The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Farmer puts safety first with cattle shed design
Ayoung farmer and agricultural contractor in Northern Ireland has built a high-tech livestock house for finishing beef cattle with an emphasis on safety.
There are too many farm accidents occurring these days with livestock, so when James Kennedy, 27, needed a new beef house, he decided it must be safe to work in and would last him his lifetime.
His new 100ft by 73ft shed – in the village of Rasharkin, County Antrim – was completed in October 2021 and is full of simple yet clever solutions to make handling livestock much easier, even for one person.
Construction of the new shed started in September 2019, with digging out the slurry tank and subsequently concreting the floor and shuttering the tank walls.
“During the winter (of 2019/20) we started erecting the shed and by summer 2020 we were ready to construct the pens and focus on the interior layout,” said Mr Kennedy.
“When Covid-19 hit we were in the middle of building, and the pandemic slowed up progress as deliveries of timber, tin and steel were delayed.
“Nevertheless, we persevered and the shed was completed in October 2020.”
There are 12 main slatted pens measuring 16ft by 16ft – with six along each side of a 16ft solid concrete central feed passage – and all the slats have been covered by a rubber slat mat, which gives the animals extra comfort to lie on.
A bore hole supplies water to the shed, to be used as drinking water for the cattle, and a separate feed fills a 1,300 litre tank in the shed for a volume washing system.
The shed also features a raised ridge in the centre of the roof with mesh wire fitted to it to keep the birds out.
“Airflow within the shed seems to circulate better with the main doors of the shed closed and the cattle seem a lot more comfortable as well,” added Mr Kennedy.
In order to reduce harmful emissions in his shed, Mr Kennedy installed a slurry bubbler system that keeps the slurry in the tank aerated.
The system blows air through circuits of valves fixed to the tank base, with the air provided from a silenced compressor through a series of valves and manifolds to ensure sequential mixing while reducing slurry odour and gases at the same time.
“The slurry bubbling system runs for around one hour per week and prevents a crust forming on top of the slurry in the tank,” said Mr Kennedy.
“A network of pipes along the tank floor has 180 outlets that bubbles air through the slurry keeping it agitated and preventing gas build-up.
“The system is silent and there is no smell.”
To ensure safety while working with the cattle, Mr Kennedy has installed four separate collection pens that lead in to a forcing pen, that then leads to the crush.
The shed also features an isolation pen in front of the crush for any animal that may need extra attention.
“We can bring any of the pens of cattle into the collection pens one at a time and filter the cattle through to the forcing pen which is curved to direct them into the crush run,” said Mr Kennedy.
“No-one needs to be in the pens with the cattle at the same time as it is all designed for easy flow while keeping stress levels down as well.”
He added: “It’s a one-way system and has worked very well for us, especially when testing the cattle for diseases.
“The crush can weigh the cattle and it also adapts to handle different sizes of cattle; there are access gates on each side of the crush. It really does make handling cattle much safer indeed.”