed design and construction.

Proper maintenance

1. First of all, the Roof gutters are required to be cleaned periodically and sometimes may be daily for better results. The gutters are needed to be cleaned especially before the rainfall to ensure that the rainwater collected in the tanks is genuinely clean and free of all types of contaminants.
2. The floors need to be monitored on regular basis for better management of the farm. It should be kept safe in order to assure safety for all the cows and the people who are working in the farm. Any damage to the floors must be repaired as soon as possible to prevent excess damage to the concrete floor.
3. The steel and the wooden members like the cubicle partition posts and the structural posts needs to be protected from lengthy exposure to water, cow urine and all other possible threats. The wooden and the steel posts must be kept dry in order to prevent them from being rotting and rusting which finally increases the life span of the cow barn.

That’s all on dairy farm designs and structures. Mostly, small or large-scale firms invest in constructing their dairy farms based on the basic design guidelines. Hence, much information is not available on companies helping with dairy farm construction. TWEENWATER DAIRY FARM LTD is one of those firms involved in constructing dairy farm designs. The company sells farm inputs and even has a team of highly skilled technicians to construct and install modern dairy units. Contact details mentioned below -

Address: 7128-30100, Eldoret, Kenya

Phone: 0772228070/0704480262

E-mail: NA

In the next lesson, you will find out how to feed dairy cows in Kenya.

Source: TUKO.co.ke