Cattle and Buffalo Housing - PVNRTVU SHIKSHANA

HOUSING

Planning new farm buildings

When planning an entirely new farm, the choice of location for the buildings is the first consideration. Then comes the mode of arrangement of different buildings on the farm site.

Selection of farm site:

Farm should be located nearer to towns, but not in towns as this will offset some other advantages.

Water supply:

it should be available cheaply and in plenty, with the availability of electricity for running tube wells.

Topography:

should be high and level with no abrupt slopes. A level area needs less site preparation which lowers the building costs and the soil should be fertile.

Drainage:

the efficient drainage should be there, the farm premises remain dry.

Size and slope of the area:

area should be adequate, usually from 1 to 2 hectares and nearly square in shape.

Sun exposure and wind protection:

the farmstead should be located to obtain the maximum sun exposure in the north and the minimum sun exposure in the south and protection from strong prevailing winds. An East-West orientation of the long axis of the shed can give such benefit.

ANIMAL HOUSING

Conventional Barns - Closed Houses

These are also called stanchion barns.
These refer to housing in which the cows are confined together on a platform and secured at neck by stanchions or neck chains. The cows are fed as well as milked in this barn.
The barns are completely roofed and the walls are also complete with windows and/or ventilators located at suitable places. There are no houses for other livestock with any resemblance to barns, except for the swine barns;
One can find a wide variety of houses with roof and half or no walls, not excluding a room within the farmer’s dwelling used for keeping animals in, mostly for security reasons, especially during night time.
Animals and men caring for animals, in barns are less exposed to harsh weather conditions. there is also a feeling that the animals can be kept cleaner and diseases controlled better in barns. They may be constructed in temperate Himalayan regions where the winters are prolonged and severe.
In warmer parts, the air in barns tends to be humid and barn floors damp during autumn and rainy seasons: and hence are not recommended in other regions, However, under loose housing system a milking barn or parlour is always constructed in which the cows are secured at milking time and are milked.

Loose housing system:- open houses

Keeping animals loose in an open paddock or pasture throughout the day and night except at milking time. The open paddock is provided with shelter along one side under which the animals can retire when it is hot or cold or during rains.
A common watering tank is provided and fodder is fed in common mangers.
Concentrates are fed at the time of milk in which is done in a separate milking barn.
It is ideal to store dry fodder in the sheltered area where animals are allowed a limited access through movable fence; this is known as self-feeding.
The open paddock is enclosed by means of half walls or wooden or plain wire fences of convenient height.
It is suitable to most parts of the country except in temperate Himalayan region and perhaps in heavy rainfall areas.
These are cheaper to construct, easier to expand and flexible to utility.
Feeding and management is easier in these housing system because of common feeding and watering arrangements and animals feel comfortable as they can move freely.
Atleast 10-15 per cent more stock than the standard can be accommodated in each loose house for shorter periods without unduly affecting their performance.

Free ranges:

Also called ranches indicate type of stock management rather than a type of housing.
This comprses of leaving stock free in a large estate- sometimes extending to the thousands of square meters.
The farm head quarters is suituated generally at the centre of estate.
It is a natural or cultivated pastureland with watering points and shelters located at convenient places.
This type is suited for animals which are not handled daily, such as beef cattle and sheep.

Details of different structures

Floor

The inside floor of the barn should be of some impervious material which can be easily kept clean and dry and is not slippery. Grooved cement concrete floor is still better. The surface of the cowshed should be laid with a gradient of 1″ to 1 14″ from manger to excreta channel. An overall floor space of 65 to 70 sq.ft. Per adult cow should be satisfactory.

Floor space requirement for dairy cattle and buffalo

Type of animal	Covered area (sqm)	Open paddock (sq.m)	Maximum no. of animals / pen	Height of shed at cm
Bulls	12	24	1	175 cm in medium and heavy rainfall and 220 in dry areas
Cows	3.5	7	50
Buffaloes	4.0	8	50
Down-calvers	12	12	1
Young calves	1	2	30
Old heifers	2	4	30

Source: Dairy Bovine housing and Hygiene by CK Thomas and NSR Sastry

The space requirements of dairy animals as per Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) are given in table below

Floor, feeding manger and watering space requirements of dairy animals
Sr. No	Type of animal	Floor space) per animal (m²)		Feeding (manger) space per animal (cm)	Water trough space/ animal (cm)	Mode of housing
Sr. No	Type of animal	Covered area	Open Area	Feeding (manger) space per animal (cm)	Water trough space/ animal (cm)	Mode of housing
1	Young calves (< 8 weeks)	1	2	40- 50	15-Oct	Individual or in groups of below 5
2	Older calves (> 8 wks)	2	4	40-50	15-Oct	Groups of below 15
3	Heifers	2	4.0-5.0	45-60	30-45	Groups of below 25
4	Adult cows	3.5	7	60-75	45-60	Groups of below 25
5	Adult Buffaloes	4	8	60-75	60-75	Groups of below 25-30
6	Down calvers	12	20-25	60-75	60-75	Individual
7	Bulls	12	120	60-75	60-75	Individual
8	Bullocks	3.5	7	60-75	60-75	Pairs

* Based on ISI Standards for housing in India.

** The actual length and width of water through may be decided as per the strength of group and size of the paddock.

Walls:

They may be constructed of stone, brick, mud or bamboo or any other material suitable for the locality and climate.
Stone and brick walls are costly but durable and strong.
Bamboo and mud walls are economical and useful but are temporary and are difficult to keep hygiene.
Concrete walls 10-12 cm thick and reinforced with steel bars along their length and height are strong and best but are very expensive.
For ordinary walls thickness should not exceed 35 cm, the side walls being fully thick and length wise ones slightly less thick.
Partition wall and walls lining the open area should be 2205 cm (2 brick) thick. Height of wall shall be 22.25 meters for houses with slopping roofs.

Roof:

There are two types of roofs—slopping and flat.
Flat roofs are preferred for low rainfall; dry area while slopping roofs are desirable in medium to heavy rainfall areas.
It can be single sloped or double sloped. Former can be used for huts and hay shed up to a span of 3 meters. Later are used for more important buildings with wider spans.
In a loose housing the roof has to be supported on pillars.
The approximate width or diameter of the pillars shall be given below.


Bricks	45*35 cm
Timber	10*10 cm (rectangular pillars) or 15 cm diameter
Stones	1010 cm or 815 cm
Iron pipes	10 cm diameter

Mangers

The floor of the manger shall be at a higher level (by 10-15 cm) than the floor of the pen.
It can be made of stone slabs, wooden planks, brick lined with cement mortar. The flooring surface should be rounded off and finished smooth.

Water troughs

It may be constructed with reinforced cement concrete, brick with cement mortar, stone slabs with cement joining or plain thick GI sheets.
They may be round or rectangular and shall be located at convenient places in sheds.
A two-meter-wide paved platform shall be provided adjacent to the water troughs to withstand heavy treading of animals and permit easy washing and cleaning.

Gates and passages

Two types of gates: one leading to the individual pens and the gates on fences and roads.
The latter should be wide to allow passage of trucks, tractors and carts.
Passages leads to individual pens, sheds or roads of main farm.

	Space/ animal (cm)	Total manger length	Water trough length	Manger / water trough dimensions
	Space/ animal (cm)	Total manger length	Water trough length	width	Depth	Height
Adult cattle and buffaloes	60-75	6000-7500	600-750	60	40	50
calves	40-50	4000-5000	400-500	40	15	20

Gates are made of iron or strong wood hinged gate.

Manure Gutter

The manure gutter should be wide enough to hold all dung without getting blocked, and be easy to clean. Suitable dimensions are 2″ width with a cross-fall from standing. The gutter should have a gradient of 1″ for every 10′ length. This will permit a free flow of liquid excreta.

Calving Boxes

Special accommodation in the form of loose-boxes enclosed from all sides with a door should be furnished to all parturient cows.
It should have an area of about 100 to 150 sq.ft. With ample soft bedding, it should be provided with sufficient ventilation through windows and ridge vent.

Isolation Boxes

Animals suffering from infectious disease must be segregated soon from the rest of the herd.
Loose boxes of about 150 sq.ft are very suitable for this purpose. They should be situated at some distance from the other barns. Every isolation box should be self-contained and should have separate connection to the drainage disposal system.

HOUSING REQUIRED IN DAIRY FARM

The building units comprise of sheds for housing different categories of animals and the necessary ancillary structures like stores, Weighing yards etc.

Milking barn:

This is a fully covered barn in which the milch stock are milked There is a lot of activity in the milking barn and hence it should be located at a central place with all other buildings arranged around it.
There shall be Individual standings or stalls or stanchions in one (Fig. 11.2) or two rows, Double rows of standings can be arranged either tail to tail (Fig. 11.2) or face-to-face; the former is better.
Each standing can be used for two or three cows or buffaloes when hand milking is practiced.
The number of standings required on a farm are thus equal to half to one-third of the number of milch stock.
The length and width of the standing shall be decided according to the size of the animal and may vary from 1.5 to 1.7 metres in length and 1.05 to 1.20 metres in width.
The width of the central passage shall be 1.5 to 1.8 metres. The central passage shall have a gentle slope from the centre outwards—towards the drain.
There shall be two continuous mangers, one on each side along the heads of standing rows and a 0.75-metre-wide feeding alley beyond each manger.
There shall be a shallow U-shaped drain—20 cm wide, one on either side of the central passage; in Case of single row barn one drain towards the standings side of the passage is sufficient.
The floor of the standing should be paved with a slope of 1 in 40 towards drains.
There should be walls along the length and at each end of the sheds to support the beams of the roof. The roof of the shed should be gabled.
The eaves of the roof shall project out at least 50 cm away from the sidewalls. The sidewalls need not necessarily be complete; large open spaces may be left in the sidewalls at suitable intervals.
When walls are complete up to the roof, as is necessary in cooler and/or heavy rainfall areas, there shall be windows and ventilators at suitable places in the walls.
Some device should be arranged to secure individual animal by neck in each standing.
The milking barn may, if necessary, be extended to accommodate down-calvers as well as calves. Further, milch cows that are in heat can be left after milking in the standings and inseminated right there.

Sheds for milch/dry cows:

These are sheds for housing milch cows and dry cows separately. On small farms a partition can be raised in one shed for housing dry cows separately. On farms with only a few animals, all the cows-milking or dry-cow be housed together.
These are simple sheds comprising a covered portion and an adjoining open paddock. The covered area should preferably be of cement concrete. Brick-on-edge or stones-lab flooring can also be used; atleast a moonan or kankar flooring should be laid. Moor-tan flooring is quite good for the open paddock, though brick-on-edge floor is better.

Maternity pens:

Pregnant cows are to be transferred into maternity pens or calving boxes two to three weeks before the expected date of calving.
The number of calving boxes or materinity pens required is about 5 per cent of the number of breedable female stock on the fawn, These should be located nearer to living quarters of farmer milking barn so that the down calver are constantly observed. pens can be constructed either in a row of in groups of two or four.
The dimensions of each culling pen shall be about 3 x 4 m for covered area and another 3 x4 m for the open paddock. The covered area shall have a 1.25 m high wall all around, barring a 1.2 m wide gate opening into the open lot.
A manger and a water trough of size should be constructed in each pen.
The floors shall be of moorum, brick-on-edge or cement paved with a 1 in 40 slope towards the drain.

Sick animal shed:

Sheds more or less similar to maternity pens in structure shall be located well away from the other sheds so that these sheds are inaccessible to other animals.

Calf shed:

The calf shed can be located either at the end or on the side of the milking barn. This facilitates taking calves to their dams quickly at milking time (if weaning 1s not practiced), stand feeding of milk to calves if weaning is practiced. If there are a large number of calves, the calf shed shall form a separate unit—but located nearer to milking barn, so that calves of great age groups can be housed separately
The dimensions of calf shed depend on the number of the calves to be housed. The dimensions of mangers and water troughs shall be as per specifications. Floors shall be of cement concrete in covered area and brick-on-edge in open area.

An overall covered space of:

20-25 square feet per calf below the age of 3 months,
25 -30 square feet per calf from the age of 3-6 months,
30-40 square feet per calf from the age of 6-12 months and over, and
40-45 square feet for every calf above one year, should be made available for the sheltering such climatic conditions.

Young stock shed:

Older heifer calves from about six months of age to breeding age are to be outed separately from the suckling calves. Generally, no male calves are kept on farms beyond six months of age. When a large number of young stocks are there. they should be divided into different age groups and each group housed separately.
when their number is small, the young stock shed may be an extension of the dry animal shed or it may be a separate Unit nearer to it. In the latter case, the sheds shall be constructed in a single now. The constructional details of this shed are the same as for cow sheds except for the difference in dimensions of mangers and water troughs.

Bull sheds:

The bull sheds should be constructed towards one end of the farm. There shall be one shed for each bull; the number of bulls required being one for every 50 breedable females on the farm, if natural breeding is practiced.
When artificial insemination service facilities are ayailable nearby, there may be no necessity to keep bulls on the farm.
The bull shed shall have covered lot of 3 x 4 metre dimensions, leading into a paddock of 120 square metres.

Ancillary Structures on Dairy Farm

Stores:

Stores for concentrate feeds; hay, straw and equipment are a must on animal farms. The size and type of buildings for stores be decided on the basis of the quantity of feeds and fodders that are to be stored at a time on the farm.
Approximate storage space may be helpful in determining the sizes of feed stores, though a sound judgment of the situation is all that is needed.
Sometimes the size of the concentrate store required is determined on the presumption that 0.2 m storage space is required per adult unit.
There shall be one main concentrate store-cum-feed mixing room at distant place; but it is advisable to have a small ration room nearer to milking barn separately for storing prepared concentrate mixture temporarily for a day or two.
On smaller farms perhaps one feed store near the milking barn will be sufficient. The feed room shall made damp and rodent-proof.

Silos:

Silage is an important item of feed for dairy animals. It is obtained by ensiling chaffed green fodder in silos.
Tower, pit and trench silos are in use; but under Indian conditions, Trench silos will be more practicable and convenient.
The silos shall be made nearer to the cow pens, if possible. A movable sturdy wooden or metal fence or any other self-feeding device should be fixed to the open end of the trench silo so that the cows can feed on silage at will, thus saving the time and labour otherwise required for transportation and feeding or silage in the animal sheds.
The trench for the silo can be a simple excavation made in a hard ground and then the floor and sides hardened by ramming and mud plastering.
Cement concrete or brick or stone slab lined trenches, however, are longer lasting and seepage- proof.

Milk house:

Milk house is another important item of dairy farm buildings. This is the place where the milk is collected, weighed, and stored in cans for brief periods before delivering to milk plants.
This floor space can accommodate the milk recording equipment, milk coding device in the form of bulk cooler, can racks, milking pail rack, sinks, washing outfit and furniture of the milk recorder.
On very large farms the different components of the milk house, i.e., recording-cum milk cooling room, milk utensils and equipment’s room and washing room, may be constructed as separate units.
The doors and the windows of the milk house shall be made fly-proof.
The flooring of the room shall be of cement concrete, impervious and reinforced with iron strips located at Suitable distances to make it hard wearing.

Hay/straw sheds:

As the common dry fodders—hay or crop byproducts—are available at the harvesting seasons only, one has to store these items for use throughout the year.
Space requirement shall depend upon the manner in which the dry fodder is stored.
Adult stock consumes about 6 kg of dry fodder per day while young stock consumes about 3 kg per day. Annual quantity of hay needed can be worked out on the basis of the number of days in a year when hay is required.
Sheds, preferably with walls on three sides, are better for storing straw or hay. Storing hay or staw as stacks in the open results in excessive wastage in the form of spoilage and deterioration.
Sometimes a simple framed shed with gabled shed roof is used. The hay shed shall be away from animal sheds because of fire hazards.
On larger farms the hay sheds can be made into a sort of self-feeding hay bunks by placing movable wooden partition on one side edge of the hay shed.
The animals can eat hay at will from only the portions accessible through this wooden partition and do not spoil the hay excessively.

On small farms provision of simple trevis or cattle crush is sufficient for controlling animals.

Layouts for Dairy Farms:

The first thing to be considered before planning to build a dairy farm is the size of farm and economic returns anticipated from the farm.
A dairy farm should preferably be started with a small herd. The farm buildings can be constructed with cheap semi-permanent materials.
As one starts getting good returns, and learns about farming in the process, one should increase his herd strength. And when one is established in the business one can construct extensive farm buildings with better materials.

A Model House for Small Dairy Units:

Often it is debated what would be an ideal house for the one or two animals kept by a small farmer in India, for whom dairying is mostly a secondary occupation.
Considering a small farmer’s economic position, perhaps, the place where he keeps his cow or pair of bullocks presently, may be the best; only it should be kept clean, dry and airy.
Keeping in mind the research findings, simple cattle shed would be quite suitable for a small (five to six adults plus followers) dairy unit.
The shed should pave an east to west orientation with a half wall (or a wall with alternate couple of bricks at about the height of the animal removed) along the north side and a roof with at least 2.5 m height at the caves and wide overhangs. The outside of roof and walls should preferably be white-washed.
Thatch is still the most economic insulating material for the roof, provided care is taken to keep it free from insects.
The manger and water tank combination should be arranged along the border of the shed. The adjoining paddock is optional.
Farmers who would like to let their animals loose on the village common land can avoid the paddock.
The cost of such a shed varies from place to place depending on the local market prices. If the farmer can put in his family labor and procure sand, gravel etc. locally, the cost can be reduced further.
Most of the financing organizations give around 10,000/- as loan for cattle sheds. The proposed cattle shed can be made within this limit.
Finally, a question may be asked as to what a small dairy farmer should do, who cannot afford even to construct the above recommended cattle shed due to paucity of funds or space?
He can at least improve the place where he presently keeps his dairy animals.

The minimum that such famers can do is the following:

(a) remove unevenness of the floor by putting earth in shallows ad pits;

(b) make the surface hard by ramming;

(d) make a drain to remove liquid manure away from the animals;

(e) raise 1 m high brick-walls around, at least on the western side; and

(f)keep the place clean and vermin free.