Shed location - podcast transcription
Shed location
Greg: Welcome to Dairy News. I’m Greg Mills and today I have with me Tony Dowman and today we’re going to explore how you locate a shed on your diary farm. What’s the best location? If I’m putting a new dairy shed in what am I looking to do? How do I find the best spot?
Tony: If I was your cow, I would want it in the geographical centre of your farm so I would have to do the least amount of walking to get to the furthest paddock. Now that may be okay in theory, but in practice most farmers locate their dairies either close to roads so the milk tankers can get in or close to services such as electricity and water because the cost of transferring electricity from the boundary to the geographical centre of your farm may be prohibitive.
Generally it’s a compromise between what is good for cow management and what is financially viable as far as supplying the services because the milk tankers will require an all weather road from the main road into your dairy, and that may be prohibitive to supply that if you’ve got a very large farm.
Greg: An all weather road is an important issue. Is also getting out of flood areas?
Tony: Yes. If you’re on flood prone land which the majority of dairy farmers on the coastal areas are on flood prone land, it’s very important that the dairy is sited above well at the least the one in 25 year flood, and preferably the one in 100 year flood so that milking operations can continue.
Now on some of the farms on the north coast there’s no land above the one in 100 year flood. Those dairies tend to get either built up on a flood mound so that the cows can have access to it during major flooding or the dairies may get slightly inundated and for a day or two it becomes a little less comfortable to milk cows with water lapping around your knees in the herringbone pit.
You should gravitate towards the flood free land and the environmental guidelines for the dairy industry also state that as well, that council should not be encouraging dairies being built on flood prone land.
Greg: Do I look at including other infrastructure like my feed pad in that mound area if I’ve got to have a look at having cows out of the flood for a number of days?
Tony: Yes. If you’re going to go onto flood prone land, a flood mound which incorporates the dairy, a feeding facility, holding yards and some fodder storage facilities is essential these days. Most floods on the north coast for argument’s sake, you could be looking at up to five or six days that you’ll not be able to move the cattle around the farm at all. Then as the water recedes, you’ll slowly but surely be able to move cattle further away. But you could go for two or three weeks before cows could actually get back onto pastures again. So, in that situation a feed pad on a flood mound would be absolutely essential.
Greg: Is there any way of working out how many days I should be planning for in a particular geography?
Tony: It really depends on local weather knowledge and depends what river system you’re on. On these big coastal rivers on the flood plains I said it could be two weeks before you can really get back onto pastures after the water subsides. If you’re further up the catchment on smaller rivers and creeks which come up and down very quickly, you might only be cut off for a day or so.
So it’s site specific. You really need to understand what the flooding frequency is and how long the flood inundation occurs before you can get back onto large areas of your farm.
Greg: When I’m siting my shed on the farm Tony, is there any particular things I should be looking to avoid?
Tony: As I mentioned before, the geographical centre of your farm may be the best place for the cows, but you really have to be practical and look at what is the topography on the farm. The pools and gullies and creeks that intersect the property may actually limit where you can site the dairies. Even though the centre may be the ideal place, relocating to another more practical location may be your best option.
You also have to look at the laneways to transfer cattle to and from the pastures, also need to be considered. So, what may be on paper the best site, in practise you may have to compromise a little bit.
Greg: Thanks Tony.
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